Email from Brian LaBrie

Mr. LaBrie has seven years experience dealing with historic preservation planning efforts in Georgia and South Carolina with emphasis on appropriate infill construction, rehabilitation and architectural history services for small cities and rural counties.

Date: February 25, 2008

Wow. First off I preface this email that this is my personal comment as a concerned citizen of Georgia, and not in my capacity as an Architectural Historian . I am astonished that things have gone as far as they have in Norcross! Such a change from a professional HP-friendly review board, to a trained citizen review board, to nothing at all?

Just know that I am hoping for the best for your community... Your local district is the nucleus of what makes Norcross a community. Without it Norcross will become a collection of suburban housing and shopping centers without a sense of place that makes Norcross what it is. That sense of place is what draws in tourists, new residents and keeps existing residents in Norcross. Its unique development as a railroad community with its range of late nineteenth century, eclectic architecture with established rhythms is character-defining. Demolition disrupts this rhythm, as does incompatible infill construction. Like Claudia, aka "Lady Bird," Johnson, I feel that our heritage includes high style as well as humble architecture - all is worthy of preservation to represent the full spectrum of Americana. I truly hope that the city bears this in mind in all such decisions that effect their sense of place. Truly the most economic return for a handful of individuals is not always what is best for a community that encompasses so much more than an elite few.