Kennesaw Issues and Information

Some additional details on the 55+ senior units on the west side of the Marketplace Mall are found at: https://www.forrent.com/apartment-community-profile/1001825632

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3/18/17
OPENING A BUSINESS? Avoid Kennesaw Georgia!

City Planning and Zoning Administrator creates hostile business enviroment.

By Davey Crockett (Patch Poster) - March 17, 2017

Want to open a Business? Don’t do it in Kennesaw.
Want to fly the American flag? Don’t do it in Kennesaw

Kennesaw’s hostile attitude towards a local businessman with 2 downtown restaurants has recently come in for some attention.

It seems that the owners of Pisano’s Italian Restaurant and the smaller Kennesaw Doghouse have faced intimidation and threats from the Business and Zoning Administrator Mr. Daryl Simmons.

The animus seems to go back several years with conflicts and fines for various supposed infractions, for things in existence for years before the current owners took over.

The harassment continues with the Building and Zoning Administrator’s usage of theKennesaw Police and Code Enforcement to bully the restaurant owners over the display of American flags on both establishments.

It is reported that initially both Police Officers and Code Enforcement initially refused to write citations for the flag issue but it seems that somewhere higher up the food chain the word was put out to issue them.

Pisano’s had displayed 7 US and one Italian flag on their pizza restaurant but Administrator Simmons instructed the Police to cite the restaurant for each flag ($1,250 each violation).

This, despite many other Kennesaw businesses displaying flags, includes the Thrift Store in the same strip mall as the Italian restaurant. The smaller Doghouse restaurant had displayed 2 flags as far back as May 23, 2015 under the name 'On A Roll', with the same owners as today.

Indications are that there is some unsavory history here of the Administrator ‘having it in for' the restaurant owners, this going back years, with the latest cheap shot being the flag issue.

The restaurant owners have, for the moment, taken down the flags at the 2 restaurants and are meeting with an attorney to assist in getting the flags returned to the restaurants.

Long time Kennesaw residents may recall other issues that have been mishandled by the same Building and Zoning Administrator Mr. Simmons. These issues cost the City months of bad press and money in various settlements.

Consider the Cruchelow Pawn Shop* issue where the Administrator issued a business license for a Pawn Shop in a strip mall that had prohibitions against that class of business. This got regional bad press and the mall owner got a $14,000 monetary settlement. The Pawn Shop did depart.
More recently you might recall the International bad rap the city got over a Building and Zoning screw up involving the Suffa Dawat Mosque (2016)**, that led to demonstrations, bad feelings and another payout of $18,000 when the Mosque filed a Federal suit against the City. Mr. Simmons was Administrator for these and other problems.

This time around it seems that the Building and Zoning Administrator is using his position to settle some personal score against the restaurant owners.
Far past time for some serious oversight from the Mayor and City Council on Mr. Simmons and his department!
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* http://kennesawpawnproblems.blogspot.com/
** http://suffadawa.blogspot.com/ and http://suffadawatsuit.blogspot.com/
"Suffa Dawat Center, Inc v. City of Kennesaw" 1:14