A Canadian company that buys huge tracts of land in rural areas and flips it to overseas investors wants to build a massive industrial park in Jackson County that would change the face of Athens' westside. Walton International—based in Calgary, Alberta, with a U.S. headquarters in Scottsdale, AZ—is planning an "innovation center" called GlenRidge Park on 814 wooded acres off U.S. Highway 129, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Athens and across the street from South Jackson Elementary School. The proposal set off alarm bells for Jefferson Road residents on both sides of the county line due both to the size of the development and Walton's complicated business plan.

"They're not looking at the best interests of the community," says Athens-Clarke Commissioner Jared Bailey, whose district borders Jackson County. "It seems like a bad move for everybody involved except the company making money."

Walton's plans call for almost nine million square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and commercial space that would use up about three quarters of a million gallons of water and sewer capacity from the Jackson County government and the City of Arcade. When the development is built out in 10 to 12 years, an estimated 57,000 cars a day will drive down Highway 129, making it busier than Atlanta Highway, a six-lane road that's often congested. Bailey said he worries about what the development will do to Athens' green belt of undeveloped land.

"It might create a housing boom on the outskirts of Clarke County, where we don't have the services," he says. For comparison, the new Caterpillar plant in Athens will be one million square feet on 250 acres, employing 1,400 people—a quarter the number who would work at GlenRidge Park.

The Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, a state agency that advises local governments on planning, is studying the project and will issue a nonbinding recommendation later this month. Walton is seeking a rezoning from agricultural to industrial on part of the tract, which will go to the Jackson County planners, then the county commission for final approval. "I really don't know much about it at all," commission Chairman Hunter Bicknell said.

Walton wants to bring in retailers and light industry, says Tim Terrill, the chief operating officer of its U.S. subsidiary. "We're not really looking for heavy industry," he says. But if the rezoning is approved, Walton or another developer could build whatever they want, says Chuck Murphy, a Jackson County resident who opposes the development. "Keep in mind, none of this is binding in any way," Murphy says. "When they walk away, whoever buys it can start all over again."

GlenRidge Park isn't Walton International's first project in the area. It owns several big parcels of land in the space between metro Atlanta and metro Athens, including a 335-acre, mixed-used development called Arcade Meadow in Jackson County, another near Winder and the oddly named Royal Rabbit community near Braselton.

"They'll be by far our largest landowner," says Courtney Bernardi, economic development director for the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.

Through marketing offices around the world, Walton pitches the land to investors as a part of Georgia's "innovation crescent"—a fast-growing swath of land that includes Athens and metro Atlanta—and the South Piedmont mega-region stretching from Charlotte, NC to Birmingham, AL. "It's an obvious future growth corridor," Terrill says. Murphy puts it another way: "They buy cheap land out in the country. They work with local officials to get it rezoned for a higher use. Then they sell it in tiny slices to mom-and-pop investors overseas."CEO Bill Doherty told the website Biz Daily that the company invests in underdeveloped land in the path of growth in major metro areas. Shareholders have earned high rates of return in the past, although Walton executives say they make no promises or guarantees.

Murphy is part of a group called Protect Jackson County, formed to fight (successfully) an industrial development proposed by Forestar on the same tract in 2008, that is springing into action again. Walton paid $12.4 million for the largest parcel in 2010, according to tax records, even though assessors valued it at just $1.3 million. Still, Walton stands to make a tidy profit. It has sold $10,000 shares in the Arcade Meadow development to about 1,500 investors, almost all Asians, for a total of $27.4 million, netting the company $16.9 million without laying a brick, tax records show. Some of that money goes into a special fund for expenses like legal fees and taxes, Terrill says. The concept raises red flags for critics like Murphy and Bailey.

Walton's shareholders are Americans, Canadians, Asians and Europeans, Terrill says. Groups of investors often visit the land they're thinking of buying, so they're not buying it sight unseen, he says. When the market is right for development, Walton or another developer will buy out the shareholders. "We would like to [build the project ourselves], but we'll wait to see how it plays out," Terrill says.

Jackson County already has more than 3,000 acres of industrial land, mostly located along Interstate 85. That's enough to last for decades, and adding more would tax infrastructure, compete unnecessarily with existing industrial parks and ruin the county's rural character, land use consultant Jerry Weitz wrote in 2010. Murphy questions why developers don't go into those vacant existing industrial parks. It's because they're not served by rail, Terrill says, and the GlenRidge Park property is. "There is considerable space in those [existing] parks, but I haven't made any judgements on whether we have adequate space or not,"Bicknell says.

Editor's note: This story has been updated and corrected.