City of South Fulton Sued Over Denial Of Braiding Salon

Uh, oh. The City of South Fulton finds itself headed to Court.

Flashback: According to the lawsuit, (Awa) Diagne operated a braiding shop in Atlanta and in 2021, she and her family moved to South Fulton.

Soon after the move, her husband was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died.
The business owner, now a single mother, decided to close her shop in Atlanta and started braiding hair out of her home.
Diagne found a storefront in the Parkway Village shopping center at 5370 Campbellton Fairburn Road and applied for a special use permit to open in that location, which was ultimately denied by the City Council at its July 23 meeting.

Friction point: Eugenia Davis, owner of Salon Vibez, which offers hair braiding in addition to other services like hair washing and styling, coloring and sew-ins in the same shopping center, opposed Diagne’s permit.

“The community wants diversity,” she said at a July 9 hearing. “South Fulton is already saturated.”
At that same meeting, Council member Carmalitha Gumbs said it is “not fair for small businesses to have to compete right next door to them.”
Diagne said her business would differ from nearby salons in that it would only offer hair braiding services.

This case will be one to watch. Should governments take it upon themselves to determine when the marketplace is “saturated” or should they let the people decide which businesses succeed or fail?

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