Wesley Chapel Road rezoning request continued to September

Revised Z-40 Site Plan

A rezoning request to build 81 homes on Wesley Chapel Road, near Garrison Mill Elementary School, is being continued to September.

The Cobb Planning Commission voted Tuesday to delay the case at the request of the applicant, Brooks Chadwick Capital LLC.

The East Cobb developer wants to build the new subdivision on two slabs totaling nearly 50 acres on either side of Wesley Chapel Road that’s undeveloped, except for two older homes.

The request has generated some community opposition. A group of nearby homeowners and homeowners associations posted an online petition objecting to the proposal’s density, along with concerns over school capacity, traffic close to a school and stormwater and wildlife issues

Those individuals and groups weren’t identified, by Catherine Kommer, a nearby resident, told East Cobb News that the homes in the proposed development are “very close and leave little room for trees. It is an unhealthy plan. I would hope that air quality and health would be in the forefront of everyone’s minds with respect to the corona virus. It’s hard to understand accepting a plan that would hinder air quality in the middle of a pandemic.”

She’s written a letter to that effect to Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell (the rezoning also includes Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott’s district).

Also delayed until September is a request by Site Partners LLC, the owner of the Sandy Plains Village Shopping Center, to convert part of that retail center for townhomes and retail space.

Cobb Zoning Staff is continuing the request after the applicant revised its site plan last week. The case was initially delayed from July, after staff recommended denial, saying the townhomes were incompatible with nearby single-family communities and traffic concerns.

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Sandy Plains Village townhome proposal delayed until August

Sandy Plains Village townhomes

A proposal to rezone a portion of the Sandy Plains Village shopping center for townhomes is being delayed at least for a month.

The Cobb Zoning Office sought the continuance after initially recommending denial of an application by the retail center’s owners, Site Centers Corp., for 41 residential units, plus some additional retail space (previous ECN post here.)

That case was to have been heard Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission. Instead, consideration has been pushed back to the planning board’s Aug. 4 meeting.

Site Centers wants to convert a vacant 67,000-square-foot retail space that was to have been an indoor entertainment center into the residential development.

(You can read the filing and staff analysis here.)

In its analysis, zoning staff said the proposal doesn’t conform with the Cobb County Comprehensive Plan. Site Centers is seeking a planned village community (PVC) designation at a property zoned for neighborhood retail commercial (NRC).

The staff said that other residential and commercial properties are zoned for a lower density and would be adversely affected by the townhomes.

The nearby Chatsworth subdivision has single-family homes zoned for 1.68 units an acre. The townhome density as proposed would be 2.57 units an acre.

Traffic issues also concerned zoning staff, which recommended the applicant conduct a traffic study to gauge the impact for a heavily used trio of roads that surround the shopping center—Sandy Plains Road, Woodstock Road and Mabry Road.

The latter is being recommended as the entry point for the townhomes, but zoning staff said that’s too close (20 feet) to the intersection of Mabry and Woodstock, and suggested the applicant make significant changes to provide “uninterrupted access distance.”

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