The Cobb Planning Commission is recommending approval of a rezoning that would create a major commercial complex on the site of the former Mountain View Elementary School.
Although some nearby residents were seeking a delay, the commission voted 5-0 on Tuesday for a plan (packet item here) that would change the zoning category on Sandy Plains Road from R-20 (many schools are zoned on residential land) to CAC (community activity center).
The 13.8-acre development would include seven separate buildings for restaurants, retail shops, banks and a grocery store. The complex, which would exceed 100,000 square feet, is being developed by Brooks Chadwick Capital LLC of East Cobb and Jeff Fuqua, a private developer.
Residents living in the adjacent Hunters Lodge neighborhood were concerned about the reduction of the hill on which the former school sat affecting their sight lines, and some were opposed because they say the area already has enough businesses of the kind being proposed.
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But Trish Steiner of the East Cobb Civic Association said the organization voted unanimously to support the rezoning.
“We realize this is difficult for the neighbors to accept change,” she said. “However, we believe this application is appropriate.
Kevin Moore, an attorney for the applicants, said a full site plan hasn’t been completed because of possible changes in the final building design, depending on what businesses locate there. He said he couldn’t divulge which specific businesses are interested in the new development.
“When they sign the lease, that’s when things get set in stone,” Moore said. “We’re confident where we are with the placement of the buildings.”
Moore said the developer’s agreements to provide several buffers—50 feet of undisturbed buffers, a landscape buffer and a wall—will not change.
Those stipulations are final, he said: “We wanted to be transparent up front . . . to show the guardrails” between the development and the neighborhood.
Planning commission member Judy Williams, who represents District 3, said she also understands the opposition, but “the community has changed since the subdivision was built. I think they came up with a good plan.”
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will decide that case on Oct. 17.
