Atlantic Residential, developer of The Reserve at The Ballpark near SunTrust seen above, is proposing a 3- or 4-story apartment building, senior living, townhomes and retail on the site of Sprayberry Crossing.
Last Friday Sprayberry Crossing Action group leaders met with Richard Aaronson of Atlantic Realty, which is proposing a mixed-use development at Piedmont Road and Sandy Plains Road to replace the blighted, mostly abandoned shopping center there.
On Tuesday Shane Spink, one of those community leaders, reported on the meeting, and said he was impressed with the developer’s willingness to listen and make changes and adjustments to the plan.”
He said Atlantic Realty “took a few of the suggestions to go back to the drawing board.”
While the news about Atlantic Realty’s proposal has generated a positive reaction—for the most part—on the Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook page, the most sensitive part of the project remains over some of the details of the residential plans.
Spink admitted his “top concern” was whether the townhomes would be for sale or rentals, since Atlantic has built some of the latter, but said he was “very pleased to hear that the townhomes will be ‘for sale’ ownership homes.”
About the overall development, here’s what Spink said they were shown:
“Please let me emphasize that what we looked at was a true mixed-use property and not a giant apartment complex like others have tried to describe this as. Here is the preliminary breakdown of what we saw:
For Sale Townhomes
Luxury Apartments w/Pool
Senior Living
Senior Living Amenities Center/Pool
Ground Floor Retail/Restaurant Space
Office/Workshare Space
Large Front Lawn Green-space
“In my opinion it doesn’t get more ‘Mixed-Use’ than that.”
Spink said none of the apartments will have three bedrooms and there will be more with one bedroom than two. That’s similar to what’s being built in the Powers Ferry Road corridor, mostly to prevent school overcrowding.
More exact details, Spink adds, are coming next week, and a community meeting will follow in the fall. Spink told East Cobb News there isn’t a set date for that meeting, but it could happen in October.
Understanding the concerns some have over the apartments, Spink urged residents to keep in mind that “this an opportunity to transform our area for the better. In a few years we will come up on the 50th anniversary of Sprayberry Crossing being built and that’s a long time for any shopping center but especially for one that has been so neglected for so long.”
Back in the 1970s, land was more abundant in Cobb and “sprawling retail centers were all the rage. Fast forward to today, retail is dying, land is scarce, populations are growing and new ideas for use have transformed areas all over the country. This is one of those new ideas.”
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Atlantic Residential, developer of the Reserve at The Ballpark near SunTrust seen above, is tentatively proposing a 3- or 4-story apartment development, senior living, townhomes and retail on the site of Sprayberry Crossing.
He’ll be one of five citizens who’ve met over the summer with Atlantic Residential, which has done some very upscale projects around metro Atlanta and other markets:
“The purpose of the meeting will be for the developer to show a plan for the property that they hope will be a starting point for conversations with the community. They will look for feedback on the plan and they will work with us on figuring out the best way to have a discussion with the community. . . .
“There are strong opinions on both sides with regard to the residential aspect (mostly directed at proposed apartments, but some also directed at senior living with a very small amount towards townhouses.) . . .
“I’m hesitant to post this, as some will undoubtedly see it as my advocating for the developer (and subsequently for apartments.) I am not pro-developer and I am not pro-apartments. I’m pro-reasonable development that will remove this two decades old blight and have a positive impact on the community.
“That said, I think it’s important the community understand that the prospect of holding out for a strictly retail development with shopping and restaurants is a difficult one. . . .
“Strictly retail developments face a changing and challenging market, and that doesn’t look to improve any time soon. . . .”
Read the whole post here as well as the comments, which clearly are guiding community response.
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A Five Guys restaurant proposed for the former Del Taco location at the East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center can go ahead after site revisions were approved Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The measure, which was approved unanimously as part of the commissioners’ consent agenda, includes site plan and design changes that didn’t require rezoning.
The only addition to the original case file came from the East Cobb Civic Association, which requested that the district commissioner (Bob Ott) approve a landscaping plan. That stipulation was included before the vote at Ott’s request.
Commissioners also approved via consent a special land-use permit for SZS Holdings LLC to expand a used-car parking lot on an acre at 2069 Roswell Road by 41 spaces. Among the stipulations are for a landscaping plan subject to district commissioner approval and for no vehicles to be parked on pervious surfaces.
Some East Cobb cases on Tuesday’s agenda were not heard. Among those applications that have been delayed is a request by Poag Shopping Centers, LLC, owners of The Avenue East Cobb, to change stipulations and a site plan amendment (case file here).
Poag wants to change the appearance and location of the monument sign at the entrance to the shopping center, and to alter opening hours for a fitness center from 7 a.m. to 5 a.m. The closing hours would remain at 11 p.m.
The nearby East Hampton neighborhood has objected on both counts, asking for a smaller sign and saying there’s no need for a fitness center to open at 5 a.m.
The East Cobb Civic Association has filed a letter in support of East Hampton.
A rendering of a proposed monument sign at the entrance to The Avenue East Cobb.
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Atlantic Residential, developer of the Reserve at The Ballpark near SunTrust seen above, is tentatively proposing a 3- or 4-story apartment development on the site of Sprayberry Crossing.
A few more details of the potential Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment we’ve been posting about are coming via Joe Glancy, who informed his Facebook group on Friday that a draft plan shown him by Atlantic Residential, the interested developer, includes the following:
3 to 4 story apartments, senior living AND townhouses (not sure how many stories on the townhouses);
Separate pools and amenities for the apartments and senior living
‘Co-working’ ground floor office space
Ground floor retail space
“Town Green” common green space
It did not include the cemetery
Parking and landscaping
He pointed out some have noticed “activity at the property —evidence that the property was being surveyed.”
That’s Atlantic Residential’s land survey, and Glancy says the developer is gauging public reaction before putting forth a more formal plan. He adds this:
“They seem very sincere in wanting to work with the community—both with communication and feedback—in order to adjust the development plan in response to what the community has to say. They said this will be an open process and if there ends up being an impasse, they can simply choose to not develop and look elsewhere.”
There are plenty of comments on that post link that you can read here, and that include a variety of opinions. Many are glad a long-blighted property may finally be rebuilt, while others are worried about increased traffic and potential drop in property values with apartments possibly coming in.
Based in Atlanta, Atlantic Residential is a high-end apartment developer that’s built complexes at SunTrust Park, Grant Park, Johns Creek, Buckhead, Dunwoody, Decatur, Druid Hills and in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas.
The Reserve at The Ballpark, in the photo above, was completed in 2015 near SunTrust Park for around $70 million and features 321 units plus luxury amenities.
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East Cobb may get its first Five Guys restaurant soon, pending action later this month by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
We saw an “Other Business” item in the Aug. 20 agenda files for a franchise location at the former Del Taco restaurant in the East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center (4269 Roswell Road).
The nationwide chain featuring hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, French fries and milkshakes has three current Cobb locations and another in Sandy Springs.
ECC Outparcel, LLC is seeking signage and other design changes that don’t require rezoning, but must be signed off by commissioners. The outparcel site and shopping center were zoned for planned shopping center use in 1998.
In 2015 Del Taco got county permission to amend certain signage stipulations. The Five Guys amendment is asking to continue the signage uses permitted when Del Taco was open, and says in its application that “no change of use, occupancy or construction type is proposed.”
Five Guys also says in the case file it’s not proposing any new signage “in locations not previously approved” by commissioners for use by previous tenants.
The case file (you can read it here) includes other renderings in addition to the one at the top, as well as other design proposals and parking configurations.
Five Guys opened in the Washington, D.C. area in 1986 and now has more than 1,500 locations, with nearly as many planned in expansion.
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For the second time in as many months a proposal to turn a vacant commercial building on Ebenezer Road at Canton Road into a multi-business retail property is being delayed.
Last month the application by SAW Holding Inc. was delayed from July due to notification issues. At the start of Tuesday’s Cobb Planning Commission hearing, Cobb Zoning Office Division Manager John Pederson said the case was being delayed by the staff until September.
Here’s the case file for the application, which is seeking rezoning from neighborhood shopping to neighborhood retail commercial on 1.7 acres adjacent to Noonday Baptist Church.
SAW Holdings wants build 2,241-square-foot center for restaurants, a grocery store and offices, with the businesses open from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.
The Canton Road Neighbors civic group has expressed opposition to the current application for the subdivided nature of the request, as well as for environmental reasons.
“This is generally a family friendly area, with youth sports facilities, churches and residential neighborhoods,” Carol Brown of Canton Road Neighbors wrote in a letter to the zoning staff. “The SE corner of the Canton/Ebenezer intersection is now the site of a public park. It is an area of natural beauty and the Little Noonday [Creek] needs as much protection as possible.”
The planning board recommended approval of a request by SZS Holdings Inc. for a special land-use permit to expand a parking lot at Auto Weekly Specials, a used-car business (SLUP-7-2019 (case file here).
Owner Obaid Malik wants to add 41 additional parking space on the acre parcel that’s zoned general commercial.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will make final zoning decisions on Aug. 20.
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The newly opened Credit Union of Georgia branch on Johnson Ferry Road won’t be displaying an electronic message board.
The financial institution located at 1020 Johnson Ferry Road at the intersection of Little Willeo Road) had requested permission from the Cobb Board of Commissioners for a stipulation amendment to build a six-foot high LED sign.
But by a 4-0 vote, commissioners turned down the request. Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb said the electronic message board is incompatible with the neighborhood, including the newly opened Solana East Cobb senior residential facility on the opposite side of the intersection.
The reason Cobb zoning staff recommended denial, Ott said, is because “there’s a whole lot of history at this intersection.”
The Credit Union of Georgia standalone building formerly housed several bank branches, most recently BB & T. It’s also across from Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
One of the original stipulations for the property, dating back to 1984, says any sign “shall not be backlighted and . . . no neon-type signs shall be used.”
“This would be introducing the neighborhood to a whole new element,” Ott said before making a motion to deny the request.
The only existing electronic sign in that part of the Johnson Ferry corridor is a static sign listing movies playing at the Merchants Walk Cinema.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce recused himself from voting, saying he had a “financial relationship” with the applicant.
In other business Tuesday, commissioners voted to continue until September a request by Geneva Roswell, LLC to divvy up the former L.A. Fitness location at 4905 Alabama Road—just up the road from Sandy Plains Village—into multiple retail parcels (view the case file here).
The case has drawn nearby opposition, and Kevin Moore, the applicant’s attorney, was going to withdraw the application without prejudice.
One of the objections to the application was a stipulation to allow for a truck dock for a potential retail occupant, and to construct a ground-based monument sign.
The county zoning staff had issues with the sign request, saying violated sewer easement setback restrictions.
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After another standstill over a proposed annexation and rezoning case on Lower Roswell Road that has dragged on for months, the Marietta City Council voted Wednesday to continue the delay.
By a 5-1 vote, the council approved a measure that would “stay” the annexation and rezoning proposals, along with related action to update the city’s future land use plan, for 90 days.
That’s to provide time for all the parties to discuss Cobb County’s objection to the rezoning based on density grounds and possibly to reschedule mediation between the city and county that was called off last month.
The stay was proposed by council member Michelle Cooper-Kelly, whose East Marietta ward would include the 7.46 acres at Lower Roswell and the Loop that Traton Homes wants to develop into 52 townhomes and single-family homes.
Residents in the adjacent Sewell Manor neighborhood in unincorporated Cobb have opposed the proposal, saying it’s too dense and would worsen traffic woes they face daily.
Many of them were on hand in Marietta council chambers Wednesday, bringing yellow “Save East Cobb” signs they have used during their fight.
Because of the proposed density of the project—nearly seven units an acre—the county had the right to object, but didn’t formalize that stance in January until it was too late.
The Marietta council twice delayed voting on the annexation and rezoning, which was recommended for denial by the city planning commission in April.
Last month Cobb commissioner Bob Ott met with Sewell Manor residents about their concerns, and told them there’s nothing legally preventing Marietta from annexing and rezoning the land.
A couple weeks later, another notice went up in Sewell Manor about Wednesday’s agenda item, but some residents said they weren’t sure until the last minute what might transpire.
The only council member voting against the delays on Wednesday was Joseph Goldstein, also of East Marietta, who urged there be public hearings before the 90-day period ends.
Cooper-Kelly’s motion would allow Traton, if nothing else happens, to withdraw its application after 90 days without prejudice, meaning it could refile and restart the annexation and rezoning process.
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Shane Spink of the Sprayberry Crossing Action group told East Cobb News there’s still not a conceptual plan for a possible mixed-use development.
Some of the group’s leaders, including Spink, met last week with the developer, who’s been identified as Atlantic Residential of Atlanta, that specializes in residential and mixed-use developments.
The group, which counts more than 4,700 followers on Facebook, was informed last month about the developer’s interest, after years of haggling with the county and NAI Brannen Goddard, the managing agent for the Sprayberry Crossing Partnership owners, to do something about a long-standing eyesore at Sandy Plains and Piedmont.
Spink said while he was encouraged that the developer wants to get community input, “the details were a little fuzzy and I’m not sure they know exactly what they want to do there, mainly because there could be some larger commercial involved that would take up more space. This was a grocery chain and that didn’t seem concrete yet.”
He said the developer appears to prefer a project with a largely residential component, featuring townhomes, senior living and multi-family units on the 16-acre tract that now houses a few businesses, but that has been largely empty for years.
The details there, Spink said, are still to be revealed, “so we are waiting for the final draw up to see where we are and what we think the community will agree to.
“Bottom line is the community wants change so let’s see what they put on paper. It is such a complicated site with all the different parcels and of course the cemetery in the middle.”
A timeline for discussing a conceptual plan, after a survey and design are completed, may come about in a few weeks, Spink said.
“The bottom line on the residential is that it’s going to have to have a larger component [than what has] been proposed in the past just because that site isn’t going to work as 100 percent commercial. So the community is going to have to accept residential there or it’s probably not gonna work for any developer.”
Joe Glancy of Sprayberry Crossing has added some more details, including the map below of the current property. The green area would be redeveloped, with the yellow area currently containing commercial property.
The commercial portion of the new development, he said, “will likely be ground floor below the residential. The developer could envision that including a small grocer – but that is way down the road and far from certain.” Some greenspace figures to be contained as well.
“According to the developer, one of the reasons why this property is more attractive for residential development is that it sits enclosed with no street visibility and is already fronted by retail development. Additionally, the abundance of retail space surrounding the property makes a large retail commitment unlikely.”
He said Atlantic Residential will continue to survey the site over the next few weeks, develop a plan and bring it to the community.
The developer, he said, isn’t going to seek rezoning “until they are satisfied they have the support of the community.”
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This has been anticipated for a few months now, and it’s official: The Rose and Crown Tavern on Powers Ferry Road has announced its temporary closure.
The last remaining survivor of “Restaurant Row” will close next Saturday, July 13, for a two-year period as the cluster of restaurant buildings makes way for a new mixed-use development.
Rose and Crown will be part of that project, with expanded space in a retail component in a 578,000-square foot complex that will include a 280-unit apartment building and 171 senior-living units.
Ground is expected to be broken this month for the project. The apartment building is being called Elan at Powers Ferry, and the senior homes will be called Overture Powers Ferry.
Miguel Ayoub opened Rose and Crown in 2010 with his wife at a former La Madeleine restaurant at 1931 Powers Ferry Road. In the new development, the Rose and Crown space will take up 6,000 square feet of a planned 10,0000-square foot retail center.
The property is near the Wildwood Office Park, but other restaurant concepts nearby have come and gone: A Sal Grosso Brazilian steakhouse, TGI Friday’s and Famous Dave’s.
While Rose and Crown is shuttered, the Ayoubs will be running Mojave, a casual Latin restaurant at the former Ray’s Rio Bravo at 6450 Powers Ferry Road, just across the river in Sandy Springs.
A late July opening date for Mojave is planned.
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The July zoning calendar is light on cases in East Cobb, but one that will be getting first hearing Tuesday before the Cobb Planning Commission involves a retail proposal on Ebenezer Road at the intersection of Canton Road.
UPDATE: This case has been delayed to August for notification reasons.
That 1.7-acre tract, close to the Noonday Baptist Church and the eventual Ebenezer Road Park, is being sought by SAW Holding, LLC from neighborhood shopping to neighborhood retail commercial.
There’s a vacant office building on the site now, but the applicant wants to build a 2,241-square-foot center for restaurants, a grocery store and offices, with the businesses open from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.
According to the application (case file here) about a half-acre was cleared along Canton Road without approval, and it contains part of a the state water buffer and the FEMA 100-year floodplain.
The county zoning staff is recommending approval with several conditions, including a final site plan (not yet submitted) to be approved by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The agenda item Z-48 will be heard on the regular agenda since there’s opposition.
Not far away, a rezoning request for a light industrial category for automotive services on 1.1 acres at 4921 Canton Road is being recommended for denial by the zoning staff (case file here). The land currently houses warehouses but the proposed rezoning does not conform to the Cobb land use plan and the future land use plan.
A proposed rezoning at 3140 Johnson Ferry Road, at the site of a former bank building, would convert that space into retail use. Komorebi Holdings, LLC, is seeking neighborhood retail commercial designation for the 1.3 acres in front of the Wal-Mart store (case file here).
The devlepment would include 5,541 square feet of space, the same as the vacated bank, with business hours proposed are Sunday 12:30-6:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday 10-10 and Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-11 p.m.
The zoning staff is recommending approval, and Z-37 will be heard on the consent agenda.
The Planning Commission meets Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room at the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.
Its votes are advisory. Final zoning decisions will be made by Cobb commissioners on July 16.
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The green zoning signs fronting the entrance to the Sewell Manor neighborhood have a new date etched in for an annexation and zoning case at Lower Roswell Road and the Loop that residents there have been fighting for months.
After the Marietta City Council twice delayed a vote, and after Cobb commissioners reaffirmed a letter of objection to the annexation, the proposal by Traton Homes to build 52 townhome and single-family units is apparently scheduled to be on the July 10 council agenda.
There’s not an agenda posted yet on the City of Marietta website, and there doesn’t appear to be anything new in the case file. We’ll update with more information.
The city council would act first on annexation before conducting a zoning hearing.
The city and county have been at odds over the case since Sewell Manor residents voiced their objection to the Traton project, on less than eight acres of vacant land.
The county had the right to object to the annexation since the rezoning would come to more than five units an acre, but commissioners didn’t formally ratify their opposition before a January deadline.
The Marietta Planning Commission did hear the case in April and voted to recommend denial of the rezoning.
The Marietta City Council held off on votes in April and May, then asked for mediation, and the county agreed. But commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb, designated as the county representative, said the city wanted to change the process to something between mediation and formally binding arbitration, and cancelled the talks.
On June 11 commissioners discussed, but took no action, after Ott briefed them about the dispute.
He admitted that there was nothing the county could do to stop the annexation, but said Marietta Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin had indicated the city would not act on the case as long as the county objected.
Sewell Manor residents have put together a flyer to urge their neighbors and others in nearby communities to turn out for the July 10 Marietta council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.
What they previously labeled a “Save East Cobb campaign” is now being called “Annexation Without Representation.”
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Citizens living near a longstanding East Cobb eyesore got some encouraging news Thursday night: The owner of the blighted Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center is in talks with a developer.
That’s according to Joe Glancy, moderator of the Sprayberry Crossing Action group on Facebook, who said in a post to its 4,635 followers that there’s a “tentative agreement to redevelop—I say tentative because nothing is set in stone and we are in the very early stages.”
Glancy, who organized a town hall meeting last March about the shopping center, said he’s met with executives from the development firm—which he did not identify—and which asked to gain more input from other nearby residents in the next week.
Glancy said the development firm “is reputable, their interest is sincere and I believe, that although it’s difficult to please everyone, most members of the community will be pleased with what the firm is capable of.”
He called the discussions “a ray of hope” and said he would “share more information as things progress.”
Joe Glancy leading a town hall meeting about Sprayberry Crossing at Sprayberry High School in March 2018. (ECN file)
Among those community leaders is Shane Spink. He’s meeting with the developer next Wednesday and told East Cobb News that “I think they are being smart by reaching out to the community with their ideas on what they are looking to do” with the 16 acres on Sandy Plains Road and Piedmont Road.
UPDATE: On Friday Glancy said the developer is eyeing a mixed-use project for the property, but there’s nothing more detailed at this point beyond the concept.
For many years residents near the decaying retail center have urged county officials and the owners to take action.
Most of the businesses have long vacated the premises. Citizens have complained that the former bowling alley has been a spot for criminal activity.
Even after Cobb commissioners imposed a “blight tax” on the property last year, little has happened.
Last August, a Cobb judge ordered NAI Brannen Goddard, the Atlanta real estate agency that owns Sprayberry Crossing, to clean up a portion of the property. The most Brannen Goddard could be taxed according to the remediation plan is around $21,000 for 2019.
Earlier this spring, frustrated citizens posted photos of themselves with signs on the Sprayberry Crossing Action page, trying to shame Brannen Goddard into action.
The Sprayberry Crossing property also has been included on a redevelopment list by Cobb commissioners, meaning a developer could be eligible for tax abatements (like Kroger at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill under construction on Powers Ferry Road).
Glancy said he said he’s withholding more details for now “because the developer has been willing to be open, to communicate and to show progress. As such I’m willing to extend them the courtesy of letting them manage the roll out until they are ready.
“This has been a very long time coming. I hope and believe the community will continue to show the same character and courtesy that this group has demonstrated over the previous 30 months.”
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A proposed mixed-use development in the transforming Powers Ferry corridor that has been delayed for nearly a year comes before the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
The revised Chance Powers Ferry project is similar in scope— 20,000 square feet of office space, 299 luxury apartments and a parking deck with nearly 500 spaces—to what the developer proposed last year.
UPDATE: The rezoning request was approved unanimously Tuesday on the board’s consent agenda.
It’s around 531,000 square feet, on nearly four acres at Powers Ferry Road, Windy Ridge Parkway and Shadowood Parkway, where the aging Powers Ferry Woods office complex sits now.
The rezoning would convert the land from office-industrial to regional retail commercial.
Last year there were issues with variances, including setback distances, that held up the application.
Earlier this month the Cobb Planning Commission recommended approval with several stipulations that were submitted on May 29 by Kevin Moore, the developers’ attorney.
The biggest change recommended by the planning board is that office space, contained in a three-story building, would be reduced from 30,000 to 20,000 and limited to office use only.
The stipulations include a number of uses that would be prohibited, including automotive businesses and nightclubs or adult entertainment entities.
The apartment building is proposed for five stories, with most of them two bedrooms or fewer, and only a maximum of six units with three bedrooms.
The parking spaces also have been increased in the revised application to 493 in the deck, up from 468, and 22 surface spaces. Another stipulation would create space for ridesharing deliveries (Uber, Lyft, etc.).
Access to the development would be on Windy Ridge and Shadowood.
Moore is also the attorney for David Pearson Communities, Inc., a developer who has sued the commissioners for a zoning decision in 2015 and that is coming before the board again on Tuesday.
Commissioners in November 2015 voted to rezone nearly seven acres at Sandy Plains Road and Ross Road to RA-5 for 34 single-family senior homes (ages 55 and up). That’s right across from the Sandy Plains intersection with Scufflegrit Road, in an area with some surrounding high-density development.
David Pearson Communities sought RM-5 for 54 units, and filed suit in Cobb Superior Court right after the vote (read it here), saying the commissioners’ “decision to restrict the intensity of the proposed development stands in direct conflict with the intensity of uses reflected by adjoining and surrounding properties.”
In April Moore sent a letter to the Cobb Zoning Office seeking the RA-6 category, which would allow for 41 homes, as well a proposed settlement of litigation.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the 2nd floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners took no action on Tuesday in an annexation dispute with the City of Marietta that has embroiled an East Cobb community for several months.
Instead, commissioners verbally restated a previous objection to a proposed annexation and high-density residential rezoning on Lower Roswell Road and the Loop (background here).
District 2 commissioner Bob Ott (above) represents the Sewell Manor neighborhood and several others nearby in East Cobb who’ve protested a project to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on less than eight acres.
He said comments last week by Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin suggest that the “city clearly has stated they’re not moving forward as long as [the county’s] objection letter is in place.”
Both Ott and Cobb County Manager Rob Hosack said an objection letter sent from the county in February is “valid,” although county staff erred in not requesting a formal vote from commissioners.
Hosack admitted county staff missed a deadline for that action, which precluded a request for binding arbitration. He told commissioners a state law allowing counties to object to annexations in high-density zoning cases still applies.
“We indeed have a valid objection,” said Hosack, the former head of the Cobb Community Development Agency. “At the very least the letter needs to remain in place.”
He said county objections can be made if an annexation is tied to a rezoning request seeking more than four units an acre for undeveloped land and five units an acre on redeveloped land.
Hosack also pointed out that he thinks that the county ultimately cannot stop an annexation. The county’s objection, he added, “gives us a seat at at the table” about how annexed land is rezoned and developed.
Traton Homes has reduced its original request from nearly 12 units an acre to 6.95 units an acre. Six of the nine parcels in the property that would be annexed were once part of Sewell Manor, whose homes date back to the 1950s.
Theresa Gernatt
Several Sewell Manor residents and others from nearby communities turned out Tuesday, dressed in yellow, stressing “Unity in Community” and waving yellow signs saying “Save East Cobb.”
They acknowledge that there will eventually be some new development next to where they live but what’s being proposed now isn’t compatible.
“Sometimes progress is having the courage not to change,” said Sewell Manor resident Theresa Gernatt, who said the yellow signifies her community’s “hope and caution.”
She and others repeated previous concerns that Marietta is engaging in a “hostile takeover” by the city.
“We feel this plan is reckless,” said Robin Moody, a Sewell Manor resident who read the names of 30 nearby subdivisions also opposed to the rezoning and annexation.
Their major objections, in addition to density, have been traffic at a busy intersection, as well as what they say is a lack of transparency from the property owner, developer and city.
They urged commissioners to keep the objection letter in place, pass a resolution stating their opposition to the annexation and “reserve their right to a constitutional challenge.”
When commissioner JoAnn Birrell asked “would it hurt” for the board to make a statement with a resolution, Ott and Hosack argued against that, saying it might offer a signal to restart the process.
“By law, the process cannot start over,” Ott said, who added that “there are no changes in the county’s objection.”
Some Sewell Manor residents have put up signs of protest in front of their homes.
At the end of the discussion, many in the audience applauded.
The Marietta City Council has twice tabled a vote on the annexation and rezoning, after the city’s planning commission voted to recommend denial. The city asked the county for mediation, which was to have happened last week, but then asked for a change in that process.
Ott, as the county’s designated mediation party, said he could not consent without the approval of the board, and called off the meeting.
“I feel Cobb County did the best they could do today,” Moody told East Cobb News after the meeting. She also said she was “encouraged by the support of the other commissioners.”
Gernatt said that “we heard a lot of encouraging words today, but from this point forward, we will only believe what our public servants DO.”
We’ll update this story with reaction from the city.
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For the last year or so we’ve been posting about the master plan process for the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area (known as JOSH); earlier this week the the Cobb Community Developent Agency released a draft that’s loaded with recommendations before final approval.
The recommendations are based on community input that included several public meetings since early 2018, as well as an online survey.
Five categories were included in the study: land use; transportation; parks; stormwater and sense of place.
What follows is a first look at the report, and the overarching recommendation is to:
“Preserve the detached single family residential character of the JOSH study area as the primary land use, directing more moderate transitional residential and commercial uses toward the Johnson Ferry at Shallowford Road commercial node.”
That should come as no surprise to those who’ve taken part, especially at the public sessions.
As was detailed at one of those meetings in January, the JOSH area—with a population of nearly 27,000—has more than 99 percent of its residents living in detached single-family housing.
Around 85 percent of the JOSH area is zoned for low-density residential. It also has an older and richer population than much of the rest of Cobb County.
A few more highlights from the recommendations, which begin on Page 58 of the draft:
Transportation: traffic improvements at the Johnson Ferry and Shallowford intersections, as well as Johnson Ferry and Wesley Chapel Road; Shallowford intersections at Childers Road and McPherson Road; and considering a roundabout at Hembree Road and Lassiter Road;
Landscape medians: Along Shallowford between Sandy Plains and Childers, and additional medians along Johnson Ferry at “appropriate” locations;
Pedestrian safety improvements: Johnson Ferry intersections at Post Oak Tritt, Shallowford and Lassiter.
Sidewalk recommendations: Both sides of McPherson and filling gaps along Post Oak Tritt, Lassiter and Mabry Road;
Multi-use trail: Added to the Cobb Greenways and Trails Master Plan;
Greenspace purchase: Possible parks and preservation;
Preservation: Working to get the 1830s Power-Jackson Cabin on Post Oak Tritt near McPherson included in the Cobb County Register of Historic Places;
Stormwater: fund and create a management plan for the Willeo Creek basin;
Design guidelines: To unify streetscape and architectural standards and create pedestrian and bike-friendly streets with sidewalk connectivity.
One of the biggest lingering issues in the JOSH area is 30 acres of land at the southwest intersection of Johnson Ferry and Shallowford that’s been proposed for rezoning but was withdrawn in 2017, right before the master plan process.
In the master plan draft, two conceptual plans were drawn up for mixed-use potential of that property, which includes a lake in the middle.
Among the recommendations is to work with the property owners to restore the lake, using it as a cornerstone of redevelopment, or converting that water basin into a creek.
That’s a long-term recommendation, as is the possibility of establishing a neighborhood park on that land. It’s also included in stormwater recommendations to restore to original flood stage and for possible retention use.
At the back of the master plan draft are results of an image preference survey for homes, commercial buildings, mixed-use development, parks and greenspace and more.
The 30-day public review period began on June 3, and additional input can be provided by email at comdevplanning@cobbcounty.orgor through the regular mail at Cobb County Community Development, Planning Division, P.O. Box 649, Marietta, GA 30061-0649.
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Cobb commissioner Bob Ott and Sewell Manor resident Theresa Gernatt. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
Residents of an East Cobb neighborhood want their county representatives to send a strong message to the City of Marietta about a proposed annexation they’ve been fighting for months.
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the Sewell Manor subdivision on Lower Roswell Road at the Loop, said he will offer such a proposal for his colleagues to consider next Tuesday.
It would replace an unratified objection the county made to a high-density residential development that’s being proposed on 7.48 acres right next to Sewell Manor in unincorporated Cobb.
But at a town hall meeting he called on Monday night, Ott reminded those residents that the city holds the power right now to annex six former lots in Sewell Manor and add them to three parcels on Lower Roswell that are already in the city.
“There is no obstacle to annex the land, based on the law,” Ott said to a room of around 100 people at the Sewell Mill Library. The crowd included residents in nearby neighborhoods in an older portion of East Cobb.
He made reference to a state law that allows counties to object to municipal annexations when related rezoning cases reach a certain density threshold.
Traton Homes is proposing to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on land owned by Ray Boyd, a commercial real estate broker.
That amounts to 6.9 units an acre, above the limit of of four units an acre for previously undeveloped land, and five units on land proposed for redevelopment. (The original site plan called for 64 townhomes, a density of nearly 12 units an acre.)
However, the county objection letter—signed by Ott, commissioner Keli Gambrill and chairman Mike Boyce—was never voted on by the commission. Ott said county staff neglected to include that item on a meeting agenda after Boyd filed a request to annex in January.
Last month, the Marietta City Council was prepared to vote on the annexation and rezoning, but for the second time delayed that action. A mediation session between Cobb and Marietta was scheduled for Wednesday, but Ott called it off because the city was asking for a different process.
“The city ought to show the county a little courtesy,” said James Rosich, who lives in the nearby Hamby Estates neighborhood. “Our county and community have been taken advantage of.”
An urban planner by training, Rosich outlined for the audience Sewell Manor’s objections to the Traton proposal, which includes 15 variances, and what Rosich termed “a hostile approach to annexation.”
For several years, the former commercial properties on Lower Roswell Road have sat vacant, an eyesore entrance to Sewell Manor that’s more than annoyed residents there.
“It looks like a third world country,” said Gernatt, who grew up in Sewell Manor. “The city of Marietta has allowed that to happen over the last decade.”
Boyd previously tried to get Marietta to annex the vacant Sewell Manor lots four years ago, but was denied.
Gernatt said she’s met with laywers who’ve told her the Sewell Manor neighbors should “sue the bejeezus out of everyone. But that’s not what we’re about.”
The main entrance to Sewell Manor on Indian Trail, and a view south along Lower Roswell Road. The empty lot once housed gas station and automotive repair businesses.
Ott said while he agrees with community concerns over traffic and density, the immediate focus should be on the annexation matter.
“You can’t sue until some action is taken,” Ott said.
He said in his 10 years as a commissioner, no other Cobb city has voted to annex land if the entire five-member county commission objected.
That kind of support, he added, “sends a huge message to the city.
“Why would they care about you? You don’t live in the city. Why have they not annexed? Think about that.”
Ott declined to detail what he’s presenting at the commission meeting Tuesday, with news media present at the town hall. Afterward, he told East Cobb News that “I do have some ideas,” but he still would not elaborate.
“They’re not going to be ready for what I’m proposing.”
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The Kroger superstore is slated to be built on the site of the former Brumby Elementary School (back right) as part of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill development.
A request by Kroger to receive tax breaks for a planned superstore at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill project in East Cobb was given the go-ahead by the Georgia Supreme Court.
The high court ruled in a unanimous 7-0 vote that a retired Cobb Superior Court judge erred in denying issuance of $35 million in revenue bonds by the Development Authority of Cobb County.
The ruling, which was released Monday (you can read it here), took issue with Judge Adele Grubbs’ interpretation of a state code provision that denies validation of such bonds if a project is not deemed “essential” to “the development of trade, commerce, industry, and employment opportunities.”
Justice Keith Blackwell, writing for the Supreme Court, said that provision does not require an “essential” determination for bonds to be issued.
“To say that “the development of trade, commerce, industry, and employment opportunities is an ‘essential’ purpose of development authorities is not to say that anything financed by a development authority must be ‘essential’ to such development,” Blackwell wrote.
Brandon Ashkouti
The 95,000-square-foot Kroger store is the anchor of the $120 million MarketPlace Terrell Mill project, which is just now getting underway. Regarded as a linchpin of revitalizing a high-density corridor, the development will include 298 apartment units, restaurants and other retail shops.
At a meeting last month of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance—a civic group—Brandon Ashkouti of Eden Rock Real Estate Partners, the project’s developer, said he anticipated “a favorable outcome” by the court. Kroger initially indicated it may not proceed with the store if it lost in court.
The Kroger store is slated be the final part of MarketPlace Terrell Mill to be completed, ideally 18-24 months from now, according to Ashkouti.
Kroger would be exempt from taxes its first year of operation, then would gradually pay an assessed tax value phased in over a 10-year period, rising by 10 percent each year.
The 23.9-acre property at Powers Ferry Road and Terrell Mill Road was eligible for abatements by being included on a redevelopment list by Cobb commissioners. Only Kroger applied for the bonds.
Last spring, another member of the developer team estimated the project would yield annual property tax revenues of $500,000 for the Cobb County School District alone. The property included some offices and retail space as well Brumby Elementary School, now relocated on Terrell Mill.
Two development authority members, including Karen Hallacy of East Cobb, voted against issuing the bonds, worried about setting a precedent for retailers getting tax breaks.
Last fall, Kroger and the Cobb Development Authority appealed Grubbs’ ruling to the Supreme Court, which did not hear additional arguments.
Larry Savage
The legal challenge was filed by Larry Savage, an East Cobb resident and twice a candidate for Cobb Commission Chairman.
He cited a state code provision that “gave unrestricted power to the Development Authority to decide what projects would or would not be granted tax abatements and this violates the provisions of the state constitution that require ‘uniformity’ of taxation. There cannot be uniformity when there are no rules.”
Savage said his objection wasn’t “whether the Kroger store was an economic boost but only the question of the constitutional requirement for “uniformity.”
“The Development Authority of Cobb County, and all development authorities in the state, are now free to use their unrestricted discretion in awarding tax abatement deals to any and all projects that suit their pleasure. ‘Uniformity in Taxation’ is toast.”
Savage said he’s not pursuing his case any further because there’s nowhere else to go. He told East Cobb News:
“The Georgia General Assembly could enact legislation that would clarify rules for development authorities. The Cobb County Commission could do the same for the Cobb County Development Authority. I do not expect either would act on anything that does nothing more than protect taxpayers.”
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An update to the story we published Thursday about mediation talks between Cobb County and the City of Marietta about a disputed annexation-rezoning case on Lower Roswell Road and the Loop:
That mediation, scheduled for next Wednesday, has been called off. Also, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who was to have represented the county and was scheduled to meet Monday with a small group of nearby residents opposed to the proposal, has opened the meeting to the public in a town hall format.
That word comes from Robin Moody (in photo), a leader of a group of Sewell Manor neighbors who are working to reduce the density and demand other changes from Traton Homes.
The prominent Cobb residential developer wants to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on 7.48 acres, which the neighbors say is too dense and would add to traffic headaches they already experience.
Some have called it a “Stack-A-Shack” proposal for how close the residences will be built on the property that abuts Sewell Manor.
In a message sent Friday to her neighbors and citizens in nearby communities, Moody said the City of Marietta wanted to change mediation from being overseen by retired Cobb Superior Court Judge James Bodiford to going before another, unspecified judge.
Ott declined, since that change would require approval of the other county commissioners, and he is planning to bring the matter up with his colleagues on June 11.
A Georgia local government law called HB 489 (passed in 1997) allows counties to formally object to annexation and rezoning cases in certain high-density conditions, and sets up terms for arbitration or mediation to settle disputes.
Moody noted the time provided for public comment at commissioners’ meetings and added:
“We are grateful that Cobb County will now hear the viewpoints (at least how Ott explains it) that the community has been voicing since January of this year.”
The Sewell Manor residents live in 1950s-built single-family homes with a density of less than two units an acre. Traton’s proposal is 6.95 units an acre, higher than a threshold of four units an acre as specified in HB 489.
Although the Marietta Planning Commission has recommended denial, the Marietta City Council has never voted on the Traton proposal. It has been pulled twice over the last two months.
Ott’s town hall meeting will be 7 p.m. Monday at the Sewell Mill Library (2051 Lower Roswell Road). Moody said citizens from more than a dozen nearby subdivisions have signed petitions opposed to proposed development.
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James Rosich, an urban planner by training, calls the Traton Homes proposal a “stack-a-shack” development. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
For several months, residents of an older East Cobb community—proud of their long-standing roots, and embracing those who’ve come to live there more recently—have felt increasingly cut off.
Cut off by increasing congestion at a major intersection. Cut off by vacant commercial and residential properties fronting their neighborhood that have become eyesores.
And, most of all, cut off in a matter between Cobb County and the City of Marietta over a rezoning and annexation request they worry may be settled next week without their input.
UPDATE: The mediation has been called off, and Cobb commissioner Bob Ott will hold a town hall meeting on the matter on Monday. Click here to read more.
For residents of Sewell Manor, a proposed development by Traton Homes for townhomes and urban-style single-family homes is more than just incompatible with their homes.
It’s become what some believe could be a troubling bellwether for the kind of high-density development that they moved there to avoid.
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A small-town feel
Sewell Manor is “the closest thing to Mayberry that you can find in Cobb County now,” said Theresa Gernatt, who grew up in Sewell Manor and lives there again, as a caregiver for her mother.
The small brick ranch homes that line Indian Trail and Worthington Drive were built in the late 1950s, as what became known as East Marietta suburbanized.
Most of them are valued at less than $200,000 today, bargain prices in highly affluent East Cobb, where new homes are routinely sold for $700,000 and up.
She said she and her neighbors understand the empty lots next to their neighborhood will be redeveloped, and they’re not opposed.
“Change is good,” Gernatt said Wednesday at a meeting she and her neighbors called at the Sewell Mill Library, just down the street on Lower Roswell, and that drew around 50 people, many from nearby subdivisions.
However, she said, “real progress is not always change,” and especially what one of the most powerful residential developers in Cobb County has in mind for their community.
Sewell Manor residents William Warwick and Lindsay Field Penticuff.
The proposal by Traton would plop 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on less than eight acres at the northeast corner of Lower Roswell and the Loop.
The land includes three commercial parcels on Lower Roswell annexed by Marietta, as well as property on which six former homes stood in Sewell Manor.
The residential tracts are in unincorporated Cobb County—which Traton is proposing the city also annex—as is the rest of Sewell Manor.
Traton has come down from its initial proposal of 63 townhomes and one single-family home, dropping the density from around 12 units an acre to 6.95.
That’s still above the threshold of a state law that allows counties to object to annexations when rezonings include density of more than 4 units an acre.
When Traton submitted its plans earlier this year, Cobb officials did object. However, they didn’t formalize their opposition until it was almost too late.
Earlier this month, as the Marietta City Council was to vote on the Traton request, the county asked for a delay for mediation.
The city agreed, and they’re scheduled to meet next Wednesday with retired Cobb Superior Court Judge James Bodiford.
While the Sewell Manor residents are temporarily relieved, they don’t think their concerns are being taken seriously.
“This is a city creating a problem for us, after we bought into the county to enjoy,” said Robin Moody, a relative Sewell Manor newcomer, who’s lived there 15 years.
She’s urged her neighbors to lobby Bob Ott, their county commissioner (who’s meeting with them on Monday), and to turn out in force for the mediation hearing.
Sewell Manor resident Robin Moody.
Sewell Manor residents are asking Traton to reduce density down to four units an acre, which is still more than twice the density of their neighborhood.
But that’s hardly all of their objections to a proposal they say runs counter to city and county land use plans and basic rezoning standards.
Tration is asking for 15 variances. They include waiving landscape buffers along Lower Roswell and a waiver to build deceleration and acceleration lanes at the Indian Trail access point.
No traffic plan has been submitted by Traton, another requirement.
Some of the townhouses are only 900 square feet, well under the city’s minimum of 1,400 square feet for townhouses. No square footage sizes have been indicated for the single-family homes.
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At the intersection, there’s a massive billboard owned by Ray Boyd, the property owner, that Sewell Manor residents want taken down.
They also want minimum open space to be 25 percent, and a 60 percent maximum for impervious services.
“This is not a good site plan,” said James Rosich, who lives close to nearby Sedalia Park Elementary School. “It’s just not.”
Site plan markup
Rosich, who has an urban planning degree from Georgia Tech and governmental planning experience in Florida and North Carolina, dubbed the Traton plan “Stack-A-Shack.”
It’s lingo in his profession, he says, for high-density development jammed especially closely together. There’s not room for school buses to turn around in the new community, nor for residents to place trash for curbside pickup.
He annotated Traton’s plan to incorporate the community’s requests to get it to something they could accept.
Sewell Manor residents’ objections to and recommended changes for the Traton plan. For larger view click here.
Sewell Manor residents say Marietta City Council member Michelle Cooper-Kelly, who represents the potential annexed land, has told them she’s against the project.
So is the Marietta Planning Commission, which voted in March to recommend denial.
That’s the only vote that’s been taken on the yet-unnamed Traton proposal tabled twice by the council.
Setting a trend?
Ott, who will be the county representative at the mediation, has said that Marietta could eventually exercise home rule and rezone and annex as it pleases without Cobb’s blessing.
(East Cobb News has left a message with Ott’s office seeking comment.)
East Cobb residents in other communities said they’re concerned about a precedent, similar to what’s taking place in the Powers Ferry corridor, if the Traton project goes through.
“If we don’t push back now, that’s what’s going to come along Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road,” said Hill Wright, who lives in the Spring Creek neighborhood off Holt Road.
“It’s not just about this neighborhood. It’s the first battle in a war” to maintain a traditional suburban setting, he added.
The Indian Trail home of William Warwick, which has been in his wife’s family for more than 40 years. It’s surrounded by land proposed for upscale townhomes and single-family homes.
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