Recently the Whataburger fast food chain filed plans with the Cobb Zoning Office to replace the nearly 7,000-square foot restaurant building and construct a new facility on the same site.
It would be the fifth Whataburger location in Cobb County, but a site plan amendment is needed to do so.
According to the preliminary files (you can read them here), there are a number of stipulations dictating future land use for the 1.31-acre parcel.
Among them are restrictions against a fast-food restaurant and anything with a drive-through service. The Whataburger site plan, drawn up by a Cumming-based architect, calls for a double-lane drive-through fronting Sandy Plains Road.
Those were among the stipulations included in a 1998 pending litigation settlement between Cobb County and Sembler Family Partnership, a retail developer, over a rezoning case that permitted the O’Charley’s.
The land once belonged to the prominent Gordy’s family (of Varsity restaurant fame) that owned many parcels in the area, and is part of a larger retail center currently anchored by a Target store.
Cobb property tax records indicate that the land, owned by the 1987 Donig Living Trust Nov 23 87, sold for $2.575 million in 2004 and has an an appraised value of nearly $2 million.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled to hear the request on May 21, and the zoning staff has not yet issued a full analysis or a recommendation.
Rezoning isn’t needed because the community retail commercial (CRC) designation includes restaurants.
Whataburger, which started in Texas in 1950, has nearly 1,000 restaurants, mostly in Texas and the South.
There are three open in Cobb: On Cobb Parkway near Akers Mill Road, on Barrett Parkway near I-75 and at Chastain Road and George Busbee Parkway. Another is planned for the Acworth area.
There’s also a Whataburger on Highway 92 in Woodstock near I-575.
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A wall fronting the Village of Sandy Plains subdivision violated a Cobb County ordinance and resulted in a court dispute.
After losing a legal battle with Cobb County over a subdivision under construction on Sandy Plains Road, the developer of a single-family community has been pursuing annexation with the City of Marietta.
On Wednesday, the Marietta City Council voted to annex the 15-acre property on Sandy Plains near the Scufflegrit Road intersection and rezone it to accommodate a 90-home development.
The rezoning vote passed 4-3, and the vote to annex the property was 5-2.
First Center Inc., part of David Pearson Communities, a residential builder, got RA-6 rezoning from Cobb to build what it’s calling the Village of Sandy Plains.
The planned homes in Marietta will fall under the PRD (planned residential develoopment) category at roughly 6 units an acre, similar to what Cobb allowed.
First Center built out private roads and installed underground utilities while haggling with the county over a wall that fronts Sandy Plains Road.
The Cobb ordinance allowed for only a 6-foot-high wall, but it’s 10 feet in most places and higher in others.
First Center sued the county over the matter, but in February, lost its appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court ruled as it prepared its Marietta annexation request.
The council first heard the matter in March, but voted to hold it after the council’s planning commission recommended denial.
The city zoning staff’s analysis noted that “the developer has provided conflicting zoning plans, site plans, and final plats, none of which appear to fully meet City regulations” and hasn’t provided sufficient information about a number of variances that would be needed.
Kevin Moore, First Center’s attorney, told city council members Wednesday that “there’s a misunderstanding about how high the walls can be in Cobb County.”
He said the county ordinance allows walls to be higher than 10 feet if they are concealing homes from the Main street.
But he said the reason his client sought annexation was because of higher development standards in Marietta that require four-sided architecture and a limit of only 5 percent of the units being rentals.
An aerial view of the First Center property (outlined in black), is between home developments in Cobb and Marietta.
“There is in fact this already in the city of Marietta and it is highly, highly desired,” Moore said, showing slides of similar developments in existence.
Moore said the property tax benefits to the city would be $640,000 a year.
But a homebuilding company that purchased 41 of the 90 lots from First Center filed an objection.
Lisa Marchower, an attorney for Davidson Homes LLC, said that her client wants to stay with the county, primarily for reasons related to schools.
The annexed property is close to Kincaid Elementary School in the Cobb County School District and is adjacent to some city-zoned residential areas where students attend Marietta City Schools. (Cobb commissioners in November rezoned adjacent property for a 91-home subdivision.)
Marchower said First Center didn’t inform Davidson Homes about seeking annexation with Marietta until well after it had filed paperwork with the city.
“It is the strong preference of the builder, Davidson Homes, that the Village at Sandy Plains Subdivision is not annexed into the City, but rather, remains in Cobb County,” she wrote in a March 7 letter to council members.
She said requiring Davidson Homes to switch and meet city building standards “will significantly increase the cost of building homes in the Village at Sandy Plains Subdivision and will make my client’s home building efforts economically marginal. We have serious concerns about the economic viability of a development at this location that is forced to comply with the standards of the City.”
That letter did not come up Wednesday.
Resident Ben Brewer worried that if students in Village of Sandy Plains have to attend Marietta City Schools, he said, “they’re going to be spending hours on the buses.”
“This is a Cobb County piece of property. Let Cobb County deal with it.”
Others opposed to the annexation said Marietta is getting too much of high-density single-family homes, and that they pose stormwater and traffic issues.
But council members barely discussed the matter and asked only a few questions before casting their votes.
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A member of the East Cobb Civic Association board has been chosen to fill a vacancy on the Cobb Planning Commission.
Christine Lindstrom has been appointed by Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell to represent District 3 on the five-member Planning Commission, which hears zoning and land-use cases and makes recommendations to the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The appointment will be formally announced at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
Lindstrom, a resident of Northeast Cobb, will succeed Deborah Dance, who is a candidate for Cobb Superior Court Clerk.
Lindstrom has been on the ECCA board since 2020 and has lived in the East Cobb area for 49 years.
The East Cobb Civic Association, which formed in 1982, represents around 9,000 households and is actively involved in rezoning cases.
Lindstrom will serve the remaining portion of Dance’s term, which expires Dec. 31, 2026.
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The townhome proposal (outlined in yellow) called for much higher density than surrounding homes.
A proposed 74-unit townhome development in a single-family residential area of Northeast Cobb was unanimously rejected Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
They didn’t deliberate long to deny a request by Ashwani Kumar Kaura to rezone 13 acres on Lindsey Way off Alabama Road from from single-family residential (R-20) to fee-simple townhome (FST).
The Cobb Planning Commission also recommended denial earlier this month. Four residents of nearby neighborhoods spoke in opposition.
Tom Ganschow, who lives next to the Kaura property on Fitts Drive in the Bernham Woods subdivision, said his many in his neighborhood signed a petition in opposition.
“We feel we’ve been deceived in our neighborhood because we never saw signs posted in our area” about the rezoning request.
He mentioned a news report (ours from March 2) and said that otherwise, “we’d still be in the dark.”
The homes there were built mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, and said there’s “no consideration for the homeowners and the character of Northeast Cobb.”
He said putting up some R-20 homes would be the best option, and that the applicant’s request for variances “ought to be a red flag.”
Kaura’s son represented his father, who has had medical issues out of state, and admitted that after traveling from Arizona Monday “I am not prepared today.”
The property has been in the family for more than 40 years, he said, and stated a desire to have it developed.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area, quickly made a motion to deny the request, noting the 105 signatures on the petition.
“This isn’t really appropriate for the area,” she said. The only townhomes she recalls nearby were along Shallowford Road a decade or so ago, and located near a shopping center.
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The property owner of a 13-acre tract of land eyed for a high-density townhome development in Northeast Cobb didn’t appear for a first hearing before the Cobb Planning Commission Tuesday.
But the five-member zoning advisory body didn’t hesitate to recommend denial of the plans near the end of a long meeting.
Ashwani Kumar Kaura wants to rezone the undeveloped track at Alabama Road and Lindsey Way from single-family residential (R-20) to fee-simple townhome (FST).
The land is completely surrounded by detached single-family homes, and some neighbors turned out to oppose the request.
Kauna wasn’t in attendance due to what Cobb zoning staff said was an out-of-state medical emergency, but the planning board decided to hear the case since opponents were in attendance.
“There’s nothing like this in our area at all,” said one. “It’s completely out of place.”
Tom Ganschow, who lives next to the Kaura property on Fitts Drive in the Bernham Woods subdivision, said his neighborhood is diverse and is “a nice place to come and it’s quiet.”
He said Kauna proposed a 50-home subdivision on the land 20 years ago, and wondered how more than 70 homes would fit, especially since there isn’t sewer service in that area.
Zoning staff recommended denial on a number of fronts, including density, land-use, sewer and transportation.
Planning commissioner Deborah Dance quickly made a motion to recommend denial, and the vote was 5-0.
The case goes before the Cobb Board of Commissioners for the final say on March 19.
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A 13-acre parcel of land near the corner of Northeast Cobb where it meets Roswell and Cherokee C0unty is being proposed for a 74-unit townhome development.
The request by Ashwani Kumar Kaura to rezone the property from single-family residential (R-20) to fee-simple townhome (FST) is on the agenda of Tuesday’s Cobb Planning Commission meeting.
But the Cobb Zoning Office is recommending denial, saying the land at Alabama Road and Lindsey Way is completely surrounded by single-family detached homes.
The 13-acre parcel is located off Alabama Road, north of Sandy Plains Road.
“It isStaff’s opinion that the applicant’s rezoning proposal will not permit a use that is suitable in view of the use and development of adjacent and nearby properties,” the staff analysis concludes. “There are single–family uses on all four sides, developed at much lower densities. The proposed homes would be out of scale and out of character with the existing single–family houses in the area.”
According to the site plan for what’s being called “Kaura Village,” the density would be 5.72 units per acre. The homes would be developed on 11.75 acres, with the rest for amenities.
There’s also no room for guest parking, which was noted by the Cobb Fire Department in its comments on the case, and other remarks indicate that sewer service is not available.
Rezoning to FST also would defy the county’s Future Land Use Map designation for medium-density residential development, according to the zoning analysis.
“For these reasons, Staff believes it appropriate to deny the request rather thandelete to a more appropriate zoning district until such time as these issues can be worked through,” the analysis stated.
According to Cobb property tax records, Kauna, the property owner, is in California.
The Cobb Planning Commission is a five-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners that makes recommendations on zoning cases.
Its decisions are advisory; the BOC has the final say on zoning cases.
The Planning Commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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A 1.14-acre parcel of land that once housed a movie theatre parking lot in Northeast Cobb will finally be getting developed after all.
Nearly a year after King’s Hawaiian pulled out of plans for a restaurant at Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road, Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved a Fifth Third Bank branch for the property.
During consent agenda voting, commissioners approved changes to the site plan to allow for drive-through service, as well as submitted renderings and drawings.
In addition, there will be a 40-foot landscape buffer at the back of the property adjoining Carl Harrison Park.
In 2023, attorneys for Stein Investment Group said such a buffer would make it difficult to develop the King’s Hawaiian restaurant, which would have had a drive-through.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell would not budge, saying when the land was zoned for a movie theater in 1988 the 40-buffer was a key stipulation.
Reducing it, she said, last April, “would set a precedent. It was put in place for a reason.”
In May, King’s Hawaiian withdrew, and the land has sat vacant ever since. It was part of a parking lot adjoining the GTC Park 12 Cobb theater, which closed in 2018.
In 2021, Stein got rezoning to develop part of the land for a self-storage facility.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Birrell submitted several conditions Gordy Architectural Control Committee and other stipulations that were not immediately available in the public filings.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved via the consent agenda a dental office use at the former Mt. Bethel Church Community Center site. (4608 Lower Roswell Road).
The board heeded staff suggestions to delete the zoning category from low-rise office to limited professional services permit.
The land has been zoned residential because its owner is Mt. Bethel Church, which has been putting up selected properties for sale since departing the United Methodist Church in 2022.
Marianna Kovitch, who has a dental practice in Buckhead, hired noted zoning attorney Kevin Moore, who represented a previous applicant who withdrew from seeking an office use last year.
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For the second time in a year, the former Mt. Bethel Community Center is being eyed for professional use.
A rezoning request was withdrawn without prejudice last summer when the Cobb Zoning Office recommended that the building at 4608 Lower Roswell Road be granted designation for a limited professional services permit (LPSP).
MRE Properties, the applicant, sought a low-rise office (LRO) designation, but zoning staff said an LPSP would be more appropriate to the residential neighborhoods surrounding the site.”
A different applicant wants to convert the 6,060-square-foot building into a dental office. Marianna Kovitch, who has a practice in Buckhead, initially sought LRO rezoning and has hired noted zoning attorney Kevin Moore, who represented MRE Properties.
An initial hearing is scheduled before the Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday in the first zoning hearings of 2024.
The land has been zoned residential because its owner is Mt. Bethel Church, which has been putting up selected properties for sale since departing the United Methodist Church in 2022.
A preliminary staff analysis of Z-5-2024 (you can read it here) also is recommending deletion to LPSP.
Such a use “will minimize impact to residential neighbors while allowing continued use of the existing site,” the analysis said, adding that the LRO category on that 1.13-acre parcel does not conform to the Cobb County Comprehensive Plan
It also indicates that no new major modifications or additions are being planned for the building, which would be open for dental services Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
In a stipulation letter dated Jan. 29 (you can read it here) Moore wrote that his client was in agreement with the staff recommendation of LPSP specific to dental, medical and administrative use. He also is seeking a waiver that LPSP is specific to the property owner.
The Cobb Planning Commission meeting Tuesday will take place starting at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
The meeting will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
The Planning Commission recommendations will be considered by the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Feb. 20.
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Despite concerns from a local civic group about traffic issues, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a rezoning request for a drive-through chicken fast food restaurant at the Lower Roswell-Johnson Ferry intersection.
By a 5-0 vote, commissioners voted to rezone a 3.17-acre parcel from planned shopping center (PSC) to neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) for a Guthrie’s Chicken location.
East Cobb Guthries LLC wants to convert an empty medical building for a two-lane drive-through-only restaurant and purchased the property last year.
The Cobb Planning Commission recommended approval earlier this month on the consent agenda.
But the matter was placed on the commissioners’ regular agenda after the East Cobb Civic Association expressed concern about traffic near a busy intersection and was unsure about the restaurant’s opening hours in a revised stipulation letter.
At Tuesday’s hearing, ECCA president Richard Grome asked if Cobb DOT had seen a new traffic study, which determined that traffic-stacking wouldn’t be an issue.
The revised site plan calls for right-in, right-out access only on Lower Roswell Road.
That’s also where Cobb DOT is planning a major improvement project.
Grome also wanted to know why the operating hours—initially specified as between 10 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.—weren’t mentioned in the new stipulation letter.
Kevin Moore, attorney for East Cobb Guthries, didn’t specify, but said “it’s not a 24-hour operation.”
The 1,500-square-foot building would have 10 parking spaces, and there will be no inside dining.
During a brief discussion, it was noted that there are several restaurants in the Lower Roswell-Johnson Ferry Road that have widely differing opening hours.
A Zaxby’s at the same intersection is open from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily, and there’s a Waffle Hours that’s open 24 hours and sit-down restaurants with shorter opening hours.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners voted to hold an application for a gas station and convenience store in Northeast Cobb yet again.
A request by Quiktrip to convert a former pharmacy at Canton Road and Jamerson Road from general commercial to neighborhood retail will be scheduled for February (Commissioners do not hear zoning cases in January.).
The applicant revised a site plan to reduce the proposed number of pumps from 16 to 12 and is working through a shared parking agreement with business owners at an adjacent retail center.
But commissioner JoAnn Birrell asked for the delay to locate the pumps closer to Jamerson Road, among other issues.
The Canton Road Neighbors civic group opposed the request, saying there are traffic dangers in that area and that it has a glut of similar gas-convenience stores.
“Gas stations on every corner—that’s America,” Birrell said, acknowledging that “the traffic still has some concerns” and suggested right-in, right-out access only along Canton Road.
Commissioners also voted to delay a major mixed-use proposal along I-575 near Chastain Road.
SDP Acquisitions wants to develop 57 acres for warehouses, townhouses and apartments in a case that’s drawn significant community opposition.
Birrell said she couldn’t support any warehouses (365,000 square feet have been proposed) and wants the developer to revise a site plan with the only planned village community (PVC) category.
Her motion also calls for the applicant to conduct a traffic study, provide landscaping and tree buffers and prohibits any variances.
More than 30 people turned out in opposition, including the Bells Ferry Civic Association, which also expressed concerns about the density of the proposed housing (135 townhomes, 200 senior apartments) and 30,000 square feet of retail space.
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A month after the redevelopment of the former Harry’s Farmers Market was vetoed by Marietta Mayor Thunder Tumlin, the City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve a revised version of the plan.
By a 7-0 vote, the council voted to approve a mixed-use plan for nearly 20 acres on Powers Ferry Road at Roswell Road that features apartments, townhomes and retail space on the ground floors of those buildings.
The council voted 6-1 in November to approve plans for 28 townhomes and 236 apartments. But Tumlin—who has vetoed other apartment projects in the city recently, including at the former Kroger site on Delk Road—mixed the measure, saying the balance wasn’t right.
The developer, Westplan Investors of Atlanta, came back with a revised plan to increase the number of townhomes to 39 and keep the same number of apartment units, as well as increase the retail space to nearly 29,000 square feet from around 15,000 square feet
There was little discussion before the vote, and Tumlin didn’t pull out the veto pen.
Westplan touted the mixed-use project as a transformational one for a portion of East Marietta that has not been revitalized in more than 30 years.
Harry’s closed in the fall of 2017, just as Movie Studio Grill was set to open in the same retail center.
Brian Schultz, the theater owner, said at the November council meeting that “this property needs a spark.” He addressed also Tumlin’s reluctance.
“I’m literally imploring you to let us bring this community together. Please don’t stand in the way of progress.”
Westplan originally proposed 300 apartments, but changed those plans after several delays in public hearings.
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The Cobb Planning Commission voted Tuesday to recommend approval of a proposed Guthries’ Chicken drive-through restaurant in East Cobb.
After continuing the application for a month, the board placed the application on the consent agenda by a 4-0 vote when no opposition arose.
The initial request to convert 3.17 acres at the southwest intersection of Lower Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road from planned shopping center (PSC) to neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) was on consent.
East Cobb Guthries LLC wants to convert an empty medical building for a two-lane drive-through only restaurant and purchased the property last year.
But the East Cobb Civic Association objected to some of the variances and was concerned about the lack of a detailed site plan and asked for more time to review the request.
Guthrie’s hired noted zoning attorney Kevin Moore, who submitted a stipulation letter dated Nov, 27 that addressed some of those issues and included a site plan (you can read it here).
The 1,500-square-foot building will be remodeled and the property will include 10 parking spaces, down from an original range between 22-25 spaces. The operating hours will be daily from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and access will be on Lower Roswell only.
The stipulation letter indicates that Guthries “will utilize outdoor employee order service . . . during expected, heavier volume times.”
Traffic concerns also came up during the initial hearing in November. Cobb DOT revised a traffic study and requested that Guthrie’s donate right-of-way to complete the project and for an upcoming improvement project along Lower Roswell.
District 2 Planning Commission member David Anderson included in his motion to place the application on the consent agenda a stipulation that Guthrie’s conduct a traffic study.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled to hear the case on Dec. 19.
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A rendering of a home in Toll Brothers’ 91-unit subdivision planned for Sandy Plains Road near Kincaid ES.
After reducing the number of homes and deciding not to develop on one side of a creek, a residential developer on Tuesday got approval for a 91-unit subdivision on Sandy Plains Road near Kincaid Elementary School.
Following a recommendation by the Cobb Planning Commission, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve rezoning of 19.68 acres on Ross Road from rural residential (RR) to RA-6, a medium-density zoning category.
The land is undeveloped property across from the intersection of Sandy Plains and Scufflegrit Road.
Toll Southeast LP Company, Inc. originally planned 105 single-family detached homes in the RA-6 category, next to similarly-zoned neighborhoods in the county and City of Marietta (case filings here).
But opposition surfaced from the adjacent St. Charles Square subdivision for traffic and runoff reasons. The land includes Little Noonday Creek, and other concerns included a number of variances.
The application was held for a month and the Planning Commission earlier this month recommended many of the changes that came before commissioners Tuesday.
That included stipulations for lot sizes ranging from at least 4,000 square feet to 7,000 square feet and beyond, and and impervious surface maximum of 40 percent.
The homes will be at least 2,600 square feet and the neighborhood will feature a mandatory homeowners association and privately-maintained streets.
No one spoke in opposition Tuesday; commissioner Keli Gambrill was absent.
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It’s been nearly a year since there have been events around Cobb’s proposed Unified Development Code.
A UDC is a comprehensive planning guide which incorporates zoning, planning and land-use with design, landscaping, architectural and other guidelines. Local Atlanta-area jurisdictions that have them are the cities of Atlanta and Roswell and DeKalb County.
Cobb commissioners voted along party lines in Aug. 2022 to spend $500,000 for an outside consultant to conduct a public feedback process and assist county staff in creating the code.
The county announced recently that there will be several public meetings about the UDC in December at various locations following the publication of a UDC code assessment draft.
You can read through the UDC assessment draft by clicking here; it’s 149 pages of detailed information and recommendations.
The meeting schedule is rather compact—six meetings eight days, culminating with the only East Cobb meeting on Dec. 14 at the Mountain View Community Center:
Wednesday Dec. 6, 6 – 8 p.m., Windy Hill Community Center, 1885 Roswell Street SE, Smyrna
Thursday, Dec. 7, 6 – 8 p.m., North Cobb Regional Library, 3900 S Main Street, Acworth
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. – noon, West Cobb Senior Center, 4915 Dallas Hwy, Powder Springs
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 6 – 8 p.m., Thompson Park Community Center, 555 Nickajack Road, Mableton
Thursday, Dec. 14, 6 – 8 p.m., Mountain View Community Center, 3400 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta
County officials have said the current collection of zoning, planning and development ordinances are more than 50 years old and need a streamlined overhaul.
“The goal of the Unified Development Code (UDC) project is to produce a document that encourages and enables development and redevelopment in identified centers while preserving the unique character of the county’s rural areas,” the county said in a recent message, adding that:
“The project also aims to protect existing neighborhoods, conserve natural and historic resources, support economic development and provide an opportunity for various housing types.”
At the time the consultant was hired, Cobb Community Development director Jessica Guinn said that “this will be a robust public process.
The December hearings are the first part of a three-step process to gain public input, make revisions and present a final version—following more public sessions—for adoption by commissioners.
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An aerial rendering of the proposed Accent Marietta Crossing.
UPDATED, Nov. 9:
Marietta mayor Steve Tumlin vetoed the rezoning approval on ‘Thursday, the day after the City Council voted 6-1 to approve it.
The council can override the veto with at least five votes at its monthly meeting in December.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
It’s been more than six years since Harry’s Farmers Market closed on Powers Ferry Road in the East Cobb area, in a former retail center that has sat virtually empty since then.
On Wednesday, the Marietta City Council approved a rezoning request to use that property for a mixed-use developement featuring luxury apartments and townhomes.
The long-delayed request for what’s being called Accent Marietta Crossing got a vote of 6-1.
But Mayor Steve Tumlin, who has been adamantly opposed to new apartment construction in the city in recent years, said right after the vote that he may veto the measure.
During a discussion after the rezoning presentation, he said that “I just can’t support these numbers. This just isn’t right. I can’t support this as presented.”
Westplan Investors of Atlanta had been seeking some changes to the conditional mixed-use zoning designation to build more than 200 apartments, 28 townhomes, and 14,389 square feet of retail space in an $80 million investment.
The property was zoned for a specific site plan when Studio Movie Grill came in in 2017, as Harry’s was set to close, so the Council was being asked to approve a new site plan.
Parks Huff, Westplan’s attorney, said in a presentation to the Council that the project would transform an area that for “the last 30 years has looked the same.
“This is something that will invigorate this area,” he said, noting that the Marietta Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval and that there’s no community opposition.
“That’s because it fits.”
“Please don’t stand in the way of progress,” Studio Movie Grill owner Brian Schultz said.
The Studio Movie Grill and an outparcel on Powers Ferry with existing businesses will remain, but the rest of the nearly 20-acre center—including the former Harry’s and adjacent empty space—would be demolished.
Westplan is envisioning the new development as a critical part of an effort by Marietta officials to redevelop Roswell Road eastward from Cobb Parkway. A CobbLinc transit station is being planned for the former Sear’s property across from the Big Chicken.
Westplan’s plans call for “rehabbing” a vacant retail building of nearly 15,000 square feet that fronts Powers Ferry Road, and will keep the existing parking lot that serves the Studio Movie Grill.
Brian Schultz, the Studio Movie Grill owner, said “this property needs a spark.” He addressed also Tumlin’s reluctance.
“I’m literally imploring you to let us bring this community together,” he said. “Please don’t stand in the way of progress.”
The council tried to override the veto, which needed five votes, but the vote to override passed only by a 4-3 count.
Several other citizens spoke in favor of the Westplan project, citing the need for quality rental residential space.
The 236 apartments (down from an initial 300), spread out over five buildings, and the townhomes would form a density of 16.93 units per acre. Amenities call for a leasing office, swimming pool, two gazebo/grill areas and patio space.
The two apartment buildings to face Powers Ferry would have commercial/office space on the ground floor.
The total parking would come to 844 spaces, both in surface spaces and two-level parking deck. A total of 13 percent of the site is deemed for recreational purposes, including walking trail areas and a dog run.
Westplan also has agreed to construct new sidewalks along Powers Ferry and Roswell Road to increase pedestrian connectivity.
“If this doesn’t get approved, we have to question what mixed-use is, because this is it,” City Council member Cheryl Richardson said before the vote.
Council member Andre Sims noted that his own children, in their late 20s and early 30s, “can’t afford to buy a $300,000 house” and that younger generations are struggling to afford to become homeowners.
Harry’s was once the anchor of a shopping center that opened in the 1990s, featuring Builders Square and Sports Authority stores and a Revco/CVS drug store. But after those businesses closed, Harry’s became the lone occupant of what was later named Harry’s Crossing.
Harry’s downsized its original space following the opening of the East Cobb Whole Foods store at Merchants Walk in 2012.
Whole Foods, which acquired Harry’s in 2001 but allowed the farmers market concept to retain its name, decided to close the Marietta store and open a Whole Foods in Kennesaw.
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The Cobb Planning Commission Tuesday voted to continue a rezoning request by Guthrie’s Chicken for a drive-through location in East Cobb.
The board voted 5-0 to push back an initial hearing on the application to December.
The item had been on the meeting’s consent agenda, but opposition arose from the East Cobb Civic Association.
The fast-food chain purchased 0.3 acres on Lower Roswell at Johnson Ferry Road last year with plans to convert a vacated medical building into a drive-through-only restaurant.
DG East Cobb Guthrie’s LLC (you can read the application here) is requesting a change from a planned shopping center (PSC) to a neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) category.
The request also seeks a reduction from the existing 15 parking spaces to 12 and a reduction of the front setback from 50 feet to 20 feet, and would increase the impervious surface maximum from 70 to 92.9 percent.
But the ECCA last week submitted a letter recommending that the request be delayed, due to concerns over some of those proposed variances and other details.
The civic group said the initial application “contained a barely readable site plan,” did not provide a rendering or landscaping, floor, lighting and signage plans.
Guthrie’s filed the application before hiring noted zoning attorney Kevin Moore.
The ECCA said that it hasn’t had much time to respond to some of Moore’s clarifications about what is being proposed, including building height, specific modifications to the structure and traffic concerns.
Moore said that between 22-25 vehicles could be accommodated on the site at any given time.
“However, without further study or analysis of this issue, ECCA is not convinced this number of vehicles can be safely moved through the drive-thru at one time and that traffic will not block access to CVS and in addition, cause a backup into the right turn lane on Lower Roswell Road,” the ECCA noted in its letter.
The ECCA also said it’s concerned about a lack of detail about how customers would pick up food at a walk-up window.
“There is no indication whether there will be a striped walkway for customers to safely cross the traffic of the drive-thru to pick up their food,” the ECCA said. “This concern must also be addressed.”
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A small commercial building at a corner of Lower Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road could be converted into a fast food chicken restaurant.
Guthrie’s Chicken, which specializes in chicken finger menu items, is scheduled to have a first hearing on its rezoning application next Tuesday before the Cobb Planning Commission.
The request seeks a change from a planned shopping center (PSC) to a neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) category for 0.3 acres at 4774 Lower Roswell Road.
The 2,000-square foot building is currently vacant but previously has housed small medical offices, including a COVID-19 testing location. It’s located in front of a CVS pharmacy, and plans call to remodel the building.
The application by DG East Cobb Guthrie’s LLC (you can read it here) calls for drive-through-only service from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily. An existing single point of access on Lower Roswell would be retained in the proposed site plan.
The request also seeks a reduction from the existing 15 parking spaces to 12 and a reduction of the front setback from 50 feet to 20 feet, and would increase the impervious surface maximum from 70 to 92.9 percent.
The Cobb Zoning Office is recommending approval of the application.
Based in Alabama, Guthrie’s is a Southern franchise operation with more than 50 locations in eight states, including one in Mableton and two in Canton.
The Guthrie’s in East Cobb would be located across the intersection from Zaxby’s, another Southern chicken chain.
DG Guthrie’s purchased the land and building for $1.2 million last September, according to Cobb property tax records.
The Cobb Planning Commission, an advisory body, meets next Tuesday at 9 a.m. For more information and a meeting overview, click here.
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Toll Southeast wants to build more than 100 homes on nearly 20 acres on Sandy Plains Road at Ross Road that includes Little Noonday Creek.
The Cobb Planning Commission heard three major rezoning cases in the Northeast Cobb area on Tuesday, and decided to delay making a recommendation on all of them.
All three were continued to the November zoning calendar.
Among them is a proposal to build a 105-home single-family detached subdivision on Sandy Plains Road near Kincaid Elementary School in an area that’s a flood plain.
The nearly 20-acre site on Ross Road is includes Little Noonday Creek, and the site plan reflects that nothing would be built on a sliver of the property to the west.
But the applicant, Toll Southeast LP Company, is also asking for variances that would substantially reduce the minimum lot size, set and front setbacks and width between homes and increase the impervious surface maximum to 70 percent.
The new homes would be built adjacent to another subdivision near the Scufflegrit Road intersection, and Toll’s attorney, Kevin Moore, noted that nearby subdivisions in Cobb and Marietta city limits have similar or less dense zoning categories.
“We’re simply asking to be treated equally by what has been approved by this county and the city that you legally have to acknowledge,” Moore said.
But Laurie Wood, who lives in the nearby St. Charles Place subdivision, said the land is in a wetlands, and that the Toll development design does not include a deceleration lane, unlike other communities along Sandy Plains Road.
A traffic study done earlier this year does not factor in other subdivisions under construction for a total of 90 homes.
Planning Commissioner Deborah Dance, who represents District 3, wants to see a more detailed traffic study, and said she’s concerned about the variances.
Quick Trip wants to build on a former Rite Aid site, but nearby businesses are objecting.
A few minutes before that, she asked for a continuance for a proposed Quick Trip gas station and convenience store at the intersection of Canton Road and Jamerson Road.
It’s on a 1.6-acre site that was formerly a Rite Aid pharmacy, and next to a retail center that includes Vespucci’s Italian Kitchen, a Planet Smoothie and Ray’s Donuts. (case filings here).
The shopping center’s attorney and Vespucci’s owner told planning commissioners the shared entry and parking lot on Canton Road would adversely affect their businesses.
“This represents an existential threat to these businesses,” attorney Lawton Jordan said. “These are small neighborhood businesses.”
He said a traffic study showed there would be three times as much traffic coming the Quick Trip than the pharmacy “that’s going to have a negative effect” on his clients.
Carol Brown of the Canton Road Neighbors civic group said there are 11 gas stations in a five-mile radius along Canton Road, and two are within walking distance.
“The neighborhoods love these restaurants,” she said of efforts to recruit more “destination” businesses to a corridor saturated with automotive enterprises.
But Moore said 75 percent of the access to the Quick Trip would be along Jamerson Road.
“We love the local businesses they have, but we think this can work very well,” Moore said. He said that long-term vacancies such as the empty Rite Aid building “is devastating to a community.”
Nearby residents are opposed to warehouse/distribution buildings in a proposed mixed-use development at Chastain Road and I-575.
Another request would level one of the largest remaining wooded tracts in the area for a mixed-use development with townhomes, senior apartments, retail and distribution warehouses off Chastain Road.
A request by SDP Acquisitions LLC has been delayed before, but after nearly an hour of presentations and questions, the Planning Commission voted to wait for a traffic study and for the developer to meet with community leaders concerned about the proposed industrial buildings.
SDP has proposed 145 townhomes, 220 apartments for 55 and over residents and nearly 30,000 square feet of retail space fronting Chastain Road near I-575.
Citizens opposed to the project have no problem with that, but objected to plans to build three large buildings totalling 425,000 square feet along ChastainMeadows Parkway for what SDP attorney Kevin Moore described as office space (case filing here).
But Tullan Avard of the Bells Ferry Civic Association said the site plan is too intense for the property, and the distribution warehouse usage that’s proposed doesn’t fit the office category that’s being sought.
They’re to be operated 24/7, she said, and each building will have 30 loading docks, unlike other office/service facilities in the area.
“There would be almost a million—a million—square feet of speculative industrial space on nearly 60 mostly impervious acres,” Avard said. “Warehouses are not permitted under the OS office-services category” that’s in the county’s future land-use map for the property.
Dance said that the proposed uses “as shown are appropriate,” but said more time to work out traffic and other details.
All three cases were held by 4-0 votes, with Planning Commission Chairman Stephen Vault absent.
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Elected officials and Kroger representatives christened the new store on Powers Ferry Road Wednesday morning. ECN photos and video
After years of anticipation, a Kroger “SuperStore” opened at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill development in East Cobb Wednesday with an early-morning celebration.
Before they headed off to school, cheerleaders and a pep band from Wheeler High School set the tone for the festivities, which included a special dedication to the supermarket chain’s partnership with local schools.
After elected officials and Kroger executives spoke, they cut the ceremonial ribbon, then ushered onlookers inside to have a first look at the 90,000-square-foot store, Kroger’s first locally of such an expanded concept.
The store, which also includes a gas station, is the centerpiece of the redevelopment that includes apartments, fast-casual restaurants and small retail, and touted as a catalyst for improvements along the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
Victor Smith, Kroger’s Atlanta division president, thanked former Commissioner Bob Ott and Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance president Patti Rice, among others, “for helping to make this happen.”
He said Kroger is investing $38 million in the project, which has expanded “everything” from its recently closed store just down Powers Ferry Road.
Ott, who lives nearby and who served three terms as District 2 commissioner until 2021, said “it’s been a long time coming.”
The nearly 24 acres at Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill Road previously housed some office, retail and restaurant space that was aging. The Kroger at 1311 Powers Ferry Road sits on the former site of Brumby Elementary School, which relocated to Terrell Mill Road in 2018.
“We started talking about [redevelopment] during the economic downturn,” he said. “For a while I wasn’t sure it was going to happen.”
The Development Authority of Cobb County approved issuing $35 million in revenue bonds for the part of the project containing the Kroger store, because it was listed on the county’s roster of redevelopment properties.
East Cobb resident and former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate Larry Savage challenged the tax breaks, which were initially invalidated in Cobb Superior Court.
While the case was on appeal, Kroger said it might not go ahead with the MarketPlace Terrell Mill store if it lost in court.
But in June 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the tax breaks, which exempt Kroger completely in the store’s first year of operation. Kroger will gradually pay an assessed tax value phased in over a 10-year period, rising by 10 percent each year.
(According to Cobb tax records, the Development Authority is listed as the owner of the 10.8 acres on which the Kroger project sits, and it has an appraised value of nearly $12 million).
For a time, supporters of the project worried their aspirations may not be realized.
“Never!” Rice said when asked if she thought this day would come. “I’m just so happy. They said it would be the last thing to go in. It’s beautiful.”
“It’s fresh. It’s new. It’s got a lot of product,” Ott said.
Customers pass by a specially-designed mural of local landmarks at the entrance, leading into a cornucopia of fresh-cut flowers, an abundance of produce offerings and fully stocked sushi, delicatessen, bakery and meat and seafood counters.
There’s also a location of Murray’s Cheese Shop, which has 42 spots in metro Atlanta, including Kroger stores at Parkaire Landing and the Pavilions at East Lake in East Cobb.
Aisle after aisle after aisle are loaded name-brand foods, frozen goods, personal care and household products, toiletries and pet food. (The store is still waiting for a retail beer and wine sales license.)
Smith said that’s part of Kroger’s “unwavering commitment to our purpose—to help feed the human spirit.”
The vacated Kroger store at Powers Ferry and Delk Road that served the community for 42 years had been proposed for apartments earlier this year.
The Marietta City Council approved rezoning for 322 units in April, but Mayor Steve Tumlin vetoed the project.
Ott said he’s confident that that property will be redeveloped eventually, and “it will become something great.”
The MarketPlace, he said, has inspired other improvements in the area, including the redevelopment of Restaurant Row, with the Rose and Crown Tavern relocating back there soon.
Tasty China Restaurant is also moving from the Franklin Gateway to property that once housed the La Frontera Restaurant on Powers Ferry Road.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “renewal does something. It energizes community and inspires confidence.”
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Nearly a year after being proposed, a rebuild of the Starbucks at Paper Mill Village finally got a vote on Tuesday.
After months of delays, what had been first designed as a two-story standalone building went before the Cobb Planning Commission as a one-story coffee shop on the site of the present Starbucks location.
The matter was on the consent agenda, which was passed by a 4-0 vote.
The applicant, S&B Investments, Inc., wanted to rezone 0.73 acres at 31 Johnson Ferry Road, at the intersection of Paper Mill Road, from future commercial and low-density residential (R-80) to neighborhood retail commercial.
The expanded coffee shop would have had 2,500 square feet, 25 parking places and drive-thru service and would be open daily from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Those dimensions were sharply reduced in March after the initial plans were filed for two stories, 5,000 square feet and 23 parking places.
The Cobb Zoning Staff analysis said that wasn’t enough parking, and local civic groups also got involved in what turned to be months of discussions and revisions.
In a July 20 stipulation letter, S&B attorney Parks Huff said his client was withdrawing its site plan and keeping the building’s present configuration and footprint.
The letter also said there would be no drive-thru and any changes would go before county commissioners.
The present building would follow the “village” architectural style of Paper Mill Village and conform to the Johnson Ferry Design Standards in building the new structure.
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The Cobb Planning Commission voted 5-0 today to allow the applicant to withdraw without prejudice, meaning the matter could be refiled at any time.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A development company that applied to rezone land including the former Mt. Bethel Church Community Center for a small office building wants to withdraw that request.
We noted last month that the 1.13 acres at 4608 Lower Roswell Road includes a 6,250-square-foot building that has been vacant and that was one of several parcels owned by the church that has been put on the real estate market.
But the zoning signs have come down and the applicant’s attorney filed notice with the Cobb Zoning Office last Thursday that they’d like to withdraw without prejudice.
The application was scheduled to be heard by the Cobb Planning Commission on Wednesday, but the withdrawal request would have to be voted on by that board since it came after the deadline for doing so, which is a week in advance.
MRE Properties & Investments, LLC was seeking low-rise office (LRO) zoning, which would permit professional office uses. The current building, which housed various Mt. Bethel Church activities and non-profits, including Aloha to Aging, is a single story on land zoned in the RA-4 residential category.
The Cobb Zoning staff is recommending that the zoning stay at RA-4, with a limited professional services permit (full analysis here).
The land is bordered by an O & I designation at the corner of Lower Roswell and Woodlawn, where a Mt. Bethel Church day care center once stood, and a single-family subdivision.
The staff analysis concluded that “the applicant’s rezoning proposal is in conformity with the policies and intent of the Cobb County Comprehensive Plan, if deleted to RA-4 with a LPSP. Approval of an LPSP would be more appropriate to the residential neighborhoods surrounding the site.”
Another East Cobb case that has been delayed for months is being continued again. It’s for a standalone Starbucks at Paper Mill Village, and was to have been heard by the Planning Commission Wednesday.
The applicant originally wanted to tear down a small building at 31 Johnson Ferry Road at Paper Mill Road where the current Starbucks is located and build a two-story structure.
That has been reduced to a single story, and attorney Parks Huff said his client continues to work on design.
The Cobb Planning Commission meeting Wednesday will take place starting at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
The meeting will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
The Planning Commission recommendations will be considered by the Cobb Board of Commissioners on July 18.
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