The developer of a proposed apartment building at the site of a Kroger store on Powers Ferry Road wants more time to refine plans.
An attorney for WC Acquisitions LLC asked for and received a continuance Wednesday from the Marietta City Council, which voted to delay hearing the case until its April meeting.
The Marietta Planning Commission voted unanimously last week to recommend approval of the application for a 322-unit, five-story building and accompanying 485-space parking deck at 1122 Powers Ferry Road, at the southeast intersection of Delk Road.
Garvis Sams said during a council work session that “questions arose today” and that his client wants to work out the contours and positioning of the structures.
He said his client has the support of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance, a civic group, and that there’s “no known opposition” to the rezoning despite its intensity (more than 60 units an acre, one of the highest in Marietta city limits).
Later this year Kroger will be leaving the site it has occupied since 1982 for the nearby MarketPlace Terrell Mill, where a superstore is nearing completion.
Sams said in his application that there’s not a retail future for the current Kroger site, which is nearly five acres.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The 14 acres owned by Kenneth B. Clary at Post Oak Tritt and McPherson roads (inside the blue lines) is the subject of a delayed residential rezoning request. Cobb Tax Assessor’s Office
An early agenda for next Tuesday’s Cobb Planning Commission meeting shows that two cases in East Cobb that have been delayed several times in recent months are being continued again.
The summary agenda files indicated that an application by Kenneth B. Clary for a subdivision development on Post Oak Tritt Road has been continued to April.
The land is near McPherson Road (east of Tritt Elementary School) and is adjacent to the Clary Lakes neighborhood, and the case was first scheduled for a hearing in September.
The property is zoned R-30 and is designated as low-density residential in the Cobb future land use map; Clary is the landowner of what’s called a conservation tract with an appraised value of more than $2 million, according to Cobb property tax records.
There’s a small home on the property near the lake that was built in 1950.
More importantly, the land also contains the Power-Jackson Cabin, a one-room log home from the mid-1800s that’s a local and state historical landmark.
There’s nothing in the zoning filings that refers to the cabin.
In his letters seeking continuances over the fall and winter, attorney Parks Huff, who represents Clary, has made unspecified references to “some remaining issues which are scheduled to be addressed and resolved.”
The Cobb Historic Preservation Commission noted last fall that the cabin could be subject to demolition if the land is rezoned.
The five-member body appointed by Cobb commissioners has been working with Cobb Landmarks, a non-profit preservation group, and Cobb Parks “to see if preservation solutions could be discussed,” according to the minutes of a Sept. 12, 2022 preservation commission meeting.
If the cabin is torn down, the developer could be subject to a mitigation fee similar to one levied following the demolition of a Mabry Farm homestead on Wesley Chapel Road in 2018 to make room for a new subdivision.
The $7,500 paid by the developer was dedicated for historic preservation efforts in Cobb County.
Originally the Clary application sought an R-15 zoning category to build 20 homes with a single entrance from Post Oak Tritt.
That request has since been changed to R-20, which would reduce the number of homes to around 15, but a new site plan hasn’t been submitted.
Clary Lakes is zoned R-15 and according to an early site plan, part of the lake is in a federal 100-year flood zone. There also are state and county water buffers totalling 75 feet, as well as impervious setback considerations.
It’s been nearly a decade since a portion of some other Clary land across the road on Post Oak Tritt was developed by Brooks Chadwick into Hadley Walk, which has six homes on nearly 10 acres.
Those homes are currently valued at more than $1 million.
A proposal to expand the current Starbucks at Paper Mill Village into a two-story, 5,000-square foot standalone building also is being continued to April at the request of the applicant, S&B Investments.
Zoning attorney Garvis Sams said in a letter to the Cobb Zoning Staff on Tuesday that his group has met with nearby citizens groups and the shopping center over what he called “very minor tweaks” over architecture and various stipulations.
But he said his client wants more time to finalize them and to get “one hundred percent consensus.”
The Cobb Planning Commission hearing begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), you can view the full agenda and individual case files by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The proposal goes before the Marietta City Council next Wednesday for final action.
The mixed-use development proposed by WC Acquisitions LLC includes 7,000 square feet of amenities for the apartment building, 6,000 square feet of retail space and a 485-space parking deck that’s six and a half stories high.
The density would be high, at more than 60 units an acre, and one of the highest in the Marietta city limits.
But it’s in keeping with density at the nearby MarketPlace Terrell Mill in unincorporated Cobb and other multi-family complexes in the Powers Ferry corridor.
The application got the support of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance.
The Kroger at Terrell Mill and Delk roads was built in 1982, and is the southernmost tract of land in the City of Marietta in that area.
Later this year, Kroger is moving Marketplace Terrell Mill that’s in unincorporated Cobb, and WC Acquisitions Attorney Garvis Sams said the 4.8-acre site doesn’t have a retail future.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A rendering of a self-storage facility with a townhouse-designed exterior proposed for the Terrell Mill-Delk intersection.
Even after late support surfaced for a self-storage proposal—including from one of their former colleagues—Cobb commissioners on Tuesday rejected a request to build such a facility at the intersection of Terrell Mill and Delk roads.
By a 4-1 vote, commissioners denied a request by ADP Terrell Mill to rezone 2.55 acres of residentially zoned land at 1140 and 1150 Terrell Mill Road for a 120,000-square-foot self-storage facility and a small community meeting room.
The case was initially heard in December, but commissioners voted to hold it to February, even after the Cobb zoning staff and Cobb Planning Commission recommended denial.
The land, once owned by the late Ruby Inez Fridell, is currently zoned R-80, the lowest residential density in the Cobb code, and has two older long-abandoned homes.
A new townhome development is adjacent on Terrell Mill, and nearby residential zoning ranges from R-20 to RA-6. But the Cobb future land map has designated those tracts as very-low density residential.
The vote to deny came after District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson initially made a motion to approve the proposal, but couldn’t get support from her colleagues.
Her predecessor, former commissioner Bob Ott, spoke in favor of the self-storage facility. He lives nearby at Terrell Mill Estates, only a hundred feet from the Fridell property, and said that self-storage would create less traffic than townhomes suggested by opponents.
The facility would be built by Shamrock Building Systems, a prominent self-storage builder in the Atlanta area, and would include exteriors that look like townhomes.
Ott said during his time in office, the land in question was proposed for much more intense development, including a gas station and townhomes, that would have had a more detrimental impact on the community.
“We know what has been considered for this intersection,” he said, noting that there have been more than 20 accidents there since early 2020.
Former Commissioner Bob Ott speaking on behalf of a self-storage zoning proposal.
“Folks who live a mile or more from this property—they’re not impacted like we are.”
Ott said he thinks the stigma of self-storage is what’s driving the opposition. Much of that came from residents in the Amberley Park neighborhood, located further down Terrell Mill next to East Cobb Middle School.
Resident Kevin Nicholas, who ran to succeed the now-retired Ott in 2020, repeated his concerns that the land should remain residential, since it’s a residential area.
“There’s a vast majority of people who don’t want another self-storage in the community,” Nicholas said.
Among them are one of his neighbors, Steve Rowe, a real estate developer, who said self-storage “won’t enhance the value of the surrounding community.” He said that “transitional townhomes would be the obvious choice.”
ADP Terrell Mill attorney Kevin Moore said there’s strong community support from the Terrell Mill Estates, Millridge and Cobblestone subdivisions that are closer than Amberley Park.
Richardson said the case was “a tough one,” and as she tried to make a motion, she admitted to the audience hers was “a real-time decision.”
After making a motion to approve with a new stipulation letter, however, three of her colleagues, including District 3’s JoAnn Birrell, said they wouldn’t vote for it.
Birrell’s district was reapportioned to include the Terrell Mill property but because of the county’s home rule challenge over redistricting, Richardson led the discussion of the case.
“It should remain residential,” Birrell said. “It’s hard to look at R-80 going commercial.”
Chairwoman Lisa Cupid acknowledged that the architectural design of the building is “beautiful,” but that “self-storage is a difficult use. It’s impossible to see the compatibility of this.”
The only vote in favor of the rezoning and companion land-use permit required for self-storage facilities was Keli Gambrill of North Cobb.
Commissioners later vote 5-0 to remove a single-use stipulation for a Walgreens pharmacy on Johnson Ferry Road at Waterfront Drive.
The 1.28 acres at 3033 Johnson Ferry Road was zoned for a pharmacy-only in 2000. But Kenneth Weinstein, an attorney Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties, LLC, said the Walgreens will soon be closing and his client wants to have some flexibility in redeveloping the land.
The East Cobb Civic Association and the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford (JOSH) advisory group appointed by Richardson submitted lists of nearly 30 prohibited uses, including drive-through and a grocery store.
After a nearly hour-long discussion, Richardson also struggled to make a motion, and wanted to ask for a 60-day continuance.
Weinstein said his client would likely walk away with another delay.
She eventually proposed to approve the pharmacy-only stipulation and add the civic groups’ list of prohibited uses.
Richardson’s motion said removing the pharmacy-only use was contingent on a new proposal to come back before commssioners.
Commissioners also voted on the consent agenda Tuesday to approve rezoning for Lidl to build a grocery store at the intersection of Canton Road and Piedmont Road.
Birrell thanked Lidl, the Canton Road Neighbors civic group and others in the community to make changes following several continuances.
It’s Lidl’s third attempt to locate a store in the Northeast Cobb area, after being denied rezoning at Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road and abandoning plans for the Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment.
“I’m really forward to this opening soon,” Birrell said.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Garvis Sams, an attorney for Stein Investment Group, wrote to Cobb zoning officials this week that his client needs more time to work with representatives of the Gordy Tract advisory committee for its recommendation.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will meet Tuesday for their first zoning hearing of 2023.
Included on the consent agenda are plans by Lidl to build a freestanding grocery store at Canton Road at Piedmont Road.
That proposal got a favorable recommendation earlier this month from the Cobb Planning Commission.
Stein Investment Group wants to build a fast casual King’s Hawaiian restaurant on a portion of the former GTC Cobb Park 12 Cinema site on Gordy Parkway at Shallowford Road (case file here).
Cobb commissioners voted in 2021 to approve Stein’s plans for a self-storage facility. Last fall, Stein officials proposed building a 3,200-square-foot restaurant with 29 parking spaces on an existing parking lot on the property.
Another case to be heard Tuesday is a proposal to build a self-storage facility at Delk and Terrell Mill Roads that has drawn community opposition.
Several other East Cobb cases also have been delayed and will not be heard on Tuesday, including a proposal to build a two-story Starbucks at Paper Mill Village. That case has been continued to March.
The commission zoning hearing begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and a summary and consent agenda can be viewed by clicking here.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A rendering included in the zoning application for apartments on the current site of a Kroger on Powers Ferry Road.
As a new Kroger superstore is being built on the former site of Brumby Elementary School, plans are in the works to redevelop the current supermarket site nearby on Powers Ferry Road.
WC Acquisitions LLC has filed plans with the City of Marietta to build more than 300 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail space on the current 4.8-acre site for Kroger (1122 Powers Ferry Road), which opened in 1982.
The developer’s attorney, noted Cobb zoning lawyer Garvis Sams, has applied seeking rezoning from community retail commercial to the mixed development category.
The application (you can read it here) is scheduled for its first hearing March 1 before the Marietta Planning Commission.
The apartment building would have 322 units and five stories, and in the application Sams said that the conceptual plan includes new landscaping and two courtyards.
He also said that a traffic study completed for the application “finds that traffic levels will at least remain constant once built, if not be improved. In this sense, the proposed development meets the purpose and intent of the parcel’s mixed-use zoning designation.”
The proposal said 65 percent of the apartments would be one-bedroom units, and 35 percent would have two bedrooms. The building also would have 7,000 square feet of residential amenities.
Sams wrote that the existing Kroger site is not a “redeemable retail location” due to its age and condition and that there are other supermarkets nearby, including a Publix across the street.
He said the area “is in need of a quality housing product offered at relatively affordable prices.”
Kroger opened in 1982 at Powers Ferry and Delk roads and will be relocating to Marketplace Terrell Mill.
Parking includes a proposed deck for the apartments with 485 spaces, and 27 spaces for retail.
“Adequate parking is provided for the retail component and therefore satisfies code requirements; however, parking for the residential component may be of concern,” application states.
That’s a ratio of 1.5 spaces per unit, when the Marietta city zoning code calls for one space per multi-family unit.
“The 485 spaces. . . is slightly more generous. It can be said, therefore, that the amount of parking anticipated is within range of what code prescribes,” Sams wrote.
Kroger will be closing the 50,000-square-foot site once the new superstore opens at Marketplace Terrell Mill, a mixed-use development that also includes a large apartment building in unincorporated Cobb.
That project was described as transformational for the Powers Ferry corridor when Cobb commissioners approved rezoning in 2018.
The new Kroger store is expected to be completed in March and will comprise 90,000 square feet as well as a gas station.
The Marietta Planning Commission will meet March 1 at 6:30 p.m. to make a recommendation; final action is expected by the Marietta City Council on March 8.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
For a larger view of the revised site plan, click here.
After a month’s break in January (when there are no zoning meetings in Cobb County), a notable East Cobb case that has been on hold for a while will finally get a hearing Tuesday.
The German grocer Lidl’s application to build a 20,000-square-foot store at Canton Road and Piedmont Road is on the consent agenda for the Cobb Planning Commission meeting Tuesday morning.
Zoning items are placed on the consent agenda when there is no known opposition.
As we’ve noted previously, Lidl has tried twice to locate a store in Northeast Cobb, and there hasn’t been any community opposition.
But after Lidl’s initial application for this third venue, there were zoning staff and public safety concerns about a proposed reduction in parking spaces and space for emergency vehicles.
The property is 3.47 acres at the southwest intersection, where a Rite Aid pharmacy once stood.
In late January, Lidl submitted a revised site plan (you can see it here) and a stipulation letter (read it here) outlining some of the changes, including a proposal to construct a deceleration lane for access from Piedmont Road.
The new site plan shows 101 parking spaces (the CRC category being sought requires a minimum of 111 spaces) and an above-ground detention pond has been relocated to “allow room for future DOT roadway improvements,” according to the stipulation letter from Lidl U.S. development manager Deborah Pyburn.
Lidl is proposing to pay a “pro-rata share” of the cost of building the deceleration lane, and would dedicate the right-of-way tot he county after the company assumes ownership of the new store site.
The letter also state’s Lidl’s plans to create fire apparatus access to within 200 feet of all areas of the facility.
Another East Cobb case that’s been waiting for a hearing has been put on hold again. S&B Investments’ plans for a two-story Starbucks at Paper Mill Village have been continued again at the request of the applicant.
In a letter on Tuesday, attorney Garvis Sams asked for the continuance until March after his clients redesigned the architecture, but they haven’t been able to meet with the community about the changes.
The Planning Commission is an advisory board that makes recommendations on zoning cases to the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Former Cobb County Attorney Deborah Dance has been appointed to serve a four-year term on the Cobb Planning Commission by District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell.
Dance will serve through the end of 2026, the length of Birrell’s fourth term that began in January.
Dance’s reappointment was announced at the end of Tuesday’s Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting.
But Birrell was not formally part of the meeting after she and fellow commissioner Keli Gambrill were asked to leave for abstaining from votes.
They’re protesting a commission electoral map they say is unconstitutional and is the subject of a lawsuit.
Birrell and Gambrill were both re-elected in November, but their Democratic commission colleagues approved different maps from those reapportioned by the legislature.
Planning commissioners serve in an advisory role, hearing zoning cases and making recommendations that are forwarded to county commissioners.
Planning board members typically lead the discussion of cases in their respective commission districts. Dance inherited the Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment case, and the planning board ultimately made no recommendation.
Cobb commissioners eventually approved the rezoning but without a Lidl grocery store that was to have been the anchor of the new project and with apartments limited only for those aged 55 and older.
Lidl is applying to build a store at the Canton-Piedmont intersection but its application has been delayed.
It’s unclear what the new commission district lines will look like in February, when zoning cases will next be heard.
The District 3 in the legislature’s map includes most of East Cobb; the county’s map retains in East Cobb a good portion of District 2.
Gambrill also reappointed Fred Beloin to the planning commission and to the Cobb Board of Zoning Appeals through 2026.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Homes or a place for stuff that doesn’t fit homes? A proposed self-storage facility on Terrell Mill Road would look residential—on the outside.
A proposal to turn one of the older homesteads in the Powers Ferry Road corridor into a self-storage facility was put on hold Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
A rezoning request by ADP Terrell Mill on two parcels of land on Terrell Mill Road at Delk Road was opposed by some nearby residents and recommended for denial by the Cobb Zoning Staff, despite the applicant’s many changes and negotiations with the community.
They included architectural design changes to make the exterior of the proposed 40,000-square foot building look residential. The facility would be built by Shamrock Building Systems, a prominent self-storage builder in the Atlanta area.
“It looks and feels much more residential, and fits in with the neighborhood,” said zoning attorney Kevin Moore, who represents the applicant.
Kevin Nicholas, who lives in the nearby Amberley Place subdivision, wasn’t buying it.
“We don’t need another self-storage facility in this area,” said Nicholas, who ran for Cobb commissioner in 2020 and also served on the Development Authority of Cobb County. “It’s not a commercial tract. It’s a residential tract.”
There’s a self-storage building at the new MarketPlace Terrell mixed-use development and further down Powers Ferry near Windy Ridge Parkway.
The 2.55 acres at the intersection of Terrell Mill and Delk are zoned R-80, the lowest-density of single-family zoning categories in the Cobb code.
Each of the two tracts have had single-family homes dating from before the area became heavily surburbanized. Nearby residential zoning ranges from R-20 to RA-6—there’s an adjacent townhome community—but the property owned by the late Ruby Inez Fridell is designated as very low density residential (VLDR) on the Cobb future land use map.
“That just doesn’t match to me,” Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said, noting that most of the e-mails she’s received are opposed to the rezoning.
Cobb zoning division manager John Pederson told her that’s the last R-80 land in that area of East Cobb.
Nicholas and several commissioners suggested either other commercial uses—such as a coffee shop—or residential.
But Moore said residential development there is not “economically viable. It’s too small of a property.”
Commission chairwoman Lisa Cupid noted that citizens rarely speak in favor of self-storage facilities.
“Maybe there are pigs flying outside,” she said. “It’s a beautiful building” but she suggested that other commercial uses “may be more neighborhood-oriented.”
Commissioner Jerica Richardson of District 2 made a motion to hold the case to February, when zoning cases are next heard.
“There may be a way to satisfy the community on that side and honor the work that’s been done” by the applicant,” she said.
Walgreens will be leaving the location at 3033 Johnson Ferry Road at Waterfront Drive.
Richardson also moved to hold another case in her district, a site-plan change involving a Walgreens store in the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
David Weinstein, an attorney representing Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties, LLC, said his client is seeking a change from a single-use only designation for 1.28 acres at 3033 Johnson Ferry Road.
He said Walgreens will be vacating that facility, and his client wants to have some more flexibility within the neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) category.
In rezoning the land in 2000, Cobb commissioners limited that use to a pharmacy or drug store only. Other uses proposed by Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties could be for a banks or medical office, as well as restaurant space.
The existing building could remain standing and be converted, or a new facility could be constructed, Weinstein said, adding that his client may purchase two adjoining parcels on Johnson Ferry to enable a deceleration lane.
He mentioned a fast-casual concept with a drive-thru as a possibility, but the East Cobb Civic Association is opposed to that use.
ECCA president Richard Grome said there are traffic, noise and compatibility issues with the request. The Walgreens sits at the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Waterfront Drive, adjacent to planned townhomes that were part of the East Cobb Church rezoning in 2021.
“There’s going to be light pollution for those townhouses,” Grome said.
Rachel Bruce, a member of the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford (JOSH) advisory committee created by Richardson, said she hadn’t heard from the applicant and worried that residents in the area would have one less place to get prescription drugs.
“Walgreens is leaving. We don’t have any control over that,” Weinstein said.
Cobb DOT said the Walgreens property doesn’t have enough right-of-way for a deceleration lane, and if a restaurant were to built there, access via Johnson Ferry should be removed.
Commissioner Keli Gambrill said she understood why her predecessors limited what could go on that land.
“Based on DOT, there’s not room for deceleration,” she said. “I agree with not having a restaurant there.”
Richardson’s motion includes provisions for JOSH committee input and the submission of a site plan and architectural plans when the case comes back before commissioners.
A proposal for a King’s Hawaiian restaurant in Northeast Cobb, which has been delayed before, also is being pushed back to February.
Birrell said she received a new stipulation letter from an attorney for Stein Investment Group on Tuesday.
The applicant wants to add the restaurant on former GTC Cobb Park 12 Cinema property on Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road that rezoned last year for a self-storage facility.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
We noted earlier this month that rezoning requests for a Northeast Cobb Lidl grocery store and an expanded Starbucks at Paper Mill Village won’t be heard until February at the earliest.
But there are a couple of other development cases of interest in the East Cobb area that will be heard Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Both are proposed revisions to stipulations for existing zoning categories.
One of them would permit a King’s Hawaiian fast-casual restaurant at the site of the former GTC Cobb Park 12 Cinema on Gordy Parkway at Shallowford Road (staff filing and renderings here).
That request by Stein Investment Group comes a year after the applicant got rezoning to convert the movie theater into a self-storage facility.
The current request would use a portion of that land for a 3,200-square-foot restaurant with 29 parking spaces. Since it’s a site plan amendment and not a full rezoning case, the application didn’t have to go before the Cobb Planning Commission.
The Cobb zoning staff didn’t make any comments on the site plan review, but Cobb DOT is recommending that the access points should be on Gordy Parkway on a right-in, left-out and right-out basis due to its proximity to Shallowford Road.
Another item on the Other Business agenda includes a revision in stipulations for the use of what’s a Walgreen’s pharmacy at 3033 Johnson Ferry Road.
That’s at the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Waterfront Drive, what will be the main access point for a residential area of a mixed-use development approved last year and that will include the East Cobb Church.
Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties wants to change a stipulation in the neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) category that limits usage of the 1.28-acre tract for a pharmacy or drug store only.
The proposed future uses of that land, according to the agenda filing (you can read it here) would “include but not be limited to drug store/pharmacy, banking, restaurant, medical use.”
The property was zoned NRC in 2000 and is located on one of several outparcels on Johnson Ferry that were not part of the East Cobb Church (Northpoint Ministries) rezoning case.
Another is the adjacent Take 5 oil change business and unoccupied tracts located in a flood plain.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s zoning hearing can be found by clicking here. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
But the application calls for only 128 parking spaces; a minimum of 158 are required for the CAC (commercial activity center) and NAC (neighborhood activity center) categories being sought.
The new site plan includes an above-ground retention pond at the Canton-Piedmont intersection.
But the biggest concern for the Cobb Zoning Office is the limited amount of space for emergency vehicles. The staff analysis (you can read it here) recommends approval pending those and other issues being addressed.
The continuance comes after a community meeting this week involving Lidl, the Canton Road Neighbors civic group, Commissioner JoAnn Birrell and Planning Commissioner Deborah Dance.
This is Lidl’s third attempt to build a store in the Northeast Cobb area; a store at Woodlawn Square opened in the former Fresh Market space in September 2020.
In the Paper Mill Village Starbucks case, the applicant, S & B Investments, is requesting the continuance to February.
Attorney Garvis Sams said in a letter that the building’s architecture and configuration on the site are being changed.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Fencing around the back portion of The Avenue East Cobb has prompted some significant traffic detours.
Right before the holiday shopping season got underway, a sizable portion of the back parking lot at The Avenue East Cobb was being fenced off.
It’s the start of a redevelopment plan we’ve been following for some months, to include a public plaza and two “jewel box” buildings with restaurants and retail, as well as optional valet parking.
“Our intention is to transform AEC into a more walkable and pedestrian-friendly destination, so the current, short-term disruption to traffic flow is required to reach that goal,” said Britni Johnson, a spokeswoman for North American Properties, which manages the retail center on Roswell Road.
The groundbreaking was in August, but nothing further has happened until now to begin work on the “Central Boulevard” plan that’s scheduled to be completed early next year.
The barricades and fencing went up earlier this month, and the loss of a few dozen parking places and detours caused some traffic issues on Black Friday and over the weekend.
What you can’t do any longer—and this change is permanent—is use the traffic lane closest to the back of the main building, between the former Bravura store and what was Stockyard Burgers and Bones.
That’s where Central Boulevard will be located, featuring the public plaza and the valet service.
The jewel boxes will be constructed in the parking lot area between that building and the Michael’s craft store.
For the time being, there is no access along the back traffic lane between the Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma.
There is some limited parking in that area, including access to Michael’s, with detour signs and arrows on the pavement directing motorists around the fencing.
North American Properties said in response to questions from East Cobb News that 88 parking spaces have been fenced off for the construction, with all but 20 to reopen when the project is.complete.
Johnson said construction is beginning late due to delays in getting necessary permits.
She said the building permit took longer than expected, and that while construction could have begun in September, when a civil permit was issued, “we chose to wait until building construction could officially get underway to reduce the amount of disturbance time for locals.”
She said the decision to begin work now, at the start of the holidays, was necessary “to keep the project on track for a summer 2023 delivery.”
Johnson said the “no thru traffic section” was opened on Black Friday and it is open again now.
The Avenue has scheduled a number of holiday events, including caroling this Friday, a live music concert next week and a Menorah lighting on Dec. 18.
When asked how extra traffic for weekend shopping and holiday events would be handled, Johnson said that “We are actively working with our general contractor to determine a low-impact solution for keeping the drive aisle open throughout the project while also moving construction forward in a timely manner.”
The planned “Central Boulevard” will be built between the main and back buildings at The Avenue East Cobb.
A public plaza will be built at the former Bravura store.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Unified Development Code project has a new web address and two public meetings have been scheduled for early December as an independent consultant begins its work.
Cobb government said Monday that public meetings will take place next week—Monday, Dec. 5 at the North Cobb Regional Library (3535 Old Highway 41 Northwest, Kennesaw) and Tuesday, Dec. 6 at the Switzer Library (266 Roswell Street, Marietta).
Both meetings are scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Other meetings throughout the county will be announced at a later date.
The UDC is a project of the Cobb Community Development Agency, whose goal, according to a county release, “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.”
Community development officials said it’s needed because development regulations in Cobb date back to the 1970s.
“The project,” according to the county, “also aims to protect existing neighborhoods, conserve natural and historic resources, support economic development and provide an opportunity for various housing types.”
Cobb commissioners in a split vote in August approved spending nearly $500,000 to hire Clarion Associates, LLC, a nationwide land-use and planning consulting firm which has provided services for a UDC in Hall County and design and development guidelines in Savannah.
Some critics of the UDC proposal in Cobb have called it “a war on the suburbs,” but agency officials said it’s an increasingly common approach to pulling together all components of development projects.
The consultant’s work will take place over an 18 to 24-month process, starting this winter with public meetings and feedback sessions and opportunities.
A code assessment process will start in the spring of 2023, followed by a draft UDC expected to be presented in the spring of 2024. Public hearings of that draft are slated from summer-fall of 2024.
The new Cobb UDC page includes a timeline of that process, along with zoning, development and design documents and project updates and other materials.
Citizens also can submit questions and sign up for project updates and other information, provide comments and review and comment on draft documents.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A proposed annexation by the City of Marietta for nearly 160 acres (in red stripes) off Bells Ferry Road is being opposed by Cobb commissioners. City land is in blue.
Cobb commissioners are expected to formally file a letter of objection Thursday to an annexation request by the City of Marietta for nearly 170 acres of land off Bells Ferry Road for a major subdivision.
Beazer Homes, the developer of what had been originally proposed as a nearly 700-home development, is requesting rezoning in Marietta after dropping a rezoning request before the county earlier this year.
The Marietta City Council was scheduled next month to hear Beazer’s plans for a 596-home development on several tracts of undeveloped land at Bells Ferry Road and Laura Lake Drive, near I-575.
But under a HB 489, a state home rule law, county governments can file objections for municipal annexations for density and other reasons.
In a certified letter to Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin and included with the agenda item for Thursday’s meeting, Cobb commissioners said they were objecting because the proposed density of the development is 3.4 units an acre, over the maximum density of 3 units per acre under the low-density residential (LDR) category of the property that’s designated in the county’s future land-use map.
The various parcels of the assembled land are owned by the Montgomery family and represent one of the largest relatively undeveloped tracts in Cobb. Several homes are currently scattered across the properties, according to a county analysis of the annexation request.
A total of 6.6 acres of the 168 acres, all of which are zoned R-20, is already inside Marietta city limits. The county was deeded 24 acres that includes Laura Lake and a dam.
Nearby civic groups have objected due to traffic concerns.
Traton Homes wanted to convert vacant lots into a high-density residential development with a single access point at the entrance of the Sewell Manor neighborhood in unincorporated Cobb.
Residents there also objected, but the county staff made a mistake in not requesting a formal vote from commissioners. Marietta could have annexed the land because of that error and the case was set to go to mediation.
Commissioners did send a letter of objection that Tumlin said he would honor and Traton ultimately withdrew its rezoning and annexation request.
Commissioners are meeting Thursday instead of their regularly scheduled fourth Tuesday meeting due to the Thanksgiving holiday next week.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s meeting can be found by clicking here. It will take place starting at 7 p.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb Government Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
After several months of delays, a car wash and gas station/convenience store proposal at the intersection of Shallowford Road and Trickum Road was approved Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
By a 4-0 vote, commissioners approved the rezoning request by Southern Gas Partners to build a dual-purpose facility at the southwest intersection on two parcels totaling 3.1 acres, including the former site of a long-vacated gas station.
The plans call for a 2,258 square foot convenience store/gas station that would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the Trickum Road parcel.
Another 2,287 square feet would be used for a car wash to be built on 2.3 undeveloped acres fronting Shallowford Road that would be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, whose district includes the properties, was absent due to a death in her family.
The case was originally heard in July but delayed several times due to objections from nearby residents over traffic and stormwater issues.
But nobody attended in opposition at Tuesday’s zoning hearing. You can read the case file by clicking here.
That’s because Cobb DOT agreed to construct a one-foot median on Trickum Road to prevent northbound traffic from turning left into the facility.
Instead, Trickum Road access will be southbound only, on a right-in, right out basis.
On Tuesday, James Courson, the Southern Gas Partner representative, told commissioners that was the last item of concern from the community.
He was surprised, however, when Cobb DOT asked that his client pick up the tab for constructing the median, saying most of the traffic issues on that part of Trickum Road were due to “improper” traffic movements coming from a Dunkin Donuts across the street.
The DOT-proposed median, Courson said, “will have no bearing on us.”
He suggested that Dunkin Donuts pay for the median funding.
In making her motion to approve the rezoning, Commissioner Keli Gambrill said the county would negotiate with Southern Gas Partners for a funding solution.
Southern Gas Partners also agreed to give up a two-foot easement for median construction.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A developer whose plans for a “sustainable” subdivision in Northeast Cobb was recently rejected is suing Cobb commissioners and a prominent civic group.
Christopher M. Hunt of Green Community Development LLC of Atlanta filed what he said is a $100 million class-action suit on Oct. 20 in Cobb Superior Court that also names the East Cobb Civic Association and its current president, Richard Grome, as defendants.
Hunt claims in the court filing (you can read it here) that the rezoning rejection is “an unconstitutional denial” that has caused “economic devaluation of property” and “extreme financial damages” to the plaintiffs.
Commissioners voted 4-0 in September to turn down his request to build 13 eco-friendly homes on 7.5 acres on Kinridge Court.
The case was frequently contentious, as Hunt accused the East Cobb Civic Association of sabotaging his efforts to build what he initially declared would be an award-winning development.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area, held a public meeting before the vote but said she left when “name-calling began” that was directed at Cobb zoning staff and the ECCA.
She didn’t specify Hunt by name but said that comments were made that “I don’t appreciate or tolerate.” During the rezoning process, he spoke in often animated and at times confrontational fashion, especially toward those who opposed his case.
In his lawsuit, Hunt referred to Birrell—whom he misspelled as “Burrell” throughout the court filing and who is up for re-election Nov. 8—of “whoring herself to gain a few ECCA votes to the detriment of 700,000 citizens of Cobb County. ECCA does not represent homeowners but own agenda.”
Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is Brian Johnson, the Cobb County Senior Associate Attorney.
The ECCA is a citizens group that represents roughly 9,000 homeowners that makes advisory recommendations on zoning cases. The group assigns caseworkers to examine cases and frequently speak at public meetings about them
The ECCA was opposed to the Green Community Development rezoning due to traffic, density and stormwater runoff concerns that were echoed by zoning staff in recommending denial.
According to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s records, Hunt is representing himself in the lawsuit, which thus far has not received a formal reply from the county.
When East Cobb News asked for the county’s response to the lawsuit, a Cobb government spokesman said “per legal we will have no comment.”
East Cobb News also left messages with the ECCA and Grome. He replied that neither he nor the organization would be commenting.
The lawsuit accuses Grome of “unethical hypocricy[sic]” and is demanding that he resign his position.
He also said the ECCA and Grome “have proven to have a private unethical and illegal anti-development agenda of ‘means justify the ends’ against any development even when super sustainable, legally mandated and net positive to existing!”
He complained during the rezoning process that he wasn’t invited to attend a community meeting at which, he claimed, the ECCA “unethically and illegally gave patently false and misleading information to trusting neighbors to gain petitions of opposition” to the rezoning request.
While Hunt focused much of his ire in the court filing at Birrell, he said “the other commissioners were unethical and proved incompetent by abiding by unwritten but proven rule of ‘whatever a commissioner votes in their district the rest support’ no matter how crazy illegally bad!”
He said he wouldn’t pursue the $100 million in damages he is seeking if all of them decline to run for re-election.
In his lawsuit, which included several other spelling errors and incorrect e-mail addresses, Hunt said he will be asking for a jury trial.
He also wants homeowners’ associations to be “mandated to provide a list for rezoning approval at least 30 days in advance of any BOC hearing and agreed perjury will be prosecuted—there can be objections but not lying nor slandering.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The attorney for the property owner of the Starbucks at Paper Mill Village is asking for more time to prepare a rezoning request to build a two-story coffee shop at the same location.
Garvis Sams sent a letter to Cobb Zoning Office Oct. 21 outlining architectural and parking issues for the continuance.
A request by S&B Investments Inc. to rezone 0.73 acres at the northeast intersection of Johnson Ferry Road and Paper Mill Road for a 5,000-square-foot building and 25 parking spaces was to have been heard Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission but has been tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 6.
The zoning office has recommended approval of the request with some conditions, including no variances—a minimum of 50 parking spaces is required for the Neighborhood Retail Commercial designation the applicant is seeking.
“Building size will have to be reduced,” the staff analysis stated.
Starbucks occupies part of a smaller building that has been on that site for more than 25 years.
In a recent interview with East Cobb News, Suresh Parmar, who has run the Starbucks for that period of time, said the reason for the expanded building is to accommodate customers who want to “linger” by doing work or meeting with friends.
He said it’s part of a larger trend among younger people and those newer to the community.
Paper Mill Village also has stipulations for Williamsburg-style architecture. The proposed standalone Starbucks would have a more modern look, according to renderings.
In his letter Sams said “that a strict application or the utilization of a ‘Williamsburg style’ architecture may be preferable to some, but to others on the cutting edge of industry commercial prototypes, are of the opinion that such a style (at least for Starbucks) is simply ‘tired and forlorn architecture’ and not consistent with the more updated and ‘fresh’ architecture which is representative of area demographics.”
He said that the Johnson Ferry Design Guidelines—which apply to new and renovated properties in the corridor—”can also be incorporated into the design in order to comply with that document.”
Also being delayed again is a request to rezone 13.38 acres at 4701 Post Oak Tritt Road, near McPherson Road, from R-30 to R-15 for 20 single-family homes.
Scheduled to be heard Tuesday is a request ADP—Terrell Mill LLC for community retail commercial (CRC) from low residential at 1140 and 1150 Terrell Mill Road for a self-storage facility. A companion special land-use permit also is required.
The Cobb Planning Commission is a five-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners to make recommendations in zoning cases.
Final decisions are made by county commissioners, who meet on the third Tuesday of the month.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A conceptual rendering of the proposed Lidl store at the Canton-Piedmont intersection.
After trying twice in the last five years to open a store in Northeast Cobb, the German discount grocery chain Lidl has set its sights on a new location in the area.
Plans filed last month with the Cobb Zoning Office show Lidl is requesting rezoning of 3.47 acres at the southwest intersection of Canton Road and Piedmont Road for a 31,000-square-foot supermarket.
There’s a vacant building there now that formerly housed a Rite Aid pharmacy, which is across from Covenant Presbyterian Church.
The land, which includes an undeveloped parcel behind the former Rite Aid building, is zoned neighborhood shopping (NS) and Lidl is requesting community retail commercial (CRC) designation.
A hearing before the Cobb Planning Commission is scheduled for Dec. 6. The filing is preliminary and does not yet include a staff analysis or recommendation.
The store hours would be from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.
Lidl is also asking for a number of variances (you can read through the filings here), including a reduction of the minimum number of parking spaces and related to fire access and signage.
The CRC category calls for at least 158 spaces. Lidl is seeking a hardship waiver to cut that number to 120-135 spaces.
“Due to the odd shape of the site and the existing topography on the western portion of the site, we do not anticipate bring able to achieve the 158 required parking spaces,” said an architectural engineering letter sent to Lidl dated Sept. 6 and that is included in the filings.
The proposed site plan (see below) would call for a “full access driveway” at the back of the property onto Piedmont Road, and a right-out exit onto Piedmont Road southbound, right before the intersection.
Another entrance to the store would be on Canton Road between a Captain D’s restaurant and the new Bar 44 sports lounge.
Lidl also is requesting another hardship for fire access. The county requires that fire vehicles have access of no greater than 150 feet from all sides of a building.
Lidl said there’s only enough room for access around three sides, and is asking for an access distance minimum of 300 feet.
The engineering letter said the building will be fully sprinkled, and that state law allows for that limit to be relaxed when that is the case.
Lidl initially sought a Northeast Cobb location at the site of the former Park 12 Cobb movie theater, but that request was turned down by Cobb commissioners in 2017, citing traffic reasons.
Lidl was to have been the anchor tenant of the mixed-use redevelopment of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center, but pulled out late last year after the grocery chain couldn’t work out an agreement over traffic access on Sandy Plains Road.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A request to alter an existing site plan to allow for a King’s Hawaiian Bakery and Restuarant in Northeast Cobb is being delayed to November.
An attorney for Stein Investment Group, which is building a self-storage facility at the former GTC Cobb Park 12 Cinema, asked for the continuance in a letter to the Cobb Zoning Office Monday.
The case (you can read the filings here) was to have been considered Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners. Stein wants to amend the site plan approved by commissioners in 2021 at the northwest intersection of Shallowford Road and Gordy Parkway for a 3,200-square-foot restaurant with 29 parking spaces.
King’s Hawaiian is a fast-casual restaurant chain with nearby locations in Lithia Springs, Flowery Branch and Gainesville.
Garvis Sams asked for the delay for several reasons. His client is continuing meetings with area residential groups, and King’s Hawaiian is working on a landscape plan.
A revised agenda issued late Friday afternoon by the Cobb Zoning Office also notes that plans for a car wash and gas station at Shallowford Road and Trickum Road and that has been continued three times before is being pushed back to November by the zoning staff.
The full zoning hearing agenda can be found by clicking here. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb Government Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A rezoning request to convert the present Starbucks location at Paper Mill Village into a two-story coffee shop is being delayed to November.
The attorney for S&B Investments Inc. sent Cobb zoning officials a letter last week asking for the request to be removed from the agenda for a Tuesday hearing of the Cobb Planning Commission.
Garvis Sams said in the letter (you can read it here) that after holding a community meeting, “the consensus at the meeting was for S&B to avail itself of circumstances to revise the proposal in order to address expectations from area residents, members of the public and others.”
He didn’t specify what those expectations are.
S&B wants to demolish the small building on 0.73 acres at the northeast intersection of Johnson Ferry Road and Paper Mill Road. That’s housed the Starbucks for more than 25 years and a dry cleaner (a nail salon space is vacant).
The proposal calls for a 5,000-square-foot building for a new Starbucks with 25 parking spaces and a double drivethru. The new coffee shop would be open daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
In its analysis, Cobb zoning staff noted that 50 parking spaces are required under the NRC (neighborhood retail commercial) category the applicant is seeking.
The staff is recommending approval of the request (analysis here) but without a parking variance, meaning the size of the building would have to be reduced.
Two other rezoning requests in East Cobb that were to be heard Tuesday also have been continued to November.
ADP—Terrell Mill LLC is seeking community retail commercial (CRC) from low residential at 1140 and 1150 Terrell Mill Road for a self-storage facility with 47,059 square feet and 14 parking spaces. A companion special land-use permit also is required, and that request also has been continued.
The 2.55-acre parcel at the intersection of Terrell Mill and Delk roads and has an older homesite. Zoning staff has recommended denial, noting that the property is surrounded by residential areas and does not conform to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan which calls for medium-density housing in that area.
“Setback variances are proposed which demonstrate this proposal does not fit on the property,” the staff analysis concluded.
Also being delayed is a request to rezone 13.38 acres at 4701 Post Oak Tritt Road, near McPherson Road, from R-30 to R-15 for 20 single-family homes.
The Planning Commission is a five-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners to make recommendations in zoning cases.
Final decisions are made by county commissioners, who meet on the third Tuesday of the month.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A public plaza will be built at the former Bravura store.
The 2.55-acre parcel at the intersection of Terrell Mill and Delk roads and has an older homesite. Zoning staff has recommended denial, noting that the property is surrounded by residential areas and does not conform to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan which calls for medium-density housing in that area. 