Cobb commissioners approve King's Hawaiian site plan request

King's Hawaiian rezoning request approved — *Final revisions to King’s Hawaiian plans include turning a mural inward, permitting right-in, right-out traffic access only and maintaining a 40-foot buffer (at right) adjacent to Harrison Park.*

Despite some community opposition, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a site plan at a busy Northeast Cobb intersection for a King’s Hawaiian fast casual restaurant.

By a 4-1 vote, and with some final revisions, commissioners granted the request by Stein Investment Group to construct a 3.200-square foot restaurant with parking and a double drive-thru at the northwest intersection of Shallowford Road and Gordy Parkway.

The applicant received rezoning in 2021 for a self-storage facility on a portion of land that was once the GTC Cobb Park 12 movie theater, and asked to develop the remaining 1.14 acres for a restaurant.

The case was first proposed last summer and has been delayed and continued several times (you can read the case file here).

The restaurant would be the first King’s Hawaiian locations in metro Atlanta, and would include an outdoor patio area.

King’s Hawaiian was founded in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1950, as a bakery known for its signature sweet rolls.

Now based near Los Angeles, the company opened a major bakery and warehouse near Gainesville in 2011, where most of its products are made.

They are sold at grocery stores and through other restaurant franchises, including Arby’s.

There are two King’s Hawaiian locations near company headquarters in Torrance, Calif. (here’s a menu for the original restaurant) and the parent company also is opening another restaurant concept, Hello Hilo, near Gainesville.

As in a rejected rezoning case for the same land in 2017 for a proposed Lidl grocery store, nearby residents said the restaurant would cause too many traffic and safety issues.

The King’s Hawaiian would be open from early morning hours—contributing to the commuting and Lassiter High School traffic rush—until 10 p.m. at night.

A double drive-thru, said Highland Park resident Denise Fissel, would increase the chances of people in vehicles “rushing to get in and out” and said the restaurant proposal is “too intense” for the property.

Jason Linscott of Stein Investment Group said the traffic plan for the restaurant reduces traffic in the area by 40 percent from the movie theater, but didn’t provide specifics.

Fissel countered that “those are your numbers, not ours,” and said the project “is not like a theater.” She noted that the other fast-food restaurants in the area—Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Chick-Fil-A—are all accessed within shopping centers, and not directly on major roads.

The East Cobb Civic Association also opposed the application, especially a proposed reduction of a 40-foot barrier between the back of the property and the adjacent Harrison Park tennis courts.

Stein Investment Group wanted to cut into that buffer by 36 feet for parking and the drive-thru lanes.

But District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, in making a motion to approve the application, scotched any reduction of that buffer, saying “it would set a precedent. It was put in place for a reason” when the property was rezoned in the 1980s.

She acknowledged that a restaurant that size on such a small amount of land “is rather intense” but her motion included several other stipulations, including last-minute letters and recommendations from parties on both sides of the matter.

Garvis Sams, the attorney for Stein Investment Group, said that maintaining the 40-foot buffer “impinges on the development. It will cause a considerable re-engineering.”

Birrell’s other conditions include maintaining a treeline along Gordy Parkway, between the property and the entrance to Harrison Park, “in perpetuity,” allowing for dead or damaged trees to be removed.

Other conditions include recommendations from the Gordy Architectural Control Committee and the formation of a landscaping committee, and Birrell would sign off on the final site plan as well as landscaping plans.

Construction hours for the restaurant would be limited from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday with no Sunday work permitted.

The restaurant hours would be from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

The only voted against was from commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb, who said she thought the project was too intense.