After nearly two hours of discussion that included heated opposition from residents in a nearby townhome complex, the Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to hold the long-delayed rezoning request for the proposed Terrell Mill Towne Center.
By a 3-2 vote, the Planning Commission—which is an advisory board to the Cobb Board of Commissioners—requested more time to sort out a major, complex application that was filed in January.
Traffic and density issues were the primary concerns raised by Thea Powell, Galt Porter and Skip Gunther, the three planning board members who opposed the proposal to rezone nearly 23 acres at Powers Ferry Road and Terrell Mill Road. The mixed-use project, which would be anchored by a Kroger superstore, was to have gone before Cobb commissioners Dec. 19.
The latest delay will push back a formal vote until at least February, since Cobb zoning cases are not heard in January.
The $200 million Terrell Mill Towne Center (agenda packet item) also would also contain restaurants, retail shops, and most controversially, a 310-unit luxury apartment complex abutting the Salem Ridge townhomes on Terrell Mill Road.
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Cobb Planning Commission Chairman Mike Terry of East Cobb, who represents District 2, where the Terrell Mill Towne Center would be located, was in strong support of the development by Eden Rock Real Estate Partners. So was Judy Williams of District 3 in Northeast Cobb, who said the project “would be good for the neighborhood, but will have to be tweaked.”
While the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance—formerly known as the Terrell Mill Community Association—overwhelmingly supported the rezoning, Salem Ridge homeowners expressed strong opposition, especially to the residential component they say is excessively dense for the area.
“Why do we have [zoning] codes at all if we are going to ignore them?” asked Amy Patricio, who represented the opposing Salem Ridge residents.
She argued that the multiple variances requested by developers amounted to “taking the code and rewriting it to serve their purposes.”
Although Terry and Garvis Sams, the attorney for the developers, pointed out that the full proposal is suitable under the Cobb future land use plan and Power Ferry Master Plan, it was the residential component and a self-storage facility that opponents objected to the most.
In particular, Patricio said the UC zoning category sought for the apartments—Urban Condominium—was far more dense than should be allowed, and that there were an “egregious” number of variances as part of the project.
Porter, of South Cobb, agreed about the density issue, pointing to the project’s proposed 60 units an acre, as compared to the current nearby maximum of five units an acre.
“This just doesn’t match Salem Ridge or anything else around here,” he said, calling it “the definition of spot zoning.”
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Powell, of East Cobb, a former commissioner appointed by Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, issued the strongest rejoinder, saying while a development to revitalize the Powers Ferry area is needed, “I don’t think this is the plan.”
She agreed with the Salem Ridge residents and said that “the code is becoming eroded.” Variances, she said, have to show a hardship, and “I haven’t heard that these variances are necessary.”
The developers met with more than 200 residents and community leaders in October in a town hall meeting at Brumby Elementary School sponsored by the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance.
Shari George, the civic group’s zoning director, said that after careful deliberation, the organization voted to approve a zoning request for the first time in its 10-year history.
The land in question—which includes the soon-to-be-relocated Brumby elementary as well as an aging strip center—is currently “a hodgepodge” that has long been eyed for redevelopment.
She said residents have met with the developers for more than two years, and they have been fully responsive during the process.
Robert Thompson, who lives in Salem Ridge, said he knows of no one in his community who belongs to the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance. He said that if the project were built as proposed, “I would be looking at a retention pond and self-storage.”
He also said that in communicating with District 2 commissioner Bob Ott’s assistant, he thought an e-mail response he received suggested that rezoning “was a done deal.”
But in delivering a long history of the rezoning case, the relocation of Brumby and efforts to redevelop the Powers Ferry corridor, Terry denied that anything “was a done deal.” That’s why he said he couldn’t respond to individual citizens’ communications about the case before Tuesday’s hearing.
He said the developers have been more than accommodating during the long period in which their proposal has taken shape. Terry also said he believed home values would increase, the variances are not excessive and that the zoning categories being sought are the best for the site.
But Terry and all the planning commissioners did express concerns about the traffic impact the Terrell Mill Towne Center would have.
A Cobb DOT staff analysis estimated that around 7,500 additional daily vehicle trips would be generated in the Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill corridor, which currently has 53,000 daily trips.
The developer is proposing a traffic signal on Powers Ferry at the entrance to the Kroger (the present site of Brumby school) that meets the preferred 1,000-foot distance from the intersection.
However, a traffic signal on Terrell Mill Road that would be part of the project would be located only 700 feet away, which Cobb DOT said would add to an already badly congested intersection.
That’s what Gunther, of West Cobb, said bothered him the most, in addition to the density.
“If done right,” he said, the development “will have a positive impact. . . . But this seems overly intense, over the top.”
