The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve a request for a self-storage facility at the former Mountain View Elementary School site, despite opposition from some nearby residents.
The three-story building will be part of a mixed-use development on the 14-acre site on Sandy Plains Road that will include restaurants, shops and other retail businesses.
Some residents of the adjacent Cutters Gap subdivision complained that their privacy would be diminished, and there would be noise and other issues.
They also accused the developer of a “bait and switch” by not including the self-storage plans when the zoning for the full project was granted in October. However, the developer, Brooks Chadwick Capital, had to get a special land-use permit, which is required for self-storage facilities to be approved.
Kevin Moore, an attorney for Brooks Chadwick, reiterated that point, saying his clients still would have to have applied for the SLUP even if they had known at the time there was interest from a potential storage facility builder.
Additional stipulations proposed since the Cobb Planning Commission recommended approval earlier this month include a 42-foot height limit for the nearly 100,000-square-foot building, down from 45 feet.
Other restrictions include no overnight parking or vehicle idling, and limited hours for unloading, including none during overnight periods.
Brooks Chadwick also agreed to keep a 50-foot buffer between the development and nearby homes as part of the original zoning.
When some residents pointed out that there were more than a dozen storage facilities in the area, District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell said: “It’s free enterprise,” a subject that is “not what we’re here to consider” in a zoning matter.
The East Cobb Civic Association also spoke in favor of the SLUP, as it had for the redevelopment in general.
The commissioners agreed to hold another zoning case in Northeast Cobb, this one involving a proposal to improve a blighted property in the Canton Road corridor (previous East Cobb News coverage here) that has been delayed before.
PetroPlex ventures wants to rezone 0.87 acres at 2120 Canton Road, near the Canton Road connector, for a low-rise office building. It’s on the site of a gas station that closed in 2003 and has become increasingly deteriorated.
Tom Mitchell, an attorney for the applicant, presented revised plans for remodeling the building, including architectural and other changes recommended by the planning commission.
But Carol Brown of Canton Road Neighbors said the revised proposal doesn’t meet Cobb development standards and guidelines set forth in the Canton Road Corridor project.
Specifically, she objected that a canopy that was part of the gas station would remain, but the only proposed improvement to it would be a repainting.
The structure, she said, “needs more than a fresh coat of paint. . . . Please don’t ignore 13 years of community planning and investment” for improving what she called “one of the most blighted properties” on Canton Road.
Another contested East Cobb zoning case was withdrawn Tuesday. Robert Licata, a pediatrician, had proposed converting empty office space at Johnson Ferry Road and Lassiter Road for a restaurant, gym, medical offices and retail shops.
The planning commission recommended denial, saying that 37 proposed parking spaces wouldn’t be enough, and there was no rear loading space. Residents at the adjacent Lassiter Walk subdivision and the East Cobb Civic Association also were opposed.
