The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to hold a proposed rezoning for a new convenience store, gas station and car wash on Shallowford Road at Trickum Road for a month after community opposition surfaced.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said in making her motion that the extra time was needed for the applicant to meet with residents over runoff, environmental and traffic concerns.
Southern Gas Partners, LLC is applying to change the current neighborhood shopping and general commercial zoning of two parcels totaling 3.1 acres at the southwest intersection of Shallowford and Trickum to neighborhood retail commercial.
That would allow for conversion of what had been a gas station to a fueling facility and convenience store similar to a Quick Trip or Race Trac and a car wash, according to the applicant.
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.
You can read through the application by clicking here; the site plan can be found here and a Cobb DOT traffic analysis is here.
The Cobb Planning Commission voted to recommend approval earlier this month, but Birrell said nearby residents may not have been properly informed of the case, and there has not been a community meeting.
Her Planning Commission appointee, Deborah Dance, also was absent from the vote.
The Southern Gas Partners application had been on the county commissioners’ consent agenda Tuesday when a resident adjacent to the property turned out to show opposition.
Mel Skelton, who lives at the back end of the abandoned gas station property on Sims Court, said he was speaking on behalf of himself and neighbors in the Heatherwood subdivision.
He said he’s endured decades of runoff from a malfunctioning retention pond, a polluted creek and noise from the various businesses that have been there, none of them, including an auto repair shop, he said, that have “passed muster.”
He said the retention pond is practically in his back yard, and that his property, which is separated from the gas station property by a creek, is in a Class a flood zone.
It’s taken a couple of decades since the gas station was first built and the property cleared for wildlife to return, he said.
While Southern Gas Partners said it would be keeping existing wooded buffers, he’s concerned about round-the-clock lights and noise, especially because “when people get their car washed, they like to listen to their music.”
“I’m not against development, as long as it’s done right,” Skelton said of what’s become a community eyesore in an area that he said has many other similar businesses.
There are two other gas stations at the same intersection that also have convenience stores.
“How many car washes do we need, especially behind a residential area?” Skelton said.
Jim Courson, representing Southern Gas Partners, said his client is hamstrung by changes in the county zoning code over the years that have rendered those properties non-conforming.
“It is truly a hardship based for the owner simply because the classifications changed,” Courson said, “and it was through no fault of his own that he is sitting there with two pieces of property he really can’t do anything with unless you grant the rezoning.”
Cobb tax records show Southern Gas Partners purchased the current gas station property in 2017 for $401,800 and the undeveloped land last year for $390,000.
“It would change from an old outdated gas station to a current updated convenience store,” Courson said. “The owner is handicapped by not being able to do anything with the property as it sits there today.”
Carl Carver of the Cobb Stormwater Management agency said the applicant would have to provide for runoff management for the car wash area.
He also said both properties would have to be treated as “hotspots” requiring treatment to improve water quality prior to runoff discharge.
The site plan calls for right-in, right-out access only in eastbound lanes of Shallowford Road, but allows a left turn onto westbound Shallowford.
Amy Diaz of Cobb DOT said that since the left turn intersection meets the county’s minimum of being at least 250 feet from an intersection, that meets “our standard for full-movement access.”
Birrell said she was worried, given DOT’s current grade of “F” on Shallowford, and that Trickum has a “C.”
“I think it’s a safety issue,” she said. “I’m on Shallowford and Trickum a lot and Lassiter [High School] is right down the street. It’s very congested there for them to be turning left out.”
Diaz responded said it’s an area “where I would recommend using caution during high peak periods, but off-peak periods, probably not.”
She said DOT could take restrictive measures in the future if it “showed to be a safety issue.”
In other cases in the East Cobb area, commissioners approved on the consent agenda a special-land use plan permit extension for Mt. Bethel Christian Academy to continue use of temporary space on its North Campus on Post Oak Tritt Road for a high school campus.
Since moving there in 2013, Mt. Bethel Christian has used existing facilities it purchased from the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta for grades 9-12 and for some worship events for Mt. Bethel Church.
The new permit allows the school, which had received previous extensions, to continue through the end of August 2024.
Pulled from Tuesday’s agenda was a rezoning request by Green Community Development to build 16-home environmentally-friendly homes on rocky terrain on Kinridge Court near Sprayberry High School.
The planning commission voted to recommend denial after community opposition surfaced, but the Cobb zoning staff is continuing the case until August.
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- PHOTOS, VIDEOS: Sprayberry Crossing demolition begins
- East Cobb Church plans taking shape after rezoning conflict
- Mt. Bethel Christian Academy athletic plans approved
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