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.”
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.
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