Ashton Atlanta

The developer of a proposed Wildwood Plaza townhome community got rezoning approval on Tuesday after reducing the number of units and making other changes at the request of county officials and citizens groups.

But a major topic of discussion at a Cobb Board of Commissioners zoning hearing was how to replace aging pear trees that are part of the conceptual design for the office and residential complex off Powers Ferry Road.

The 5.6 acres of wooded area at the northeast intersection of Windy Hill Road and Wildwood Parkway, right across from the Towers at Wildwood Plaza, will soon feature the Ashton Woods townhomes. The land had been zoned for office-industrial use.

The applicant, Ashton Atlanta, received multi-family zoning (RM-12) and will build 60 three-story townhomes instead of 67, ranging in size from 2,100 to 3,500 square feet and featuring attached two-car garages. The developer also will stretch the width of units facing Windy Hill Road from 18 to 24 feet.

Those are some of the conditions approved by commissioners in their 5-0 vote, and after they had just received a revised site plan submitted on Monday. Another stipulation relating to the preservation of pear trees will be determined after District 2 commissioner Bob Ott confers with the county arborist.

Here’s the original agenda item packet, which doesn’t contain updated documents.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Patty Rice, president of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance and a resident of the nearby Riverwalk at Wildwood community, asked commissioners “to do something to maintain the trees” within the landscaping plan that is part of the Wildwood Plaza project.

Those 15-story twin towers, built by Atlanta developer Tom Cousins in 1991, were designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, who wanted to preserve as much of the surrounding natural setting as possible.

Residential communities behind the towers maintain lush trees and landscaping amenities that blend in with the nearby Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

Some residents were concerned that Pei’s name wasn’t included in the Monday stipulation letter about tree preservation. Roughly two-thirds of the trees that line the triangular area around the plaza, including some on the newly rezoned land, are pear trees part of Pei’s original design.

Ott said that “the trees have reached [the end of] their useful life” and understands the desire by residents to replace as many of them as possible.

“I’m very familiar with what you’re trying to preserve,” said Ott, who has lived in the nearby Terrell Mill Road area for more than 20 years. More recent community activism, including the formation of the PFCA, he added, is the “reason we’re getting all the great things that we are.”

Other conditions of the rezoning approval, in addition to the trees, include Ott’s approving the final site plan, as well as fencing and wall designs and interior materials and elevations.

 

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