Lidl Grocery, Taqueria Tsunami cases on Cobb zoning agenda

After several months of delays, the Cobb Board of Commissioners will finally get to consider a proposal to convert one of only two East Cobb movie theater complexes into a grocery store.

Taqueria Tsunami East Cobb
A site plan amendment is being proposed to allow for a Taqueria Tsunami restaurant at the old Caribou Coffee location on Johnson Ferry Road. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

Lidl Grocery’s application to redevelop the Park 12 Cinema on Gordy Parkway (near Shallowford Road and Sandy Plains Road) highlights a busy BOC zoning meeting that starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The meeting takes place in the second floor board room of the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta (here’s an agenda summary).

The Lidl case (agenda information here) was first scheduled to be heard in May, but has drawn significant community opposition. Some nearby residents fear traffic will increase in a busy corridor near Lassiter High School.

Some opponents also have created a Facebook page and begun an online petition drive against Lidl’s proposal, mainly to preserve the cinema. Lidl is a German grocery chain looking to expand into Georgia.

The Lidl case will be heard in the “other business” category. These are for applications that don’t have to go through a full rezoning process. Also on the OB list is a site plan amendment filed on behalf of Fork U Concepts, proprietors of the Marietta-based Taqueria Tsunami restaurants.

The proposal (agenda information here) would remove the drivethru at the now-closed Caribou Coffee location at 1275 Johnson Ferry Road, and to increase parking to 42 spaces with restriping. The old Caribou/Einstein Bros. Bagel location is being eyed by Fork U to expand the Latin-Asian fusion concept to East Cobb.

As East Cobb News has reported, the amendment has been recommended for approval by the East Cobb Civic Association, as well as the Cobb Planning Commission.

The proposed redevelopment of the old Mountain View Elementary School complex on Sandy Plains Road for mixed commercial use also will appear on Tuesday’s agenda, but is likely to be delayed at the request of the applicant.

A redevelopment project at the northwest intersection of Powers Ferry Road at Terrell Mill Road is being continued by the Cobb zoning staff until October.

Full zoning staff analysis of each September agenda itemĀ can be found here.

Taqueria Tsunami restaurant eyed for former East Cobb Caribou Coffee location

Caribou Coffee East Cobb, Taqueria Tsunami

An early check into a really busy September Cobb zoning calendar (especially in East Cobb) revealed this agenda item: the growing, Marietta-based Taqueria Tsunami Latin-Asian fusion restaurant concept may be headed this way.

An application in the “Other Business” section, OB-039-2017, has been filed by Amor Design Studios on behalf of Fork U Concepts, which runs six Taqueria Tsunami locations, including the Marietta Square, Roswell, Woodstock, Athens and soon in Sandy Springs.Caribou Coffee East Cobb, Taqueria Tsunami

The East Cobb location would be at 1275 Johnson Ferry Road, where Caribou Coffee and an Einstein Bros. Bagels operated side-by-side.

Caribou Coffee closed in 2013, and Einstein Bros. Bagels followed in 2015.

The Cobb Planning Commission will hear the application next Thursday, Sept. 7.

Amor Design Studios, an Atlanta architectural design firm, has filed a site plan amendment which states the following intent:

“Fork U Concepts would like to improve the property by deleting the drive-thru [of the former Caribou store] and increasing the number of parking spaces by restriping the parking lot.”

The proposed site plan changes (below, click to see larger image) call for 42 total spaces, 32 of them standard-sized spaces. The total land size for the building and parking is 0.70 acres.

Taqueria Tsunami East Cobb site planThere’s no preliminary staff zoning analysisĀ for the moment since the application was filed on Aug. 15, after the Aug. 4. deadline for comments.

Some major East Cobb redevelopment proposals are also on the September calendar, and we’ll have more in forthcoming posts:

  • Z-053-2017, by Brooks Chadwick Capital, LLC, which would rezone the former Mountain View Elementary School location on Sandy Plains Road for a retail, restaurant, bank and grocery store development;
  • OB-016-2017, by Lidl US Operations, LLC, to tear down the Park 12 Cinema on Gordy Parkway and build a Lidl grocery store, a proposal that’s been delayed several times (see previous East Cobb News story) and has community opposition;
  • Z-012-2017, by SSP Blue Ridge, LLC, to rezone 21 acres northwest intersection of Terrell Mill Road and Powers Ferry Road for a mixed commercial and residential development anchored by a Kroger grocery story. This application also has been continued.

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