Powers Ferry mixed-use project returns to Cobb zoning agenda

Chance Powers Ferry rendering, Powers Ferry mixed-use project

A proposed mixed-use development in the transforming Powers Ferry corridor that has been delayed for nearly a year comes before the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday.

The revised Chance Powers Ferry project is similar in scope— 20,000 square feet of office space, 299 luxury apartments and a parking deck with nearly 500 spaces—to what the developer proposed last year.

UPDATE: The rezoning request was approved unanimously Tuesday on the board’s consent agenda.

It’s around 531,000 square feet, on nearly four acres at Powers Ferry Road, Windy Ridge Parkway and Shadowood Parkway, where the aging Powers Ferry Woods office complex sits now.

The rezoning would convert the land from office-industrial to regional retail commercial.

Last year there were issues with variances, including setback distances, that held up the application.

Earlier this month the Cobb Planning Commission recommended approval with several stipulations that were submitted on May 29 by Kevin Moore, the developers’ attorney.

The biggest change recommended by the planning board is that office space, contained in a three-story building, would be reduced from 30,000 to 20,000 and limited to office use only.

The stipulations include a number of uses that would be prohibited, including automotive businesses and nightclubs or adult entertainment entities.

The apartment building is proposed for five stories, with most of them two bedrooms or fewer, and only a maximum of six units with three bedrooms.

The parking spaces also have been increased in the revised application to 493 in the deck, up from 468, and 22 surface spaces. Another stipulation would create space for ridesharing deliveries (Uber, Lyft, etc.).

Access to the development would be on Windy Ridge and Shadowood.

Moore is also the attorney for David Pearson Communities, Inc., a developer who has sued the commissioners for a zoning decision in 2015 and that is coming before the board again on Tuesday.

Commissioners in November 2015 voted to rezone nearly seven acres at Sandy Plains Road and Ross Road to RA-5 for 34 single-family senior homes (ages 55 and up). That’s right across from the Sandy Plains intersection with Scufflegrit Road, in an area with some surrounding high-density development.

David Pearson Communities sought RM-5 for 54 units, and filed suit in Cobb Superior Court right after the vote (read it here), saying the commissioners’ “decision to restrict the intensity of the proposed development stands in direct conflict with the intensity of uses reflected by adjoining and surrounding properties.”

In April Moore sent a letter to the Cobb Zoning Office seeking the RA-6 category, which would allow for 41 homes, as well a proposed settlement of litigation.

Here’s the rest of Tuesday’s zoning hearing agenda and more details, along with individual filings, of current, past and upcoming cases can be found here.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the 2nd floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

 

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Powers Ferry Road corridor rezoning request delayed to August

Chance Powers Ferry, Powers Ferry corridor rezoning

There was no opposition Tuesday to a Powers Ferry Road corridor rezoning request for a major mixed-use development. But the Cobb Planning Commission put the application on hold for a month to sort out some issues some members had with the project.

The request by Chance Powers Ferry LLC would redevelop the aging Powers Ferry Woods office complex on Shadowood Parkway, near Powers Ferry Road and Windy Ridge Parkway, for an office building and 300 luxury apartment units (here’s the agenda item packet) totalling more than 578,000 square feet.

The 3.6-acre tract is currently zoned O & I; Chance Powers Ferry is seeking RRC (regional retail commercial) designation for the high-density project. The land is surrounded by multi-family housing, and Kevin Moore, an attorney for Chance Powers Ferry, calls the proposal suitable for “a true urban context. . . This is what it’s intended for.”

The site plan calls for the 30,000-square-foot office building to be in the front of the property (in orange below), with the apartment building (in pink) wrapped around a parking deck.

The office building would be three stories high, and the apartment building six stories high.

Chance Powers Ferry site plan

Among the concerns expressed by planning board members were about some of the variances, including a proposed reduction in front, side and rear setbacks from 50 to 15, 10 and 18 feet, respectively.

Another variance would reduce the number of proposed parking spaces from a required minimum of 631 to 515. Chance Powers Ferry also wants to reduce the landscaping buffer next to another apartment community from the minimum of 50 feet to 10 feet.

“I do like the project, I like the concept,” Planning Commission chairwoman Judy Williams said before suggesting that the request be delayed until August. A motion to hold passed 4-0, with commission member Thea Powell absent.

Not far away, another proposed RRC development was placed on hold by Cobb Zoning Office, which has recommended denial, and it’s been held up before. A request by Elevation Development Group LLC would rezone 12.7 acres on Water Place at Terrell Mill Road and across from Water Village Drive from its current O & I status.

The developer wants to build retail and office space and the Terrell Mill Park Apartments, and is seeking a reduction in required parking spaces from 579 to 468.

The project is in close proximity to the Dobbins Air Reserve Base, which is in opposition due to what it calls an “aviation hazard.” Zoning staff has said it’s concerned about noise and buffer requirements on adjacent properties.

A long-delayed Northeast Cobb zoning case was delayed again on Tuesday. The Cobb Zoning Office has continued a rezoning request for a 92-unit single-family subdivision on 96 acres on Wigley Road until August.

It had been held since May, when the Planning Commission heard a number of concerns about density, traffic, stormwater runoff and the land’s hilly topography.

Also continued was a request for a senior living facility on 35 acres on Bells Ferry Road and North Booth Road near I-575, to September. It’s currently undeveloped single-family residential land. The developer, Jim Chapman Communities, wants to build 178 units.

 

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