David Pearson Communities

Powers Ferry mixed-use project returns to Cobb zoning agenda

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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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Northeast Cobb residents sound off on zoning cases

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Lakewood Colony sign, Northeast Cobb residents

Some high-density zoning cases we’ve written about here in the last week got their first formal hearing on Tuesday, as Northeast Cobb residents gave an earful to the Cobb Planning Commission.

The commission engaged in virtually no discussion before voting 5-0 to recommend denying a proposal that would rezone 26 acres on Keheley Drive for 51 single-family homes, or nearly 3 units an acre. David Pearson Communities Inc. is seeking zoning from R-20 to R-12, but there’s nothing nearby that’s zoned for that density.

A similar plan was rejected a decade ago, on the same land that’s in the possession of the Ruggles family. But it’s not just density that prompted around 50 nearby residents to show up in opposition.

It’s also about flooding.

Eric Bergin, a resident of the Lakewood Colony neighborhood who spoke on behalf of several homeowners associations (totaling around 800 residents), showed dramatic slides from floods in 2009 that ravaged the nearby Country Meadows community, after which six low-lying homes had to be condemned.

The Ruggles property, which sits partially in a flood plain, is largely undeveloped, and includes Rubes Creek, a tributary of Noonday Creek.

Part of the Cobb zoning staff’s recommendation of denial also included flood plain and water retention issues that residents said would grow worse.

“We get the runoff from everywhere,” Bergin said, referencing Lakewood Colony. “This is going to cause even more water to come down.”

In June, he said, the nearby Enchanted Woods community sustained some flooding damage, as did Country Meadows again during October rains.

“The flooding and the traffic impact are too hard to ignore,” he said.

Judy Williams, who represents District 3 on the planning commission, offered the board’s only comment on the matter: “There are so many problems. Flooding has been a problem here forever.”

The planning commission’s vote is only advisory; the Cobb Board of Commissioners will make the final decision on Nov. 21.

In another Northeast Cobb zoning case, however, the planning commission voted to recommend approval of a higher-density proposal on a smaller scale that still drew community opposition.

By a 4-1 vote, the planning commission endorsed a proposal by EAH Acquisitions to rezone 12 acres on Wigley Road at Jamerson Road for 19 single-family homes.

Residents from the Falconcrest and other neighborhoods spoke in opposition, mainly for traffic reasons, and pointed to other nearby zoning and development plans that are still in the works.

“It’s not a bad plan but it just not the right timing,” said resident Patrick Cahill. “There are a lot of issues in this area already.”

However, the strongest objection came from Thea Powell, the only planning commissioner who voted no. A former District 3 member on the Cobb commission, she also cited the Country Meadows flooding issue in regards to the EAH Acquisitions application.

The land sits in a 100-year floodplain and includes a stream that flows into Rubes Creek. While other planning commissioners liked the proposal, including the architectural features, Powell was adamant.

“It doesn’t matter what the house looks like,” she said. “It’s the impact on the area.”

 

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Keheley rezoning case reflects density issues brewing in Northeast Cobb

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Keheley rezoning
A home on Keheley Drive, right across the street from a proposed high-density residential development. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)

The community around Keheley Elementary School maintains something of a tucked-away feel, with winding country-style roads, lushly wooded areas and a mix of single-family home styles on generous lots.

This part of Northeast Cobb still feels like it has some elbow room. If you travel westbound on Keheley Drive, close to where it intersects with Keheley Road, and look off to the right, you’ll see a thick scrub of land that drops down behind trees. A dirt path provides an opening into nearly 26 acres of land.

There are two homes, one built in 1910 and another in 1957, at 4351 and 4371 Keheley Drive, on land that’s otherwise designated for conservation use. The acreage is located within the floodplain and stream buffer associated with Rubes Creek.

Keheley rezoning site planThat’s where an East Cobb luxury home developer wants to build 51 single-family homes (site plan at left). A request to be heard next week by the Cobb Planning Commission (agenda item packet) is seeking a higher density use than the surrounding neighborhoods.

David Pearson Communities, Inc. has applied for rezoning from R-20 to R-12, which would allow up to three units per acre. Nearby homes are zoned either R-20 or R-15, and there’s plenty of visible community opposition.

Small yellow signs with red lettering pop up intermittently along Keheley Drive and Keheley Road, in front of homes and neighborhood entrances:

Keheley rezoning
The Keheley Lake Drive entrance to the Lakewood Colony neighborhood.

“Save Keheley! No Rezoning.”

The parcel in question is in the hands of the estate of Collene Ruggles, who died in 2016.

The Ruggles land previously came up for zoning in 2007, from R-20 to R-15, but it sits undisturbed today, in an area that’s encountering some of the same density issues that have been increasing in East Cobb.

Not far away in Northeast Cobb, land belonging to the estate of another longtime family property owner is also going before the Planning Commission for higher-density zoning.

EAH Acquisitions, Inc., is seeking rezoning from R-30 to R-15 to build 19 homes on 12. 29 acres at the northwest corner of Wigley Road and Jims Road. The titleholder is the estate of Dorothy Henrietta Wigley, who also died in 2016. She was a member of the Wigley family that was a major property owner, including Sweat Mountain and much of the present-day Mountain View area.

The only remaining structure on the Wigley property, which is proposed to be developed into a single-family subdivision.

While the Wigley application got a recommendation of approval with conditions from the Cobb zoning staff—since R-15 zoning is in effect in nearby and adjacent communities—the Keheley case did not.

In fact, the zoning staff analysis strongly recommends denial of the request. David Pearson Communities wants to build homes with at least 2,500 square feet of space on small lots. Among the variances would be to reduce the distance between residences to 10 feet from the minimum 15 feet.

Not only are other homes in the area not as densely packed, but according to Cobb zoning staff, 12 of the 51 lots in the proposed site plan don’t meet the minimum code required area above the floodplain.

Keheley rezoning
The Ruggles property on the west side of Keheley Drive.

The Cobb zoning staff also pointed out that the rezoning request doesn’t conform with the Cobb County Comprehensive Plan, since the Ruggles property is designated as being in a Low-Density Residential area (LDR), or no more than 2.5 units an acre.

The Cobb Planning Commission meets Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m. in the 2nd floor boardroom of the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

 

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