Earlier today a coalition of residents from Wildwood, the Powers Ferry area, the Cumberland Improvement District and Cobb County, GA came together to launch a petition that opposes the redevelopment of Z-47 2018, or Restaurant Row because it is not good for Cobb County, the Community or the Chattahoochee River.
The petition is titled:
Z-47 is Not Good for Cobb County, the Community or the Chattahoochee
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The Rose and Crown Tavern is the only existing business on “Restaurant Row” on Powers Ferry Road. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
A rezoning to allow a Powers Ferry Restaurant Row project that would raze mostly empty commercial property was recommended for approval Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission.
The board voted 4-1 to recommend a request by Powers Ferry Road Investors, LLC, to rezone 8.8 acres to regional retail commercial (RRC) from the current general commercial (GC) category.
Most of the land includes vacant restaurant space, with the exception of the Rose and Crown Tavern at 1931 Powers Ferry Road. The rezoning plans call for that restaurant to be part of the multi-use complex, which would include 290 apartments and 181 senior living units.
Rose and Crown would be expanded from 4,400 square feet to 6,000 square feet in a 10,000-square-foot restaurant/retail building.
“It stays and it gets better,” said Marietta zoning attorney James Balli, who represents the applicant.
The land along Powers Ferry sits between Windy Hill Road and Windy Ridge Parkway and is next to the Wildwood Office Park.
Window signage for the long-departed Famous Dave’s restaurant remains.
Three other free-standing buildings have been empty for years, and once housed the Sal Grosso, TGI Friday’s and Famous Dave’s restaurants.
Balli told the planning board that under the current GC category, the land could be used for adult entertainment businesses, nightclubs, tattoo parlors and even a homeless shelter.
While some nearby residents support redeveloping the property, they objected to the parking density and were upset that no crash data information was provided in the application.
The developer is calling for 711 total parking spaces for the development, far less than the minimum of 783 required by the county code.
Balli said that by comparison, the adjoining Horizons at Wildwood, an 18-story condominium complex, has 442 spaces for 273 units.
Eric Meadows, who lives in the Horizons, said his building has 454 parking spaces (two under code), for a ratio of 1.82, and calculated that the Restaurant Row parking density would come to 1.38 spaces per each apartment unit and 1.08 for the senior building.
The Horizons at Wildwood condos overlook Restaurant Row.
“That’s unacceptable,” Meadows said. “I do not believe it’s a suitable solution.”
He also objected to the front and rear setbacks being reduced from the minimum 50 feet to 15 feet, saying there’s nothing else like that around Wildwood.
Meadows also said Horizons residents and their pets have come close to being hit by cars while walking along Windy Ridge Parkway.
Planning commissioner Andy Smith of East Cobb, who represents District 2, supported the application and requested that a stipulation be included for crash data figures to be prepared when the Cobb Board of Commissioners takes up the request Aug. 21.
“This is head and shoulders above anything I’ve seen for this proposed site,” Smith said.
The only opposing vote came from Thea Powell of East Cobb, and it was her final vote. She said she was being replaced by commission chairman Mike Boyce for publicly opposing his property tax increase.
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