Here’s an update to the Powers Ferry Restaurant Row project proposal we posted about on Friday, which are plans to redevelop 8.8 acres of mostly empty eatery space for a very dense, mostly rental residential complex with some retail, and that’s getting an initial hearing Tuesday before the Cobb Planning Commission:
Powers Ferry Road Investors, LLC, the developer, has provided revised and conceptual landscaping plans and its attorney, James Balli, has filed a stipulation letter (you can read the whole thing here) that would increase the proposed parking from 510 spaces to 711 spaces.
The parking situation was among the concerns expressed by the Cobb Zoning Office analysis, which recommends approval of the nearly 500,000-square foot mixed-use project to regional retail commercial (RRC).
The 471 apartment units (290 multi-family, 181 senior active adult living) are still proposed, with the former (see rendering at top) taking up six stories, and the latter (see below) encompassing a five-story building.
The 10,000 square feet of mostly restaurant and retail space is still proposed for the center of the property, and would include the expansion of the current Rose and Crown Tavern from 4,400 to 6,000 square feet.
Most of the apartments will be studio, or one-bedroom units, and some will have two bedrooms.
The Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance, a civic group, has filed a response to the proposal, and has expressed concern over a growing and overwhelming trend in the area toward rental housing.
While eager for “Restaurant Row” redevelopment, the group suggested a moratorium for more apartment construction: “Is there REALLY no market at all for owner-occupied units in a truly mixed-use development that could go on this site?”
The citizens group noted the development would be located next to a premium condominium high-rise complex on Powers Ferry.
The PFCA was strongly in support of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill project approved earlier this year that includes 298 apartments. But the group has estimated that since 2015, a total of 1,152 apartment units have been approved for the corridor, as opposed to only 155 owner-occupied dwellings.
If the Restaurant Row project is approved as presented, that would add up to 1,623 rental units, a ratio of 10.43 multi-family units to one owner-occupied unit.
The PFCA also wants to see the development reconfigured to include more retail, since more than half of the proposed space for that part of the project would be taken up by Rose and Crown, an existing business.
The civic group also has made numerous landscaping, parking, lighting and walkability suggestions: “The residents of each building should not have to exit from the parking lot or parking garage to go to the restaurant or out to the street at Powers Ferry Road. There should be attractively lit and maintained footpaths going from the buildings to the sidewalk on Powers Ferry Road.”
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
