A Wigley Road rezoning case that has been delayed for months is being held up again after major revisions to the application that have prompted traffic and stormwater concerns.
The Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday voted for a 60-day hold on a rezoning application by Atlanta-based Oak Hall Companies, LLC, which wants to build 92 single-family homes on 96 acres currently zoned R-30, low-density residential.
Here’s the agenda item packet for what would be called Provence Estates, with homes ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. Oak Hall had requested zoning to R-20 OSC, a low-density residential designation with open-space provisions.
Cobb zoning staff is recommending that the land be rezoned R-30 OSC to include more conservation easements because of the hilly terrain of the property.
The land is from the estate of Audra Mae Wigley and was part of the Wigley Farm in Northeast Cobb. Initially, the Oak Hall application was for 55 acres. Parks Huff, an attorney for Oak Hall, said Tuesday that his client “wanted to bring in both pieces of property at the same time.”
The land is north of Sweat Mountain and has a steep topography that has prompted concerns about stormwater runoff. Plans call for nearly half of the tract to be open space, and there would be 50-foot undisturbed buffers on the eastern and southern edges of the property.
Dave Evans, who lives on Wigley Road, said 40 percent of runoff from the property flows into a lake near his home, and worries that additional stormwater would overwhelm capacity.
The other stormwater routes are into neighboring Cherokee County and the nearby Falcon Crest subdivision.
Dave Breaden of the Cobb Stormwater Management Department admitted that “we’ve got a challenge to control runoff on this site.” Several retention ponds are included in the Oak Hall site plan.
Included in the staff comments is a request for the developer to provide a preliminary rough grading plan.
Others noted traffic issues. Cobb DOT currently estimates around 40 daily traffic trips in that area, a figure some residents said would jump to around 1,000.
The Oak Hall site plan (see illustration) also would cut off an adjacent cluster of homes that abut the Cherokee County line from Cobb-provided public services, including traffic access to Wigley Road.
In order to sort through all those issues, Planning Commission chairwoman Judy Williams, who represents the area in District 3, asked for the vote to hold the application until July. The vote was 4-0, with Thea Powell, also of Northeast Cobb, absent due to what Williams said was a family emergency.
Tony Garcia, who lives on Summitop Road, said given the housing that’s already in the area, the homes that would be built in Provence Estates don’t “fit into the character of Wigley Road.”
But planning board member Skip Gunther said that the land “is going to get developed one way or another,” and that the R-30 OSC designation is a “no-brainer.
“It’s going to generate traffic, but it’s going to be less than it otherwise would be.”
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