Terrell Mill Towne Center

Developers of proposed Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill Road project seek new zoning category

by
MarketPlace Terrell Mill rendering, Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill Road project
A new rendering of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill project, which goes before the Cobb Planning Commission Tuesday.

In December the Cobb Planning Commission decided to hold a zoning application for a major Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill Road project that was opposed by some nearby condominium dwellers.

When the case goes back before the planning board Tuesday, the proposed redevelopment will come with a request for a new zoning category and will bear a new name.

What had been tentatively called the Terrell Mill Towne Center is now being dubbed MarketPlace Terrell Mill.

Related coverage

The proposed mixed-used project still covers nearly 24 acres at the northwest intersection of Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill roads, and includes the site of the soon-to-be-vacated Brumby Elementary School.

It would still be anchored by a Kroger superstore, along with restaurants, retail shops, as well a high-density apartment complex and self-storage building that have been opposed by residents of the adjacent Salem Ridge condominiums.

Instead of seeking community retail commercial (CRC) and urban condominium (UC) rezoning, the developers are now asking for the designation of planned village community (PVC), a rare category in use in Cobb County.

The attorney for the applicant, SSP Blue Ridge LLC, said a “huge amount of changes” also include settling on Colonial-style architecture throughout the development, and “tilting” the singular apartment building 180 degrees from the original proposal to alleviate concerns by nearby residents.

Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill Road project
The rendering from Terrell Mill Road, with the proposed self-storage building in the front of a 298-unit apartment building. The Salem Ridge condominiums are to the left.

Instead of more than 20 variances in the initial request, the PVC would reduce those variances to around 10 or so, according to Garvis Sams, who represents the applicant.

Some Salem Ridge residents who opposed the rezoning in December think the new request is improved, but are still worried about traffic and density issues.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but I don’t think this is it,” said Salem Ridge resident Robert Thompson, who spoke against the proposal at the planning commission hearing in December.

While he understands the need to redevelop the Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill intersection, and that “a lot of wheels are in motion,” he thinks the developers haven’t come far enough in addressing his concerns.

The number of apartment units have been reduced from 350 to 298, and the building has been reduced from five to four stories. The adjacent self-storage facility would be three stories, also with the same architecture (see revised site plan below).

MarketPlace Terrell Mill site plan

The Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance, a civic group formerly named the Terrell Mill Community Association, has supported the project all along, and urged members to attend Tuesday’s hearing “to help show that the PFCA has a role in supporting positive change in the community!”

One of the variances is significant. To get PVC zoning, a piece of property must be at least 50 acres. The Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill land isn’t half that.

Sams said a waiver request from that minimum acreage is included in a stipulation letter sent Jan. 23 to the Cobb zoning staff, which is recommending approval of the rezoning.

Noting the geographical reality of the property, Sams said the most recent PVC rezoning in Cobb—the West Village Smyrna project approved 13 years ago—also comes in under 50 acres.

Here’s a PDF of the stipulation letter submitted to the Cobb zoning staff that includes the revised site plan.

The Planning Commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb Government Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

The planning board’s recommendation is advisory; the final decision is up to the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Feb. 20.

 

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!

Walton on the Chattahoochee rezoning case on Cobb commissioners’ agenda

by

walton on the chattahoochee

A proposal to rezone the Walton on the Chattahoochee residential complex on Akers Mill Road is on the agenda for the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the 2nd floor commissioners meeting room at 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.

It’s one of just a few East Cobb cases on the agenda that will be heard after the Cobb Planning Commission voted earlier this month to table or continue two other major applications in the same Powers Ferry corridor.

The planning board voted on Dec. 5 to table the proposed Terrell Mill Towne Center, at the corner of Terrell Mill and Powers Ferry roads, after residents at the adjacent Salem Ridge condominium complex protested (previous East Cobb News story here).

Another residential proposal, to build townhomes at Windy Hill Road and Wildwood Parkway, is being continued after objections from nearby residents.

The Walton on the Chattahoochee rezoning case also drew opposition from residents in nearby condominium communities in the Akers Mill Road corridor, but the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval. Walton Riverbend, the property owner which has its headquarters on the property, wants to convert the 46-acre tract into three office buildings totaling 16,800 square feet and to keep a 26-unit residential building.

The complex was once known as the Riverbend Apartments, and was a trend-setting development for young renters in the 1970s. Now the area is being eyed for more upscale commercial and residential development with the addition of SunTrust Park in the Powers Ferry corridor.

Kevin Moore, Walton Riverbend’s attorney, said at the planning board hearing that there are no other intentions to develop the property. “We want to set this up for the future,” he said.

That open-ended intent bothered residents of nearby communities. Brian Cipriani of the Chattahoochee Trail complex said Walton Riverbend has engaged in “constant misrepresentation about how it’s going to be developed and what’s going to take place.”

Cipriani said that “it’s inconsistent to add office space along the river,” and that he’s not the only homeowner who’s spent money trying to prevent runoff issues.

Planning Commission chairman Mike Terry, who represents the area, said the proposal “truly is a plan for the future” and added that any “trust issues” residents had with the developer are “with what’s gone on in the past.”

Still, the planning board was split 3-2, with Galt Porter and Thea Powell opposed.

The rest of the commission zoning hearing agenda can be found here.

Cases that are continued or held will be taken up in February, since Cobb does not conduct zoning hearings in January.

 

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!

Cobb Planning Commission votes to hold Terrell Mill Towne Center rezoning case

by
Terrell Mill Towne Center
The Terrell Mill Towne Center, proposed as a major boost for the Powers Ferry corridor, has drawn strong and mixed reaction from nearby residents.

After nearly two hours of discussion that included heated opposition from residents in a nearby townhome complex, the Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to hold the long-delayed rezoning request for the proposed Terrell Mill Towne Center.

By a 3-2 vote, the Planning Commission—which is an advisory board to the Cobb Board of Commissioners—requested more time to sort out a major, complex application that was filed in January.

Traffic and density issues were the primary concerns raised by Thea Powell, Galt Porter and Skip Gunther, the three planning board members who opposed the proposal to rezone nearly 23 acres at Powers Ferry Road and Terrell Mill Road. The mixed-use project, which would be anchored by a Kroger superstore, was to have gone before Cobb commissioners Dec. 19.

The latest delay will push back a formal vote until at least February, since Cobb zoning cases are not heard in January.

The $200 million Terrell Mill Towne Center (agenda packet item) also would also contain restaurants, retail shops, and most controversially, a 310-unit luxury apartment complex abutting the Salem Ridge townhomes on Terrell Mill Road.

Related coverage:

Cobb Planning Commission Chairman Mike Terry of East Cobb, who represents District 2, where the Terrell Mill Towne Center would be located, was in strong support of the development by Eden Rock Real Estate Partners. So was Judy Williams of District 3 in Northeast Cobb, who said the project “would be good for the neighborhood, but will have to be tweaked.”

While the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance—formerly known as the Terrell Mill Community Association—overwhelmingly supported the rezoning, Salem Ridge homeowners expressed strong opposition, especially to the residential component they say is excessively dense for the area.

“Why do we have [zoning] codes at all if we are going to ignore them?” asked Amy Patricio, who represented the opposing Salem Ridge residents.

She argued that the multiple variances requested by developers amounted to “taking the code and rewriting it to serve their purposes.”

Although Terry and Garvis Sams, the attorney for the developers, pointed out that the full proposal is suitable under the Cobb future land use plan and Power Ferry Master Plan, it was the residential component and a self-storage facility that opponents objected to the most.

In particular, Patricio said the UC zoning category sought for the apartments—Urban Condominium—was far more dense than should be allowed, and that there were an “egregious” number of variances as part of the project.

Porter, of South Cobb, agreed about the density issue, pointing to the project’s proposed 60 units an acre, as compared to the current nearby maximum of five units an acre.

“This just doesn’t match Salem Ridge or anything else around here,” he said, calling it “the definition of spot zoning.”

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!

 

Read more

Terrell Mill Towne Center rezoning goes before Cobb Planning Commission

by

Terrell Mill Towne Center

We posted back in October some details about the proposed Terrell Mill Towne Center development that’s finally coming up for rezoning this month after months of delays.

The first step in the process comes Tuesday, when the developer, Eden Rock Real Estate Partners, gets a hearing before the Cobb Planning Commission for its 23-acre plan at the northwest corner of Terrell Mill Road and Powers Ferry Road.

The meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the 2nd floor commissioners meeting room, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.

The Cobb Zoning Staff packet and analysis includes a general recommendation of approval of the application with quite a few stipulations related to traffic, including that the developer conduct a traffic study.

The staff document also contains photos of landscaping and lighting plans submitted by the developer, as well as signage height dimensions for the Kroger superstore that’s the anchor component of the project.Kroger sign Terrell Mill Towne Center

Eden Rock (the formal applicant is SSP Blue Ridge, LLC) wants to convert land presently zoned for general commercial, neighborhood shopping and low-density residential (including the present location of Brumby Elementary School) to community retail commercial and urban condominium categories.

In addition to the 100,000-square-foot Kroger, Terrell Mill Towne Center would include restaurant and retail space and 340 luxury residential units.

Here’s Eden Rock’s prospectus it posted in October.

Also in October, the developers and Cobb government and school officials outlined the project at a meeting of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance, a civic group formerly known as the Terrell Mill Community Association. That group has expressed general support for the Eden Rock project as a boost for the Powers Ferry area.

The development also is timed for the opening of a new Interstate 75 interchange at Terrell Mill Road.

In its analysis, the Cobb Zoning staff recommended that the developer donate right of way for traffic improvements, including a minimum of 50 feet on the west side of Powers Ferry Road, and a similar distance on the north side of Terrell Mill Road.

Terrell Mill Towne Center landscapingThe traffic study recommendation includes a long-term build-out assessment of 10 years, as well as the installation of traffic signal on Powers Ferry Road at least that’s at least 1,000 feet from the intersection of Terrell Mill Road.

Eden Rock also has proposed a traffic signal on Terrell Mill Road that would partially shut off access to the Terrell Mill Plaza (where the LA Fitness Center is located).

Zoning staff is recommending that a new access point be created at the rear of Terrell Mill Towne Center to coordinate with the Terrell Mill Plaza entrance, and that the developer build raised concrete islands on Powers Ferry Road and Terrell Mill Road.

The rest of Tuesday’s Cobb Planning Commission agenda can be found here, along with preliminary staff analysis.

Staff recommendations and the planning commission’s votes are advisory; the final say comes from the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Dec. 19.

 

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!

Proposed Terrell Mill Towne Center project subject of community meeting

by
Terrell Mill Towne Center
Eden Rock Real Estate Partners aerial rendering of the Terrell Mill Towne Center.

What’s currently the location of Brumby Elementary School and adjoining office and retail space along Powers Ferry Road is set to become the Terrell Mill Towne Center.

That’s the name the developers of a proposed 23-acre mixed-use project at the northwest intersection of Terrell Mill and Powers Ferry are calling their project. It is to be anchored by a 100,000-square-foot Kroger superstore, and plans include restaurant and retail space and 340 luxury residential units.

Eden Rock Real Estate Partners, which has a zoning application before the Cobb Board of Commissioners, will detail their plans Wednesday at a meeting held by the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance.

That meeting takes place at 7 p.m. at Brumby Elementary School, 1306 Powers Ferry Road. The PFCA, a citizens’ organization, was formerly called the Terrell Mill Community Association.

County development, public safety, transportation and school officials also have been invited to attend.

Brumby, which is relocating for the next school year to a new site on Terrell Mill Road, is where the new Kroger would be built (and moving down Powers Ferry from its current venue near Delk Road).

(Here’s a marketing package Eden Rock has prepared for potential tenants, touting the location’s proximity to SunTrust Park and the new Terrell Mill interchange with Interstate 75 that’s slated to open next spring.)

Eden Rock’s zoning application (here’s the most recently updated agenda item packet) has been delayed several months. The proposal would convert land currently zoned for general commerical, neighborhood shopping and residential (that’s Brumby, as are most schools) to a community retail center.

The Cobb Planning Commission will hear the application on Dec. 5, and the Cobb Board of Commissioners are scheduled to act on Dec. 12.

This will be the final round of zoning decisions in Cobb until February, since the commissioners do not hear zoning cases in January.

 

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!