Another project with 99 homes, 60 townhomes and commercial development postponed
The Loganville Planning Commission is recommending that the Loganville City Council reject a rezoning request for 26 acres at 4615 Atlanta Highway where a residential developer is proposing a 125-townhome project fronted by two restaurants.
The planners’ 3-2 Thursday vote, with commission members Barbara Forrester, Michael Joyner and Cathy Swanson voting to recommend denial of the request and Linda Dodd and William Williams supporting the project, came after residents of nearby Cown Drive expressed concerns about increased traffic that the project, as currently proposed, would bring to their narrow neighborhood street.
One entrance into the proposed residential development would be from Cown Drive. But even now, Cown Drive resident Daniel Harlow told the planning commission, traffic on the street is dangerous. Recently, Harlow said, a motorist confused the road with his driveway and ran into his garage door and front porch.
“Say ‘no’ to a cut-through,” Harlow urged planning commission members.
Residents went on to note that traffic on Cown Drive is already problematic due to Grower’s Outlet, a popular wholesale produce business on the street. In effect, one resident said, Cown Drive residents already frequently find themselves “stranded on our street.”
The Cown Drive access is, however, required for the project, because any development with more than 75 residences must have an alternate entry point for emergency services, Loganville Planning Director Robbie Schwartz explained Thursday. The main entrance to the proposed development is on Atlanta Highway.
The planning commission’s narrow decision to recommend denial of the rezoning request will be in front of the Loganville City Council at its Nov. 14 meeting. Both the developer and interested members of the public will be able to address the city council, which has the final word on zoning-related matters.
The project is being pursued by Kittle Homes, a longstanding metropolitan Atlanta residential development firm. As envisioned, the Loganville project would comprise 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath residences with 1,600 square feet of heated space and two-car garages. Most of the residences would be two-story structures.
Zac Kittle, who owns the company with his brother, Judson, told the planning commission Thursday that the town-homes would start at $375,000.
“We try and target millennial buyers for their first home,” he explained, adding that Kittle Homes projects also attract baby boomers looking to downsize in their later years.
There was a moment of levity in the discussion of the Kittle Homes project when Forrester pleaded that the restaurant options for the tract not include Mexican fare, which she said already proliferates in Loganville.
Neither of the restaurants will be Mexican, Kittle reassured Forrester and the rest of the planning commission.
While Kittle Homes will get a second chance to convince city officials to grant the requested rezoning at next month’s city council meeting, they also face the prospect of having to wait a year to bring the project back to the city if the requested rezoning is rejected by the council.
Another major residential rezoning proposal, with some associated annexation requests, had been slated for planning commission review on Tuesday. But due to what Schwartz described as paperwork errors in documents filed by Loganville-based Uprise Development, review of a proposal for a 71-acre mixed-use project along Tuck Road and Tom Brooks Road had to be postponed until the planning body’s January meeting. Planners do not meet in either November or December.
As currently proposed, the planned Brooks Landing development would bring 99 single-family detached homes, 60 townhomes, and 24,000 square feet of combined commercial and retail space to the community.
The rezoning requests associated with the Brooks Landing proposal would establish a PUV (planned urban village) classification on tracts currently carrying a variety of zoning classifications, which include commercial/industrial, agricultural and residential designations.
Documentation from Uprise Development indicates that single-family homes in the proposed project would sell in the $400,000 range, with townhomes likely priced around $350,000.
In other action Thursday, planning commissioners voted unanimously to recommend city council approval of a rezoning request and two zoning variance requests from Atlanta-based
BAMM Real Estate for a five-acre tract between Atlanta Highway and Covington Street. The requested rezoning, from an existing residential classification to a commercial designation, is aimed, along with the variances, at facilitating construction of a two-story, 50,000-square-foot medical office building at the site. A major metropolitan Atlanta-based healthcare facility reportedly is interested in leasing the facility once it is constructed.
The zoning variances recommended for approval at Thursday’s planning commission meeting address requirements for buffering the tract from adjoining properties, and requirements for parking at the facility.
BAMM Real Estate is seeking to limit landscape buffering to a five-foot landscaped strip and some screening, down from the 30 feet required in the city’s zoning regulations.
BAMM Real Estate also wants to set the number of required parking spaces at 4.5 spaces for every 1,000 square feet of space within the office building, a total of 225 spaces. The zoning ordinance requires 1 parking space for 200 square feet of building space, plus 3 spaces for each business operated within the structure, which would translate to 400 spaces.
Planning commissioners were told Thursday that 4.5 spaces for every 1,000 square feet of building space is an accepted standard for medical office buildings.
In another bit of Thursday business, planning commissioners unanimously recommended that the city council approve both an annexation request and a rezoning request for three acres at 520 Brand Road.
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