Cherokee County to consider major mixed-use development

In May, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners will consider whether to allow a development with over 400 apartments to be built in the southwest portion of the county.

SW Cherokee Holdings LLC to rezone 39.46 acres from single-family residential, neighborhood commercial, general commercial and office/institutional to general commercial (4.46 acres) and multi-family residential (35 acres) at 3387 Highway 92 near Acworth, to build a mixed-use development.

On Tuesday, the Cherokee County Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend denial of the application.

SW Cherokee Holdings LLC is looking to build 418 multifamily apartments across nine buildings, 66 for-sale townhomes, 13,500 square feet of office space, 8,600 square feet of retail space, 16,000 square feet of restaurant space and 1,045 parking spaces, according to county documents. The apartment buildings would be three to five stories tall.

The proposed development would be adjacent to the Vestavia Estates subdivision and Salem Woods subdivision. This development would also be near the 56-acre Woodworth Park coming to the area.

The board is expected to consider the request May 5. Because of the recommendation for denial, if county commissioners want to do anything other than deny it, the case will have to be readvertised for a public hearing at a later date per BOC rules, according to the county.

The county’s Southwest Cherokee Area Plan identifies the site as “Mixed-Use Center,” which is “intended to provide a mixture of retail, office, residential, restaurant and civic uses.” The area plan proposes a density of up to 10 units per acre; the applicant’s proposal would be 12.27 units per acre. The plan also says “mixed-use center” developments may propose structures between two and four stories tall.

If approved, construction would take about one and a half to two and a half years, according to the county.

The applicant is also seeking multiple variances, of which planning commissioners also recommended denial. They are:

♦ A variance to the zoning ordinance for relief to the Highway 92 Overlay Streetscape.

♦ To reduce a zoning buffer to 10-feet adjacent to R-40 zoned property.

♦ To eliminate the internal zoning buffers between GC and RM-16.

♦ To allow streets to not end in a cul-de sac, instead using hammerhead turnarounds.

♦ To allow front building setbacks to be zero to 12 feet.

♦ To allow disturbance and replanting of zoning buffers.

♦ To reduce parking ratios as presented.

♦ To allow an existing wireless tower to be located within a property line a distance less than the height of the tower.

Planning Commissioner Chris Van Zant said that in this application, “the opportunity created with the investment of Woodworth Park is kind of lost.”

“We’re not really creating a mixed-use development. We are creating a majority for-rent community with only 11% commercial opportunity in this parcel,” he said. “I see major traffic and parking concerns, and we are over the Southwest Cherokee Area Plan density of 10 units per acre at 12.27. Most of the variances don’t show real hardship. I find real concern with the request by the applicant to reduce the buffer around R-40 property. It’s borderline vindictive to me. It’s R-40 now. I don’t care what it will be in the future. That’s somebody’s home. To collapse those buffers is not applicable here.”

He added that bringing in another for-rent community does not help solve the county’s problem finding affordable housing.

“This is not the best mixed-use plan,” he said.

Planning Commissioner Lisa Tressler said the proposal doesn’t fit the community’s vision for the area.

“This is a very high-density residential with a few isolated token restaurant, general commercial, or OI to make it seem like it’s a mixed-use plan,” she said.

Planning Commissioner Richard Belote said that if the project needs these variances, then it’s not the right project for the location.

“We have those restrictions in place for various reasons,” he said. “This needs to be heavier commercial.”

Planning Commission Chairman Rick Whiteside emphasized that “we are not seeing a lot of mixed-use. We are seeing a large-scale residential development.”

Four area residents spoke in opposition to the development request, citing traffic and other concerns.

Matt Olbrych said he is concerned about the development’s proposed connection to Priest Road, which he described as narrow. He said he is concerned that the development will worsen traffic on Priest Road and on Highway 92, and the development’s impact on property values, the school system’s capacity and wildlife.

Olbrych also presented a petition signed by 32 area residents opposing the project.

“I moved out of east Cobb because of things like this. I moved to Cherokee to get away from that,” he said. “It’s not in keeping with the nature of this area.”

Ted Hawkins echoed many of Olbrych’s sentiments, and said he’d like to see changes to the applicant’s mixed-use proposal.

“All of this traffic coming onto 92 is going to be a nightmare,” he said. “I live in that particular area. Right now traffic is fine, but if you add 500 cars traveling on there on a daily basis it will be a burden, regardless how they deal with it.”

Benjamin Holtmark said the project needs more parking. He also said he is concerned about the apartments potentially being up to five stories. Mary Katherine Lawman said that the potential for high traffic raises safety concerns.

DeeDee Ives, one of the property owners of the site, told planning commissioners she supports the application.

The Board of Commissioners’ May 5 meeting is set to start at 6 p.m. at the Cherokee County Conference Center, 1130 Bluffs Parkway in Canton.