Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

So education is near and dear to our hearts. So um we're glad to support them. And since co co was rough on us, but since then we've been able to donate $66,473 to Smyrna Education Foundation. So that's awesome. Thank you very much. So people are very familiar with the work that JRM does, but they may not know exactly the what you give back to the community and and all the wonderful work you do for for the city of Smyrna. We appreciate that very much. Thank you very much. And uh I'm Jeff Dax. Um I'm one of the board members on the Smyrna Education Foundation and I'm here with Tanner Goldsmith. Uh we're both on that board and we want to thank JRM for what JRM does uh for us. Uh what Smyrna Education Foundation does is it supports the 13 public schools within the city limits of Smyrna or those which send kids as fe part of the feeder program up into Cob uh Campbell High School. So the feeder schools for Campbell or city limits of Smyrna. That's a total of 13 public schools that we support. Uh we just finished giving $750 grants to each of those schools. We're in the process of giving uh $2,000 grants to each of those schools. And uh it's because of the money that we raised from JRM and from a couple of other sources uh like JRM um that we're able to uh do what we do for the schools. So, thank you very much again. Thank you for your time. Awesome. We really appreciate y'all. Thank you for your service on the committee and and JRM for all you do for us. Thank you. Thanks so much, Steph. Thank you. You know, one thing I failed to mention in my mail report, and I'm and I'm going to mention it because we've gotten some questions about it. We were just talking about it in our pre-consil meeting. This is in my hand is a list of uh what we're going to put forward to the county uh for the special purpose local option sales tax that'll be voted on uh for 2028. It'll be voted on this November for 2028. Uh the county has a couple of um meetings that they've scheduled for public input. One of which is I think on February 25th. Um but we are some of the other cities have put their lists out already. We have not we we've just kind of finalized it and you'll be seeing that um on our website and and

distributed to the public for your um for your comment back to us about what's important to you and and what we should be funding with the 2028 splast.

All right. We'll move on now to the rest of our agenda. First, uh, under item seven, community development items. I think this is the only one. Yes. Uh, Z, this is item A, Z25-015. This is a a public hearing zoning amendment Z25-015. Request to modify the site plan, elevations, and zoning conditions of Z21-014, land lot 751 and 752. This is 6.9 acres. 4941, 499, and 5041 South Cobb Drive and 4960, 4970, 4980, and 5000 Oakdale Road. Uh, Aerys Smyrna LLC, if I remember right, I know you're going to give us all the details, but we had we had zoned this before. Uh, and this is a the next iteration or or a different iteration of this site. Yes, sir. All right, I'll turn it over to Rusty. Uh Rusty Martin, community development director for the city of Smyrna. Um this is a zoning amendment case to a previously uh approved reszoning of the property. Um this is zoning case Z25-015. He uh SimRNA is the the applicant. Um this went before the planning and zoning board on uh January 5th and it received an approval of 3 to two um with a recommendation for approval of 3 to2. The subject property is located on the northeast uh corner of the intersection of South South Cobb Drive and Oakdale Road. Um it's approximately uh seven acres in size. Um, it's currently a vacant assemblage. It's a wooded lot. There used to be an old uh church building there, but that's since been demolished since the the last resoning. Um, the applicant is proposing 45 town homes and uh 5,000 square feet of uh drive-thru restaurant. Um I'll go through what was previously approved and then what they're what what they're proposing now. Um the zoning of the property will remain um mixed use conditional conditional with this request and there'll be no changing.

It's just a modifi modification of the of the site plan and the building elevations. With this request, there is no change to the future land use map. It'll remain community activity center. um mixed use is is an appropriate zoning for that uh future land use designation. So there's no need to change it. In the adjoining contiguous future land use, there's neighborhood activity center in Cobb County's property. Um to the north um and then to the east there's medium density residential in Cobb County and then medium density residential in Samra. And then to the south it's community activity center and then to the west um it's um high density residential in Cobb County and low density residential. Just to give you a little background on the property in 2007 the property was assembled um eight total parcels and it was annexed and reszoned. They were SRAA parcels and and Cobb County parcels uh mixed together and it was reszoned from R15 and RDA Simra and R20 and LR uh Cobb County to GC conditional for 26,000 square foot retail center. Fast forward to 2021, the property was reszoned from GC to mixeduse conditional for 163 units and 20,000 square ft of commercial and commercial commercial and restaurant space. Um, this request tonight is to modify the the resoning from uh 2021. um it'll maintain the existing zoning category of MU. However, they want to reduce the the multifamily units down to 45 uh town home units, which are single family residential, which are owner occupied units, and reduce the the commercial space from 20,000 square feet down to five with a with a drive through restaurant rather than um what was allowed in the GC zoning. We are maintaining the mixeduse zoning category and doing a plan modification because the restaurant use is allowed. Town home uses are allowed in the mixeduse zoning as opposed to changing it to GC for the drive-thru.

Um just to because the MU is a more restrictive use or restrictive district. It doesn't allow the hundreds of 100 plus uses that are allowed in the GC. The plan from 21 is reflected here. The residential units, the 163 units were broken up into buildings, um, four to fivetory buildings and then there was an associated parking deck off the back. The commercial space was broken up between three buildings. It was the first floor of the both uh residential buildings and then there was about a 5,000 square foot um parcel that was just purely commercial. The applicant is proposed to modify that plan to this plan which um is broken up into two phases. You or two parts. You have the the the town home development and then you have the commercial development on the south side. The mixeduse zoning district for the residential town homes has a front setback 25 side of 12 and a rear of 30 ft. You got 45 fe simple town homes. These town homes are front entry. Um these town homes are rear entry. So, the town homes that are um facing Oakdale Road will have the front of the town homes facing Oakdale Road and the garages will be to the interior off the rear of the home. And then the other three buildings will have the front of their their town home units facing the park set the park there. There's an amenity green in the middle of the property and then storm water management will be underneath that. With this development, there'll be a full access drive for the town homes off of South Cobb Drive with an associated deceleration lane. And then off of Oakdale Road, there will be a full access drive. The development will have a 5-ft sidewalk with two-ft grass strip that goes all the way around um Oakdale Road and South Cop Drive.

and then through the development. The commercial development has the following setbacks. Minimum front of zero, side of zero, and a rear of 20. And then a maximum of 95 ft and a side maximum of 20. And these are associated with what the MU zoning district um allows. Um with this, we're modifying the maximum to allow the building to be pushed off uh the road. It is a 5,000 square foot drive-through restaurant uh with indoor dining as well as 67 um associated parking spaces. All the queuing and everything will be located on this site um to be able to handle um service from this site and not back out into uh South Cobb Drive or Hookale Road. There's a detached canopy and menu board. Um and then the trash enclosure is located here and storm water. Um in this location with this there are several uh traffic improvements. There's a deceleration lane along with a full access drive on Oakdale Road and then a full access drive and a deceleration on um South Cobb Drive. not shown on here, which the applicant has agreed to, is to provide a um pedestrian crossing somewhere on Oakdale Road where appropriate. Um that'll be a hawk system. So, it'll be the flashing lights with a marked uh crosswalk. Um and that'll be determined if this gets approved during the plan review uh process in coordination with um SimRNA and if it's if it would be located in uh the area in J Cobb County's jurisdiction then we'll coordinate with them as well with this request. There's several landscape buffers, 10-ft landscape buffers between um the commercial property and adjoining residential. And this also has the sidewalk connections um for the property. With this request, there's five variances um associated with this. Uh the first is to allow a reduction in the side step back from 25 ft to 12 feet for for the town homes.

Two is to allow a drive-thru restaurant in the mixeduse zoning district. Uh three is to allow drive-through facilities and associated queuing lanes between the building and adjacent streets. Four uh allow an additional accessory structure for the restaurant. And then uh five to allow the garbage dumpsters to be visible from public street for the restaurant. to give you guys some context with respect to the restaurant and the surrounding properties. Um the applicant has provided some um illustrations and renderings of the perspectives from Oakdale Road in uh South Cobb Drive. So this first perspective is from Oakdale Road looking back at the the the building. Um, and as you can see, the building sits lower than um, Oakdale Road, probably closer to grade with uh, South Cobb Drive. This is from the interior of the property looking back um, basically where you enter the drive-thru restaurant back at the building. And as you can see on the right hand side of the property, there's a there is a retaining wall and you can see uh that grade or elevation change on that right hand side from Oakdale Road. And then this would be sort of your perspective from uh from South Cobb Drive and then another one um from Oakdale Road. Here are also some landscape renderings for the residential site. And then your proposed elevations for the the residential buildings. Um the top are the front entry elevations and then the bottom are your uh rear entry elevations. These are the fronts of both of those types of um entries. And then just giving you some more perspective of what the rear looks like. These are the proposed restaurant elevations and all brick uh structure and then some pictures of of the subject property and then adjoining properties.

Community development is recommending approval of zoning uh to revise the site plan and elevations of reszoning KZ21-014 um in the mixeduse uh conditional zoning district at South Cobb Drive and Oakdale Road for 45 town home units at 10 units per acre and a 5,000 square foot drive-through restaurant. We've kept most of the we've kept all the standard stipulations from section 1201. Um we have modified the the special conditions from uh zoning case 21 from the zoning case 21. We've added the setbacks requested uh for the town home units in stipulation number 10. And then um everything from the previous request is staying the same. any transportation improvements on South Cobb Drive will be reviewed uh by uh G DOT prior to any development permits being issued. Um and then you have, you know, requirements for storm water improvements, water and sewer and fire access. Then we move further. We've eliminated the request some of the stipulations that were no longer applicable and modified the rest of them. And I'll get to the end here where we um we we modified the site plan stipulation and the ele elevations stipulations to reflect the dates of the elevations and site plan submitted for this request. And then we tied the the town home elevations to the standards established in section 501 which are the new uh town home requirements which require some articulation uh varying roof types and so forth. So those will all be applicable um to those um town home designs. 41 allows for the mixed use or allows for the drive-through restaurant. 42 um allows lanes to be located between the building and the adjacent street. 43 allows for the additional accessory structure. 44 um requires the allows for the the dumpster to be visible provided it it's in a three-sided brick enclosure. And 45 uh the developer shall replace the existing curbs within certain city's jurisdiction with with highback curb and gutter.

46 is um they need to uh investigate and document the condition of the storm drain systems um and rehab any existing CMP that may need to be required. Um and then 47 requires landscape buffers. And then 48 requires uh no Hardy plank sighting on any elevation visible from a public rideway. And then 49 is the requirement for the signalized uh pedestrian crossing on Oakdale Road. And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions for you. Thank you, Rusty. This is in Ward 7, so we'll turn it over to Mr. Oglesby for any questions and comments. I know there are a lot of people here from Ward 7, surrounding areas to that will speak on this tonight. Mr. Oglesby. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you, Rusty. Uh that was very thorough. I really appreciate that. Uh you answer some of my questions. I do have one question uh to start. Um the Chick-fil-A that's currently there. Will there be do you know of any deed restrictions that will be put on that that particular restaurant or is there someone here that can answer that? I I am unaware, but I'm sure the applicant can probably answer that question for you. Yeah, obviously we don't want a vacant Chick-fil-A building in that area either. Um, in reference, I did notice that the uh the crosswalk was put in there and I do appreciate that. Do we have an idea where that crosswalk will be located? um not not at the moment, but that'll they will do sight sight distance studies um during the development of the construction plans uh for the LDP and they'll make that determine where determination where it's appropriate based on the site distance up and down Oakdale Road. Uh, and last and final question, and I was trying to figure it out on the drawing, and you may need to pull it back up.

In reference to the Del Lane, where is that in reference to the Oakdale Estates entrance? Is that is that in the same area or is that kind of No, it's um And this I've got it pulled up if they want to pull it up on um It's further It's to the south. Um the del lane is sort of I think in between where the convenience store is and I think that's Misty Lane. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other questions for Rusty? Yeah. What's the approximate distance from the Oakdale the exit onto Oakdale Road from the Chick-fil-A to the South Cobb Drive intersection? Uh, it's probably I don't know. I'd have to look at it. It's It's probably 150 ft. Yeah. 200 feet, I'm sure. Olivia, can you pull up the podium computer, please? I don't I'm not I I don't have a scale on me, so that's a tough question to answer. Russy, Kennet. Yeah. Were you finished? Well, Miss Wilkinson had a question as well. No, I'm done. Miss Wilkinson, um, are the town homes going to be gated? I've just No, there was a stipulation that they can't be gated and the road system through the town homes will be a public road. Okay. And and also notice you said fe simple. Will there be a HOA uh with the associated with the town homes? Yes. request. Um that's part of the um zoning stipulations for 1201 require a mandatory HOA for maintenance of the infrastructure associated with the development. Okay. All right. Thank you. Do you um so for PE I riding through this area on Oakdale Road, I've noticed quite a few pedestrians along that path. There are some neighborhoods um along Oakdale Road and also the Silver Comic Trail passes there. Is it I know there's going to be sidewalks uh in this development, but will there be a way for um pedestrians to go to the Chick-fil-A?

I mean, I know that we talked a lot about the the lanes keying up at the drive-thru, but is it there will the pedestrians be able to walk up and Yes. Um if they are on the east side of Oakdale Road, they've already the applicant has agreed to put a signalized cross pedestrian crossing on Oakdale Road to get them across to the site. Um depending on where that crossing is, there is um they can either enter the site through a um sidewalk where uh the grade is appropriate up at I guess the if you look at the site plan sort of in between um where the t the town home and Chick-fil-A building are located. Um or they can come down and there'll be access uh further down. Um, we've worked out another sidewalk uh access from that point down there. Um, Russy, so I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. Even if we were to approve this on some levels, there's still two other reviews it's got to go through. Am I right? Is it Cobb County and and DOT for purposes of the roadway? Yes, they will have an opportunity to review on and with respect to what they have jurisdiction over. They'll they've got to the applicant will have to submit to those jurisdictions for review and approval from them prior to us issuing the land disturbance permit. Okay. So, we will not issue a land disturbance permit if GOT has not signed off on the plan because they, you know, they control South Drive. They control South Co Drive and so if there was an issue then they may not approve it. Okay. Thank you. Got a question Mr. Mayor. Mr. Good Rusty on the U town homes. Could you just describe um a little more about the materials that'll be facing the road and visible from the road please?

Yes. For the most part it'll be um brick and then board and batten from my understanding. Um, but everything visible from the front and the sides. There will be no lap siding on those elevations. Good. So, it'll be in accordance with the town home standards. Thank you. Any other questions? I know one of the questions I had asked in our meeting the other night was about the dumpster and where it's located. Can um can you point that out on this thing this uh map that's here? The Yes. Uh you see the the hatch section sort of in the middle uh landscape island in the middle uh in front of the Chick-fil-A building. That's where the dumpster enclosure will be. So you would enter the site and if you were entering from South Cobb Drive, it'd be the first driveway and then they'd pull in there to access it and then pull around um all the way around and back out. Mr. Jones, did you have a comment or question? Yeah. Um Rusty, taking a look at the way this property is currently zoned um versus what's being asked for today. It is this a in your opinion is this a less intense use than what's already zoned that could go there today? Yes. This the zoning is not changing but from an intensity standpoint in our minds it's a down zoning of the property. Okay. is that you so you you went from 160 apartments to 45 town homes, but you've also added a a Chick-fil-A, which is going to be a little bit more intense probably than whatever was you went from 163 units down to 453 units. And then you went from 20,000 square feet of commercial space down to five, which if you know, looking at the 20,000 square feet under the first, you you might have had two or three restaurant spaces in those buildings.