Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

The staff certainly wants to support its future land use plan and we understand that. Uh but this area when you look along Highlands Parkway, it's an area that's developed actually as a very much a mixture of use. It's a mixeduse parkway. Highlands Parkway is it's zoned and used for office uses, extensive office uses. It's also has some industrial uses that are distribution and office industrial types of uses. But importantly, directly across Highlands Parkway, there's significant commercial, retail, and restaurant offerings and uses that are right there on Highlands Parkway. And there's also residential on Highlands Parkway there at Lakeidge. Exactly. Those uses are all on Highlands Parkway. That's a mix mixture of uses if I've ever seen one, along Highlands Parkway. Our proposal, we believe to reszone this seven acres uh is consistent though with that mixture of uses. It adds to the mixture that's already there. This area is not dominated by one particular use. It's dominated by the variety of uses that are along Highlands Parkway and therefore we believe this proposal by Wood Partners adds to doesn't take away and certainly is not inconsistent with that mixture. Moreover, as a community and as a region, from that perspective, it's undoubted unquestioned that there is a housing shortage and we need housing, especially in areas that are in close proximity to major employment centers like Highlands Parkway is a major employment center with the offices that are there and located. It's a great location given its proximity to South Cobb Drive and 285, its proximity to East West Connector through Highlands Parkway. That connectivity and that proximity again has an opportunity here to place housing in an area that can access those types of major roadways and short distance and can access those types of employment centers and the mixture of uses that are there.

Again, this proposal is one that yes, it does it's not consistent with the future land use plan. That's because we believe that the future land use plan hasn't caught up to what Highlands Parkway has become over the number of years that it has developed out. At this point, what I'd like to do though, so that you can have the details that you need from Wood Partners. Wood Partners. Again, this is a company and a developer that has built and developed very successful multif family projects in the city of Smyrna. Outstanding projects in the city. They're a welcome member, I know, of the city for what projects they have brought and I think it's important to hear from them and their perspective on what their vision is uh for this project specifically as well. So, I'm going to invite uh Blake Brady up to to give you that presentation as well. We're certainly all available to answer any questions that you may have and respect the request actually your approval of the application. How's it going? Uh my name is Blake Brady. I am with Wood Partners. Um really excited to be here tonight. Um I know we've had conversations uh with some of you along the way, so we're excited to uh to finally be here tonight. Um Kevin did a a good job of telling you guys why we love the location. Um, but I want to dive into a little bit more um of our history here in Smyrna. And I just want to make sure, can you see the package that I have on my screen, can anybody help? We have a a package that we prepared. Is there anybody that can put that on there? Yes, it's right here. Oh, there we go. I think everybody should see it now. Great.

Um, so again, diving into that history, um, it really is important to stress the fact that Wood Partners has a strong history here in Smyrna. Uh, with the developments of 400 Belmont, uh, and Sinant Jonquil. 400 Belmont was done in 2014. Uh, it's located at the intersection of Windy Hill Road and Atlanta Road. and then sink at jonquil which is at the intersection of spring road and Atlanta road and over the last eight months uh I brought up both of these developments in every conversation I've had as an intro to who we are and I've only heard positive feedback on each of these um both of these developments are at this point a decade a decade plus old um and they continue to be some of the best uh multif family developments in Smyrna I think that's a testament to the longlasting quality product um that we build, the type of developments that you want in your city. Um and as for any of the council members or community development members that have been here since we've built both of those, I think they can attest to the fact that Wood Partners builds great product. Um here's some pictures of of what these developments look like. Um and again, Chem did a great job of why we love this. To summarize, um if I pull up the location, we have office jobs to our right and our left, we have jobs all along Highlands Parkway. Um there's residential demand in this location. A thousand feet to our left, you have Highlands View Town Homes, thousands feet to our right, you have the West Hill town homes. People want to live here. Um as uh Kevin mentioned, you have great access to the state. Um, and the fourth point here, uh, you're about five minutes away from class A grocery stores and Publix and Sprouts.

Um, who who wouldn't want to live in this location. As I move on, here's why I think uh, Smyrna Council mayor uh, should love this development. First and foremost, uh the development aligns with Smyrna's 2040 comp plan. Maybe it doesn't align with the future land use map, but it definitely hits goal number three, which is to encourage uh the development of a range of housing choices in order to meet market demand and allow residents to remain in Smyrna across different life cycle stages. Uh policy 3.3 specifically says encouraging housing opportunities to enure uh that those who work within Smyrna have the option of living within the city. And again, we're projecting that a lot of our residents will uh be working along Highlands Parkway. This development checks those boxes. Um and as part of this, I know is brought up um in Rusty's uh presentation, but one of our profer conditions uh is setting aside five units um affordable units at 80% AMI. Um, and as a reminder to the group, our site is located within the Highlands Parkway Property Owners Association. And in order to move forward with this development, we needed the individual owners along this corridor uh to approve of our proposed use. And I'm happy to say that the businesses overwhelmingly support our development. Out of the 24 owners, we had 18 yes votes, which is just overwhelming support. Um, they want us to be here. Um, these businesses include the Home Depot Innovation Center, Engineered Solutions of Georgia, and Healey Brown, just to to name a few. And we have a an executed amendment that we included as part of this package. Um, and in addition to that, the property owners association board recommended approval to the ownership and we went door to door to introduce ourselves to the local businesses here, tell them what we're intending to do, and we had a handful of signatures there as well.

In addition to that, uh, I'd also like to point out, um, that there will be a significant property tax increase here. Um, as a vacant parcel, the total tax bill is right around uh with our proposed development, it'll be north of the 700,000. I'd also like to point out um why I think the Highlands View Town Home uh residents uh will appreciate our development, which brings me to our second profit condition, which is to pay for a traffic signal along Highlands Parkway and Lake Ridge Drive. Now, I want to make sure we're all on the same page here. This traffic signal will directly benefit the Highlands View Town Homes. It is right at this intersection where the circle is. Uh it'll benefit uh the properties along Lake Ridge and it will benefit uh the Highlands Grove offices across the street. Concerns, you know, over the last months have been brought up regarding this intersection. Uh and we're doing everything we can to demonstrate uh that we want to be good neighbors here uh and pay for this traffic signal. There's a few things uh I want to address headon uh before I open it up for any questions at the work session last Thursday. Uh I was asked um if we've addressed any of planning commission's comments and the answer is yes. Uh one thing that was brought up was noise along Highlands Parkway. And to address that, we'll be installing higher rated STC windows along that facade. Oh, and by the way, the front setback variance that we're requesting um will help alleviate any of those noise concerns. And in addition to that, when looking at our front setback variance, uh this request aligns with the existing conditions along Highlands Parkway. Um it's more of a function of the zoning designation that we're targeting, but you'll see setbacks for most of these buildings and parking from the street.

Uh another thing that's been brought up uh along the way has been potentially receiving complaints um from residents. And one of the great things about multif family development uh is that most concerns or complaints are handled internally. We have on-site property management. We have on-site maintenance. Uh and they are responsible for handling those concerns uh or complaints. So to summarize, uh this is sensible growth in a great location. Uh and with that, I'll open it up for any questions. Questions? Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. Um Mr. Moore as well. Um you have a lot of things that you would like for us to consider and um in considering them I have some questions if you could uh help with why should we ignore our future land use study. Um so with respect to what we're trying to develop here um I don't believe that industrial is something that specifically works here. If you look at this site plan, this will be much more um of a burdensome and a nuisance to the existing residents and the businesses in this specific area. Yes, maybe as you go further down Highlands Parkway, it makes more sense, but this here truly makes sense uh to redevelop as a a multif family opportunity. When you speak of existing residents and you talked about the town home uh communities, have you spoken to those town home communities? Unfortunately, I have not. Um I tried um Councilman Olesby tried to reach out to them and set up a meeting with them. Um the community manager that runs that um property and asset unfortunately would not facilitate that meeting. U but we did try not facilitate it because they didn't like the idea of it. Uh correct.

So as part of their um vote, the board that represents the town homes voted no on our development, but we didn't get a chance to actually speak to the residents and um candidly not not sure, but but the board is not in agreement. The board of the Highlands View Town Homes is not in agreement. Okay. And it it is worth pointing out that this traffic signal will directly benefit that property. to know that I understand about the traffic signal for that purpose of the town homes, but you're adding in that area is already zoned and somebody who knows a lot better, somebody like a Corki or whatever with all the industrial or whatever, it's already zone for office industrial. You've said that the office um partners around there are are okay with it, but they leave at like 5 o'lock. They leave. their their business is done. And so we have to be very careful, at least in my thought process, especially seeing about what we've already heard from some people who have who are living in an area that is heavily industrial around that area and and have issues with the noise and everything else um there. So, it's kind of concerning that people who live around it and the town homes who are there are not in agreement with this coming there. And then to clarify. And one other thing just because this is the part that I I your developments are fantastic. Um the the developments are fantastic. It would be great to see this development maybe in an in a different area. Um I understand what you're trying to accomplish, but if we approve it and and and this is where you you help me. I don't know. If we approve it, it becomes an island in a sense because the rest of the area is still zone and oi.

That would mean that we would if someone else came before us, we would have to do the same consideration and doing all these changes of variances and then the future um land use we would be ignoring for the whole area. It's almost like it's if we do this then it's a whole precedent of changing the whole plan. So can you tell me why we should do that? Yeah. So I I would make the argument that there is precedent for having residential here and that's proof of the Highlands View Town Homes and the West town homes. So this area does have residential Mr. W to Miss Hines I I understand your situation too, but we're I mean and we're facing another similar situation where we have residential properties against industrial and type properties. But in this case, we we would have a property. They're going to know what's on either side. I mean, it's established. And that would be my answer to it. Wilson. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so I have a couple of questions. Um I think there's uh u in the documents 2500 square feet of retail. Correct. Um can you pull up the site plan again? Um sure. Okay. Thank you. And as far as where that um retail will be and will it also will the the uh the rental offices be at part of that space that 2500 square? No. So, if you look at the site plan here, there's a shaded SH section which is the leasing amenity and then a crosshatch section which says retail. Um, a little bit hard. I don't know if you see my cursor. That's where the retail will be. Um, the retail square footage is separate from the leasing and amenity space. Okay. Um, and again, you know, we're intending and envisioning this to be neighborhood focused retail.

Um these are the coffee shop inspiration images that we would look to provide. Um you know it would be a very nice community amenity where people could come in grab a cup of coffee grab a bagel etc. Okay. Thank you. Um the other thing if we could look at the site plan and I uh I'm assuming there's going to be sidewalks within the the community and access to the sidewalk. It's on Highland Parkway. Yes, that's correct. There's a there's a crosswalk or a couple of crosswalks right in front of the leasing amenity uh that would take you to a sidewalk that would take you out to to Highlands Parkway. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Gold, thanks so much for your work effort to get to this point. Um, for the mixed use aspect, it really to me it looks like an apartment multif family development and do you know what the minimum square footage of retail you need to qualify for mixed use? Off the top of my head, no, I do not. But most of us use applications that we've been developments we see here are really focused on retail that attracts visitors from the outside. Here to your point, the mix is really meant for generally be targeted for your residents, right? No, we we do believe that this is for the offices adjacent to us as well. Um Fountain Spark office when they come in to work um they can come in, grab a coffee, um grab a pastry, etc. Um you know, this is for everybody to use. Um so yes, we we intend for not just our residents but uh for the uh adjacent businesses and even for uh the existing residents.

um along this corridor products are great by the city that yeah for mixed use I' much prefer to see more engaging retail commercial activity other questions for the applicant thank you say somebody else is coming up here too or no hearing um about anybody who wants to speak for or against this item to come up and be sworn in by our city attorney. Everybody come up together. All of y'all if you if you even think you're going to speak, come on up and get sworn in. You'll state your name and address for the record. Yes. Uh my name is Kamit Main 6216 Amogi River Lane. Mapleton or Smyrna depending on who you ask, but how to speak into the microphone. Mapleton or Sperna depending on who you ask, but I live along the river. Um so I wasn't planning to speak on this but heard about it. I know that we our community has been in lots of conversations with many of you all around the industrial nature of where we live along Riverview Road. And so I did want to highlight that I believe me and some of my neighbors would be in support of some of the mixeduse retail things like coffee shop, restaurants. And so just wanted to make sure that our community and some of the conversations that we've been having with you all around our concern about the industrial use were not like part of the reasons why not to deny this because I do believe our community would be in support of something that brought, you know, more positive things like coffee and restaurants and things to the community. So just wanted to offer that. Good evening. Barrett Carter, 454 Oakbrook Drive. I uh wanted to come speak against this proposal and wanted to just put my thoughts down to try to respect your uh your time limit this evening.

Uh good evening mayor and city council and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to speak against the proposed development. The proposed development does not fit. By review of the public record, the planning and zoning commission voted this down seven to nothing. City staff does not recommend the resoning and has denied or recommends against all six variances. The proposed development does not align with the city of Smyrna's comprehensive planned land use development designation. In the developer's original presentation, the planning and zoning on August 11th, they stated that goal three was to encourage the development of a range of housing choices in order to meet market demand and allow residents to remain in Smyrna. The example that was used was that they are people that work along Highlands Parkway that are leasing units in their Union City development, which is a 45minute drive to work. Having been a resident of Cobb County for 32 years and city of Smyrna for 25 years, a 45 minute drive, while not desired, is not unheard of. However, I'm not sure that a small handful of 45minute commutes would justify this development. It simply does not fit. The developer has provided a school impact analysis that appears to have been created based on a review of Cobb County School District's enrollment study annual update from last year. However, it seems to state conclusions that do not match reality. While the analysis provides the under capacity numbers of Campbell Middle School and Campbell High School at 87% and 92% respectively, it did not provide the level of detail such as that for Nicadjac Elementary School. So, I looked it up. The study provided that Nicac is currently over capacity at 127% which is the highest overage in Cobb County's 64 elementary schools. It's outpacing the second place school by nearly 10%.

That same report also states that in the past three years, more apartments have been built in Cobb County than single family residences. Cobb County is one of the fastest growing counties by percentage. And the Atlanta Regional Commission or ARC states that Cobb's population will hit 1 million by 2050. The Cobb County School Board adjusted that projection down by 86,000. Yet their own report states that the ARC is a very reliable agency and that this adjusted projection serves as an indicator that Cobb's population will quote continue to grow. I reached out to the principal of Nicac for her thoughts. I've not heard back from her yet. However, in fairness to her, I called her earlier today and she's not had much time to return my call. A new bus stop would likely need to be added, but the question is where? I've seen a handful of bus stops in front of apartment complexes on major roads like South Cobb Drive. Adding a bus stop onto Highlands Parkway would surely present a safety concern, especially with the amount of freight traffic that that road currently receives and the amount of stoppage time and rush hour. Regarding safety, one of the development's entrances is across the street from a pizzeria and a cigar bar, both of which close at 2 am, seven days a week. Pedestrians will cross Highlands Parkway at 2 am. The developer has proposed paying for a traffic signal at Lake Ridge Drive. It is highly unlikely that a patron leaving an establishment at 2 am will walk 2,000 ft west to Lake Ridge Drive or 1,000 ft east to the Oakdale Drive crossing just to reach the crosswalk. They'll simply walk the 80 ft across Highlands Parkway at 2 a.m. The developer acknowledged that the speed on Highland Parkway is excessive and the speed on the road at 2 a.m. and pedestrians simply don't mix.