License and Variance Board Meeting - A. MAX BACON CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Minutes
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January 22, 2025 10:00 AM City of Smyrna License and Variance Board Meeting 2800 King Street SE Council Chambers Page 3 of 11 B. V25-004 Public Hearing - Variance Request - V25-004 - Allow six-foot fence in front yard - Land Lot 779 - 2200 Lake Park Drive - Kristina Leidner-Eisenhardt Ward 1 Councilmember - Glenn Pickens Caitlin Crowe, Planner I, provided the following background: The subject parcel is a 6.87-acre lot located on the northern side of Lake Park Drive, zoned OI (Office Institutional) (see Figure 1). The adjoining property to the north is in Cobb County and is occupied by a Cadillac car dealership. The adjoining property to the west is zoned GC (General Commercial) and is occupied by commercial office space. The adjoining property to the east is zoned OI (Office Institutional) and is occupied by SkinPath Solutions, a medical lab. The adjoining properties to the south are zoned RM-12 and GC and are occupied by the Cortland at the Village apartment complex and the Colonial Pipeline offices, respectively. The subject property is located on Lake Park Drive, a well-travelled roadway between Veterans Memorial Parkway and Cobb Parkway. The subject property was recently redeveloped into an education facility to be used by the Amana Academy West Atlanta campus, a kindergarten through 8 th grade charter school that recently relocated to Smyrna. The site has one large 35,460 square foot main building (constructed in 1985) and three modular classroom buildings (constructed in 2024), all facing towards the interior of the lot where the parking lot is situated. Since the main building and parking area are centralized in the middle of the property, there is limited area adjacent to the modular classrooms for a play area; the students are currently using the parking lot during recess activities. The most logical location to place the playground is to the side and rear of the main building, closer to Lake Park Drive, which is currently a forested natural area. By keeping the playground at the side and rear of the building, the parking area is left available for child drop-off and pick-up. In order to maintain the safety of the children while playing outside and provide security to the property as a whole, the applicant is requesting a 6- foot black metal fence near the Lake Park Drive entrance and circling the property. Section 503-A restricts the height of fences within a front yard to four feet. Strict application of the ordinance would require a fence greater than four feet in height be setback 50 feet from the entire property line off Lake Park Drive. This would cut through the required egress pathway from the modular classrooms to the parking lot and keep the nearby inlet structure outside the security of the fence. The majority of the proposed fence will be behind the 50-foot front setback, with a roughly 176-foot encroachment to maneuver around the existing modular classroom building and inlet structure (see Figure 2). There will also be a 43-foot length that will encroach on the eastern side of the property so the fence can follow the line of the entrance drive. The City Engineer has reviewed the application and does not foresee any issues with sight distance at the entrance to the school. Community Development does not foresee any negative impacts to adjacent properties should the variance be approved. A similar variance was approved in 2023 down the road at 1800 Lake Park Dr (V23-092), which was incidentally a proposed private school at the time of the variance request. At the time of this report, Community Development has not received any calls in opposition to the request. The applicant has requested a variance to allow for a 6-foot fence in the front yard at 2200 Lake Park Drive. According to Section 1403 of the Zoning Ordinance, variances must be reviewed under the following standards: (1) Whether there are unique and special or extraordinary circumstances applying to the property; (2) Whether any alleged hardship is