Planning and Zoning Commission - A. MAX BACON CITY HALL - COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Minutes
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November 10, 2025 6:00 PM City of Smyrna Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting 2800 King Street SE Council Chambers Page 6 of 8 Roby Mitchell- 1730 Shillings Rd- supportive- part of civic organization that has shown that more affordable housing is necessary in the community and that seniors will not create more traffic. He urges the city to move forward with the application. Cathy Pack- 1198 Belmont Ave- opposed- parking seems insufficient and concerned with the impacts on the neighboring properties and impacts the school that is there. Emily Johnson- 1363 Belmont Ave- opposed- believes that there will be more emergency vehicles due to this being an age-restricted area and has safety concerns for emergency vehicle access on the narrow streets. She is also concerned about pedestrians with overflow parking on the streets. Kathy Omaits- 207 Countryside Pl- supportive- wonderful opportunity to do something humanitarian and wants this to be a part of the community. She said that we should not start isolating people but the big picture shows that this will be good for the community. Sarai Jones- Trilingual Academy at 2435 Dixie Ave- opposed- owns the school next door and wants to ensure the health, safety and wellness of the children of the community. She is not concerned with the development and the age but she will be applying for a charter and will be adding 100 vehicles each day for children drop-off. She feels that they did not take into account the school into their traffic study. Karen O’Brien- 2475 Adams Dr- opposed- opposed- has stormwater concerns. She clarified that a meeting with the community as a whole has not happened and that there was no meeting with anyone on Belmont Ave. Lem Ward- 1496 Spring St- opposed- residential high-rise has a specific definition with 4 stories and wonders if you can ask to change the very definition of the residential high- rise. He said so many variances needed means that it is fundamentally changing the property and they need to show the hardship on the property for the variances. He said whenever they fought something and won, they always got something better in the future. He also said it would have been nice to see the staff report beforehand. Jeff Bailey- 2485 Dixie Ave- opposed- what happens tonight will extend past to years from now and there are more people here to oppose than agree with it. He said he wants to maintain public trust. He said he is the president of the Belmont Station HOA and has an autistic son who is in the area and asks from the heart to deny it. Robert Ragans- 1305 Pierce Ave- opposed- track record for the developer includes lawsuits with previous site in Ithaca, NY and they are only here for the tax credits. He said they will come in and cause a lot of issues. Melissa East- 4358 Laurion Dr- supportive- interested in the redevelopment since they would like to see additional residential types in the area and would like to see more people able to add to the area. It appears to be a gradual density which is only 3 story and checks many of the right boxes and will improve the community. This will not be adding to the 9-5 traffic. She also said she would like to add more sidewalks in general. James Hamman- 1278 Belmont Ave- opposed- feels that this has been rushed through. Chairman Powell asked what he had to do for the property when he got his variance and he said he had to go to the adjacent neighbors & post the property.