At its September zoning hearing last Tuesday, the Cobb County Planning Commission voted to hold for 30 days a request to rezone for a mixed-use development located on the southwest side of Hurt Road, the southeast side of Austell Road, on the east side of Brookwood Drive, and on the west side of Floyd Road.

The owner of the property is TLM Realty, and if approved the development will be done by Greystar.

The zoning document describes the purpose of the rezoning request as follows:

The applicant is proposing to rezone the 15.81 acre site to PVC for the purpose of constructing a mixed use development that will include three (3)and four (4)story multifamily buildings with 340 residential units and three (3) retail buildings. The multifamily units will be located on the eastern portion of the property on 12.52 acres with an average unit size of 950 square feet. The retail buildings will be a total of 25,000 square feet, located on 3.29 acres on the western portion of the property.

PVC zoning, according to the county’s definition, “is established to provide locations and encourage flexible site plans and building arrangements under a unified plan of development rather than lot-by-lot regulation for retail commercial and service uses which are designed and oriented to be self-sufficient neighborhoods making up a community.”

The property is adjacent to an earlier mixed-use development, also undertaken by Greystar, which the Cobb BOC approved in October of 2020.

Attorney Garvis Sams, representing the applicant, said, “Currently, this property is zoned plan shopping center, as were most of the properties that were developed to this ilk around the early part of the 1990s.”

Sams said the existing buildings in the aging shopping center on the property now will be torn down, including the Burlington store now on the site.

District 4 Commissioner Michael Hughes, who represents the area where the property is located, called Cobb DOT engineer Amy Diaz to the podium, and asked her if his understanding was correct that she had not received the results of a traffic study of the area until it was too late to have it ready for the current meeting.

She said that was the case.

Commissioner David Anderson asked Sams if he knew what sort of retail was anticipated in the development.

“Yes, we do,” Sams said. “Specialty type retail and chef-driven restaurants.”

Anderson asked how many units of work-force housing among the 340 units would be in the residential mix.

Sams said ten units.

Commissioner Fred Beloin noted that the site plan lacked a designated place for children to play. Greystar’s Craig Gerhardt was called to the podium and agreed to include a play area for children in a space between buildings which had been planned as a park.

Commissioner Hughes said that he would feel more comfortable about making a recommendation when the Cobb DOT’s analysis of the traffic study is complete.

He made a motion that the request be held for 30 days to give time for the traffic analysis.

The motion passed 5-0.