The Cobb County Planning Commission voted to delay a recommendation on a request that would have allowed the construction of a 375-unit apartment complex in the Town Center area.

Commissioner Deborah Dance made the motion, in order to allow time for the Cobb DOT to do analysis on a recently completed traffic study of the area.

The zoning documents describe the net effect of the request was follows:

The applicant is requesting to rezone to the RRC regional retail commercial district to develop a 375 unit, 457,700 square foot apartment community on a 17.89 acre site.The proposed buildings will be four (4) stories in height with garage parking provided in-building as well as by separate carriage buildings.

The property at issue is located on the north side of Town Center Drive, north of the intersection of Mall 5 Road, on the west side of I-575. The property is on the site of Regal Cinema.

The site is in District 3, represented on the Cobb County Board of Commissioners by JoAnn Birrell.

The applicant is PG Investco, and attorney Kevin Moore represented the applicant at the hearing.

Opposition to the project came from the Cobb County School District, citing the impact on school capacity, and from the Bells Ferry Civic Association, which objected to the intensity of the project and its effect on the environment near Noonday Creek.

In making his case for approval Moore said, “It’s an exciting proposition from a development standpoint to bring what Presidium is proposing here; 378 multifamily homes and units to provide for a direct economic stimulus an injection into the very vein of Town Center.”

“We have heard and seen and read about the struggles that have befallen Town Center Mall, since it was first opened in the late 80s,” Moore said. “And while it still is ongoing as a business enterprise, we have all seen and heard about what’s going to happen next.”

Tullan Avard of the Bells Ferry Civic Association spoke in opposition.

“To begin with, this is an incredibly intense development that does not belong at this location,” she said. “The zoning proposal is not in conformity with the future land use map of Cobb County.”

“In addition, there are already an abundance of apartments in the area with plenty of vacancies … and they’re not helping the mall,” Avard said. “So I don’t see how this new one will help our mall.”

“This property is adjacent to the Noonday Creek area and consists of floodplain and wetlands that may be right where they’re going to build,” she said.

The Planning Commission will schedule another hearing on the request after the traffic study is analyzed by the Cobb DOT. Once the Planning Commission makes a recommendation it will go to the Cobb County Board of Commissioners for a decision.