By Rebecca Gaunt

“It’s great to see it all come back,” Mayor Derek Easterling said Monday of the upcoming Big Shanty Festival, and other scheduled city events.

After two years of pandemic-related cancellations, delays and limitations, Kennesaw currently has a full schedule of festivities for 2022. The Big Shanty Festival is first up, planned for the weekend of April 8-10. Council approved the road closures, which will include J.O. Stephenson Avenue from Main Street to Dallas Street, Cherokee Street from Main Street to Shirley Drive/Big Shanty Drive, Watts Drive from Dallas Street to Main Street, and Lewis Street from Dallas Street to Main Street.

Also on the calendar: Salute to America on July 3, Taste of Kennesaw Nov.4-5, and A Day with Santa on Dec. 3.

Mychal Lewis, the parks and recreation program coordinator, informed Council that she successfully applied for a new program grant from the Georgia Recreation and Park Association (GRPA) and received $1,000 for the Silver Server Pickleball program at the new recreation center.

“Pickleballers are very serious about their pickleball,” Lewis said laughing. “It’s actually a pretty addictive sport.”

Council also addressed two rezoning requests at the meeting.

The first was Devin Riley, LLC’s request to rezone the properties at 1972, 1994 and 2004 Duncan Dr. from single-family residential (R-20) to central business district (CBD). Developers plan for the nearly four-acre property to be the home of Devin’s Shire, a private town-home community, across the street from the Kennesaw Post Office.

Originally intended to include 33 high-end townhomes with a minimum of 2,000 square feet and three bedrooms, developers submitted a revised plan March 14 with 37 homes and an underground stormwater detention facility. Council approved Zoning Administrator Darryl Simmon’s recommendation to postpone the case until the Planning Commission can review the new site plan.

The updated version will go to the Planning Commission on April 6 and back to the City Council on April 18.

The second request was from East Park JV, LLC to rezone three additional properties, 3408, 3416 and 3590 Cherokee St., to be included in the Eastpark Village mixed use development project that was originally approved in 2017. The change from single-family residential (R-15) to general urban (T-40) was approved.

Rebecca Gaunt earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.