Applicant Traton LLC submitted plans to the City of Marietta to develop a vacant lot into townhomes located within the unincorporated Cobb County. A request to rezone 1326 Old Bells Ferry Road from R-20 (single-family residential – County) to MXD (mixed-use development – City) is necessary to develop the property with residential units. Additionally, a request to annex the property into the City of Marietta has been submitted.
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The Marietta Planning Commission will be reviewing the rezoning and annexation request during their January 4, 2021, meeting. Unless tabled, the Marietta City Council will hear the recommendations on January 12, 2021. Cobb County has submitted a Notice of Non-Objection of the 10.19-acre parcel to the City.
According to application documents, the proposal includes the construction of a maximum of fifty-six (56) townhome units. All residences will be traditional or craftsman style in construction architecture and design. The exteriors will consist of brick, stone, stacked stone, cedar shake, along with board and batten. All units will be a minimum of 1,800 square feet and contain a two-car garage. Interior roads are proposed to be private, with access to the development from Old Bells Ferry Road.
The site plan prepared by BGE indicates that the project will preserve many of the property’s natural features. Amenities for the development include nature walking trails, scenic creek locations, a picnic area, and a fire pit.
3 Responses
Last year I sat through a big presentation from the city planning office about how the move away from single-family zoning was necessary to provide more affordable missing middle housing and I totally bought it…yet every rezoning request I have seen seems to be replacing single-family housing with high-density luxury units listed for millions of dollars. My neighborhood just fought off one of these false pretense rezoning requests. I encourage everyone to take a close look at every rezoning request impacting their neighborhood and fight off these cash grabs. And shame on the city for trying to sell us a false narrative. This is about lining pockets, not helping people. I was supportive of mixed use zoning and integrating missing middle into our SFH neighborhoods, but the reality is there is no intention of providing affordable missing middle housing – these new builds will just ensure property taxes skyrocket and those of us in single-family housing will be priced right out of our neighborhoods.
Looks like a thoughtful project that increases density and preserves some greenspace, so I would say this is a win. 18 units instead of 5 units regardless of cost or level of luxury is a win as increasing the total amount of supply is better than doing nothing.
Some will argue that if the housing is at a higher price point, building it is a bad thing. The number of high-income people in the market to buy housing does not change, so these buyers will simply bid up the cost of other housing more affordable regardless. (See Old Fourth Ward and other neighborhoods). At the end of the day, more housing to meet overall supply creates housing for everyone. The most restrictive cities (to development) end up being the most expensive — see San Fran, New York, Boston, LA… On the flip side places like Houston and Dallas remain more affordable because they build a crazy amount of housing. Whether developers get rich doing it, shouldn’t matter. It’s a job with lots of risks — a lot of projects fail, and developers go bankrupt. They put their personal capital at risk. They are the ones building the housing that all of us are living in. If there was more supply, there would be less opportunity for developers to increase supply based on scarcity.
I’ll be moving to Atlanta this spring and I’m gonna be looking for up and coming new construction that’s affordable for all!!