Sprayberry Crossing is a rundown strip mall in unincorporated Marietta that’s sat largely vacant for the past 25 years. But Cobb County commissioners this week approved a controversial plan to redevelop the former shopping center, amid a crowd of outspoken residents opposed to the project.
Atlantic Realty Acquisitions, an Atlanta developer, plans to transform the 17.7-acre property into a mixed-use development with 102 town houses, 132 senior living condos and a 34,000 square-foot grocery store.
The commission voted 4-1 approving the developer’s plan for the site during a zoning hearing Tuesday. District 1 Commissioner Keli Gambrill cast the lone vote against the rezoning application, drawing applause from the audience.
“This shopping center has been an anvil around the necks of this community for over a decade,” said Kevin Moore, a Marietta real estate attorney who spoke for the developer during Tuesday’s meeting.
Atlantic Realty won the rezoning Tuesday after months of intense negotiations. Their original plans included over 200 apartments, triggering backlash from the surrounding community. The developer later revised the proposal to replace the apartments with townhouses and condos.
Tuesday’s approval came despite continued pushback from residents concerned that redeveloping the blighted shopping plaza will increase congestion and threaten traffic safety in the area.
“Anything that goes here is going to create an increase in traffic,” District 2 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said. “You can’t take a vacant property, 17 acres, and not think that a development that comes in is not going to increase the traffic.”
Critics of the redevelopment also worried about the impact thousands of additional vehicles could have on existing businesses surrounding the strip mall.
On the north end of the property, Department of Transportation recommended prohibiting left turns onto Post Oak Tritt Road. Tony Raffa, owner of a McDonald’s at the intersection of at Post Oak Tritt and Sandy Plains roads, worried about the unintended consequences of restricting access to Sandy Plains.
“We might be trading one safety issue for a number of safety issues,” he said.
Sprayberry Crossing was built in the 1970s. It consists of several buildings, including the dilapidated husk of a long shuttered bowling alley.
The Mayes family cemetery that dates back to the 1890s sits in the middle of the property. Atlantic Realty agreed to install fencing among other repairs to preserve the burial ground.
The strip mall is insulated by fast food restaurants, pet shops, banks and other business fronted along the arterial roads surrounding the old shopping center.
Sandy Plains Road to the west is the busiest of the adjacent roads, with over 41,000 cars traversing it each day, according to the Department of Transportation. Traffic estimates indicate the redevelopment plan at Sprayberry would add about 3,500 more cars to the daily congestion.
When commissioners adopted a so-called blight tax in July 2017, Sprayberry Crossing was the first business the county targeted. After a magistrate judge deemed Sprayberry Crossing a blighted property in 2018, the owners’ property taxes increased sevenfold from $3,108 to $21,756 annually.
Tuesday’s approval made Sprayberry Crossing the first property in the county to be zoned as a “redevelopment overlay district,” or ROD, a designation carved out for developments with a mix of commercial, office and residential uses.
Cobb incorporated the overlay district into its zoning code in 2006. Some residents complained that RODs ultimately override existing code requirements, creating “zoning at will.”
In February, Birrell sought to do away with the RODs altogether, arguing they’re unnecessary and hardly ever used.
But site plans for the Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment were still pending. The county decided not to accept any new ROD applications until the case was settled. During Tuesday’s meeting, Birrell called the overlay district a “flawed” zoning designation.
Yet she argued in favor of the efforts at Sprayberry Crossing, despite occasional heckling from audience members.
“It’s not a perfect plan and I don’t know that there would ever be a perfect plan. But it’s what’s before us today,” Birrell said.
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