An Atlanta developer’s plans to build 332 apartments and 63 town houses was delayed Monday when Kennesaw City Council postponed votes to rezone the property and annex about 31 acres of county land into the city.
Council will not vote on the project until Sept. 20.
About 190 residents currently live at Castle Lake Mobile Home Park, which sits on the 31 acres of county property at 1650 N. Cobb Parkway.
Kennesaw city leaders say the added month will give Related Development, the Atlanta company behind the mixed-use project, more time to finalize plans to relocate those residents.
Related Development is in negotiations to purchase Castle Lake from its Vancouver owners, and plans to offer each of the owners and renters between $3,500 and $5,000 to move out, their reps told Kennesaw’s Planning Commission during an Aug. 4 meeting. The developer hopes to have the mobile home park cleared out by the end of the year.
Daniel Harari, Related Development’s acquisition manager, said he’d already begun meeting with residents to offer them payouts. He said he wants to meet with all of the residents individually to craft relocation plans for them before the company closes on buying the property.
Several residents of the mobile home community attended the Aug. 4 planning meeting, but many were Spanish-speaking and could not follow along with the discussions. The planning board opted to table the discussion until Sept. 1 and will have an interpreter at that meeting to translate for residents.
The mobile home property is one of three parcels that make up the 32.7 acres upon which Related Development plans to build. The other two small parcels are positioned along Old 41 Highway.
The project represents the second phase of the Kennesaw Marketplace development, which was originally approved in 2015. The shopping mall sits just across the Noonday Creek from the proposed residential project, which is named “Old 41 Apartments,” according to plans submitted to the city.
Developers plan to build pedestrian access points to the 52-acre shopping mall as well as the Noonday Creek trail system.
Atlanta-based Fuqua Development developed Kennesaw Marketplace, which is poised to have 27 shops along U.S. 41 when it’s built out.
