A Texas developer has plans to build 375 apartments near I-575 in northern Cobb County, but a group of homeowners in the Bells Ferry community are mounting a push to keep the apartment complex out of their neighborhood.
After listening to site plans Tuesday afternoon, Cobb County’s Planning Commission had concerns about traffic and density of the proposed development, which sits just north of the Town Center shopping mall.
The board decided to postpone its vote on the project until transportation officials have time to analyze a traffic study that developers recently submitted to the county.
PG Investco, a subsidiary of Texas-based apartment developer Presidium Management, plans to build 378 apartments on a 17.9-acre property that used to be a Regal Cinemas movie theater. The complex would be built adjacent to I-575 along Town Center Drive, a circular road that loops around the shopping mall.
It would feature an outdoor pool, parking garages, a 7,100 square-foot clubhouse and a seven apartment buildings, some of which would be four stories, according to the developer.
Tullan Avard, of the Bells Ferry Civic Association, said the the apartment complex could cause stormwater runoff issues and increase overcrowding at Bells Ferry Elementary School.
“We have a lot of apartments and they’re not helping the mall, so I don’t see how this new one will help,” Avard said.
PG Investco is asking the county to approve four zoning variances, including a reduction in the buffer area between two of the apartment buildings and a natural preserve behind the complex that serves as wetlands for Noonday Creek.
Avard worried that the development might encroach on the wetlands area, which collects runoff from Noonday Creek during rain storms.
“Noonday Creek runs north to Allatoona Lake,” she said. “After it goes through the Town Center area, it actually runs between a whole bunch of subdivisions. And these subdivisions are being threatened by flooding.”
PG Investco completed traffic studies at seven different locations surrounding the development property. Cobb Department of Transportation officials said the developer submitted the study Sept. 27 and the county has yet to be review it.
The Planning Commission will revisit the site plans at the board’s next meeting Nov. 2.
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