About 40 new townhomes and another strip of commercial space are coming to Buford.
On Monday evening, Buford City Commissioners rezoned approximately 17 acres of land at the intersection of Hamilton Mill Road and North Bogan Road. About 3.8 acres of the development facing Hamilton Mill Road will hold commercial space, while about 13.3 acres facing North Bogan Road will have townhomes.
Buford planning commissioners recommended that Lake Blue Ridge Land Company only add 60 townhomes to the development instead of 80. City Commissioners, concerned over density, lowered the number even further.
Eric Johansen, who spoke on behalf of the developer, said the density reduction will be “tough.” Nevertheless, the developer will move forward with the plans, albeit with less townhomes.
“At the end of the day, Buford is a great place to be,” Johansen said. “They’ve controlled quality and growth through aesthetics and price points.”
The developer will also extend the left signal turn lane on North Bogan Road to mirror the length of the development. City Commissioner Chairman Phillip Beard stressed that the commercial buildings need to be constructed in a way that would allow Hamilton Mill Road to be widened in the future.
“As we put more developments on it, there’s going to be that many more people going through there and those that live there,” Beard said. “We need to provide as many improvements as we can as far as traffic flow and lanes.”
Johansen said he expects construction will begin on the property in the next one to two years. It’s still unclear what type of businesses will reside in the commercial space, he said, but the developer has received interest from fast-food restaurants.
The townhomes will cost about $350,000-400,000, Johansen said. The developer still doesn’t have a builder, but Johansen expects two-story townhomes would be about 1,700-square-feet while three-story townhomes would be about 2,000-square-feet.
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