Last week Roswell Mayor Jere Wood informed council members he had vetoed the May 11 vote to allow a rezoning of 30 townhouses on Hardscrabble Road.
The 30 townhouses were part of a more comprehensive project that involved 20.5 acres on the northwest corner of the Ga. 92 Highway-Hardscrabble Road intersection. The project received a 5-1 approval at the May 11 meeting.
Coro Development LLC, the applicant in the rezoning, asked at Monday night's meeting and was granted a deferral until Monday, June 29, to give the company the chance to work out a compromise with the Brookfield West community.
At the May 11 meeting, only one representative from Brookfield West attended to voice the community's opposition to the project. This week, around 70 were in attendance.
Wood, who opposed the rezoning but as mayor has no vote except in a tie, said the Parkway Village zoning overlay that governs development along Ga. 92 in Roswell requires no transitional housing between commercial development and the residential areas behind it. Instead the overlay requires a 175-foot buffer.
"This does away with the buffer. Instead we gave [Coro] transitional housing, which I think is a big mistake. It is a fundamental change to the Parkway Village concept," Wood said.
The veto can be overridden by a simple majority of four votes on the seven-member council. Or the council can simply fail to act and the veto will stand with no action taken.
The Brookfield residents object to the 30 townhouses that would be built on the north end of the project along Hardscrabble Road. The 20.5-acre tract is one of the last undeveloped, big corner lots on Ga. 92 in the city.
Brookfield West, the golf-tennis community with homes valued from $300,000 to $1 million, underwent an $8 million renovation in 2001, and residents say they want to protect their property values.
The community has opposed the townhouse portion of the Coro project, saying single-family homes are what are called for.
Wood also opposed the rezoning of the townhouses, saying it broke the Parkway Village zoning overlay for Ga. 92 initiated 14 years ago when the road was widened to six lanes. In it, the city called for assemblages of parcels with a minimum of 7 acres to develop large tracts and require a 175-foot buffer to protect the residential population behind it.
But the developer argued that a private lake and stream on the property make the project unique and in need of special consideration.
The plan that was approved rezoned the 6.8 acres for townhouses to provide buffering for the project because of those water features.
Labels: brookfield west, Georgia, Hwy 92, mayor jere wood, roswell mayor, townhomes, vetoes coro project
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 8:19 AM
