Proposed Powers Ferry Road development would replace long-vacant restaurants

Powers Ferry Road development
Plans call to demolish four restaurant buildings on Powers Ferry Road for a nearly 500,000 square-foot, mostly residential complex near Wildwood Office Park, in upper right. (From Cobb Zoning Office case file.)

A proposed Powers Ferry Road development that would include nearly 500 residential units and restaurant and retail space comes before the Cobb Planning Commission Tuesday.

The rezoning request by Powers Ferry Road Investors, LLC, would raze a string of vacant restaurants and build 291 apartment units and 181 upscale senior active dwellings in between a 10,000-foot restaurant building, according to a filing with the Cobb Zoning Office (agenda packet item here).

The project would include three buildings totaling 438,555 feet near the Wildwood Office Park.

The 8.8 acres along Powers Ferry between Windy Hill Road and Windy Ridge Parkway currently houses only one active business, the Rose & Crown Tavern, which will remain and be “enlarged” in the new development, according to a zoning impact statement included in the case file.

Surrounding it are empty restaurant spaces that were once Sal Grosso, Famous Dave’s and TGI Friday’s. The Sage Woodfire Tavern location that opened last fall in the former Houston’s space on the corner of Powers Ferry and Windy Ridge Parkway is not part of the development.

Z-47, Powers Ferry Road development
The site plan calls for a senior living complex on the left, with a large apartment building at the right. The office/retail/restaurant space is slated for the center building. (From Cobb Zoning Office case file.)

(Earlier this week, Sage Woodfire Tavern filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but no announcements have been made on possible restaurant closings.)

The Cobb Zoning staff is recommending approval of the request to rezone the land with conditions from general commercial (GC) to regional retail commercial (RRC), which is recommended for large developments of 500,000 square feet or more.

The future land use plan calls for regional activity center (RAC).

The developer has included three variance requests that would reduce the front and a side setback from the minimum 50 to 15 feet, and reduce a recommendation of 859 parking spaces to 510.

The Cobb Zoning Staff analysis said while the requested zoning category is compatible with the area, the six-story heights are taller than nearby buildings. The staff also does “not support the reduction of the required parking spaces.”

Also on Tuesday’s Planning Commission agenda is a nearby request for another development on Powers Ferry Road that was delayed last month. It would replace the aging Powers Ferry Woods office park with a mixed-use project.

The cases are the latest major redevelopment projects slated for the Powers Ferry corridor since the opening of SunTrust PArk, and follow the  MarketPlace Terrell Mill rezoning approved earlier this year.

Here’s a summary of the cases to be heard Tuesday, and a link to all case files.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

 

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