Many years ago someone was trying to put multiple townhouses on the lot that currently is Patriots Park. Fastward to now and they want to put 102 Townhomes next to Patriots Park.  That would include taking some of the park for a Neighborhood Center. We feel that adding 102 Townhomes will only add to the congested roads that we currently have.

Who is impacted?  Those that travel East and West Kellogg Creek Road.

What’s at stake?  102 more vehicles driven the 2 lane highway. There is already a lot of traffic at the light at Victory Road, as well as Bells Ferry Rd. 

Why is it time to react?  The Planning and zoning meeting is Dec 3, 1024 at 6 pm. We stopped multiple townhomes being put in years ago and we need to stop them coming in now!  

Additional information:

The current allowable uses for nearly all of the land for this proposed development is ALREADY VERY FAVORABLE to development for residential and commercial uses.  The landowners and developers could ALREADY build a multitude of townhomes, commercial buildings, etc. on these parcels under the existing rules without the requested variances, warrants, text amendments, etc. 

The existing rules require that about half of the parcels have 10%-30% for non-residential functions and on the other parcels, 50%-70% must be for non-residential functions.  These non-residential functions include office, retail, church, daycare, etc.  Along with these non-residential functions would other space-taking requirements such as additional parking spaces and other accommodations, thus limiting the overall number of townhomes that could be built and having the effect of lessening the overall density of buildable square footage on these parcels, thereby reducing overall traffic coming to and going from the future development.  

Despite these very favorable rules and allowable uses, the landowners and developers are wanting variances, warrants, text amendments and other accommodations from the county to MAXIMIZE THE DENSITY OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS on these parcels, and with hundreds of new residents suddenly living on these precious few acres, likely with 2+ cars per unit coming and going multiple times daily, a significant strain would be placed on the already busy roads, the already busy park, and the already busy schools nearing capacity.

Specifically, the landowners and developers are wanting to eliminate the requirement that they widen Kellogg Creek Road and construct new dedicated left-turn lane(s) from westbound Kellogg Creek Road into the new development.  They are also wanting to purchase nearly 2/3 of an acre of Patriots Park from the County to be used for additional townhomes.  They are also wanting to get warrants, variances, and text amendments to the rules to maximize the density of residential townhomes on the parcels.  These changes and text amendments would have the overall effect of reducing or offsetting or re-categorizing the percentage of non-residential functions and allowing the landowners and developers to designate certain empty sections of their property as recreation areas owned by the HOA which seemingly has the effect of increasing the allowable residential density since these HOA recreation areas can be counted toward the percentages required for non-residential functions.

If however, the landowners and developers followed the rules as written, they would need to designate a significant percentage of the property to office, retail, church, daycare, etc. uses, which would also require more parking spaces, thus having the effect of lessening the overall density of buildable square footage on these parcels, and also reducing overall traffic coming and going from the future development. 

We are asking that the County require adherence to the pre-existing requirement of additional dedicated left-turn lanes from Kellogg Creek Rd into the development and we are asking that the County DENY the proposed sale of a triangle of treed land at Patriots Park to the developers and we are asking that the County DENY all warrants, variances and text amendments requested by the landowners and developers and REQUIRE the landowners and developers to comply with the current rules as they are written.

We are further encouraging the County to quickly conduct additional studies to update the Bells Ferry LCI and Bells Ferry Community Design District to limit and or refocus present and future development to be more consistent with the current needs and wants of the community and local residents.