Other action
Also during Tuesday’s work session, Forsyth County’s planning board:
* Discussed its involvement in the process to update the county’s comprehensive plan, including attending public meetings and making a recommendation to the commission in November.
The District 2 subarea planning board also discussed the matter at a called meeting before the planning board’s work session
* Learned that $180 per planning representative was approved in this year’s budget for training purposes, the first time that has happened.
Also
* At a called meeting before the work session, the District 2 subarea planning board unanimously approved, with Mitch Copman absent, Carter Patterson as vice chair. Patterson will run meetings when the board’s chair, District 2 Commissioner Brian Tam, is absent.
-- Kayla Robins
SOUTH FORSYTH — A proposed addition to a small subdivision in south Forsyth has drawn concern from the county’s planning and community development staff over access to the property and its future use.
Beazer Homes Corp. owns a site to the south of the site in question and wants to add 19 residential lots to be included in the total development of about 15 acres for 40 lots.
The site, which is off Old Alpharetta Road, east of the Meadow Lane-Meadowridge Court crossing and the nonprofit No Longer Bound, totals about 8 acres. It is currently zoned as restricted industrial district, or M1. The application asks for a single-family residential district Res-4 zoning.
Beazer is also in the process of asking for a condition amendment for its adjacent property that allows for a total of 77 homes. That request does not pass through the planning board and instead goes directly from staff to the county commission for approval.
Some of the main reasons the planning staff is skeptical of the rezoning are the fact property zoned for industrial or office space is sparse in the county. They are concerned with it being rezoned to more residential.
Industrial and office zonings do not have an impact on schools, though Rusty Whitlow, planning representative for District 1, noted a manufacturing or other business may induce just as much traffic as 19 homes.
Another concern aired was the landlocked nature of the property, which, as of now, is accessible only through No Longer Bound.
The nonprofit sold this property and the site to its immediate north, which is being developed as office and manufacturing businesses.
The planning board, which makes recommendations to the county commission, will hold a public hearing on the application at its regular monthly meeting March 29.