With a development agreement in hand, and certain other concessions won, the Peachtree City Planning Commission Monday approved a recommendation to rezone land off Newgate Road for 100 senior apartments.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council, which has the final say on all zoning matters.
Also Monday the commission approved a conceptual site plan for a Walgreen’s store that would be built on the same site as the Ruby Tuesday restaurant at the intersection of Ga. Highway 54 and Peachtree Parkway.
The Walgreens will be three times the size of the existing restaurant, which will be demolished.
Architecture for the site, including building materials and color selections, will be reviewed at an earlier date by the planning commission, but it will be a very important matter to the city as noted by Planning Commission Chairman Patrick Staples.
Staples said he expects the store to be void of Walgreens corporate architecture.
“Really no matter what we do on this corner, you’re gonna have a big old building,” Staples said. “… It has to look special. That’s a special corner in Peachtree City. To me that’s a critical factor.”
The store would have a few golf cart parking spaces at the front of the store with handicap parking on the other side of the front row. The lack of landscaping along the handicap spots on the concept plan drew some criticism from the commission, but Walgreens representative Scott Moore said that was a matter of meeting guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, by keeping patrons from being obstructed by landscaping as they enter and exit their vehicle.
Moore said the company hopes to break ground by Jan. 1 with a store opening date the following September.
The store will be located directly adjacent to a competing Rite-Aid pharmacy.
As to the senior apartments, they will be restricted to occupancy by persons ages 62 and up, and developer NorSouth agreed to a number of conditions including:
• Notifying the city of any ownership or management change for the property;
• Shift the security gates for resident parking further away from the road;
• Provide covered parking for golf carts; and
• Screening of mechanical units.
Those conditions and others will be incorporated into the deed for the property, which means that they will be applicable to Norsouth and any future owner of the parcel, said Community Development Director David Rast.
Rast noted that the complex will have to meet stringent guidelines administered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs which includes the use of photo identification with date of birth printed thereon to verify the age of each resident.
Commissioners also asked NorSouth to look into providing a more direct golf cart path to access the adjacent Kedron Village shopping center.
The property in question is 5.26 acres and is currently zoned for 21 luxury townhomes in a development that never materialized.
Rast has recommended the rezoning be approved since it meets the city’s land use plan which calls for the parcel to be developed for a multifamily use.
