The third postponement of the Great Wolf proposal to establish a family resort in Peachtree City was granted March 19 by the Peachtree City Council. From their response after the vote it was clear that many of the 135 people attending the meeting were not satisfied with the decision to continue the rezoning request until April 16.
Great Wolf Lodge Family Resorts is looking to establish an indoor water park and hotel resort facility on the 38-acre site of the Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree Hotel and Resort on Aberdeen Parkway off Ga. Highway 74 near the center of the city.
The revised rezoning proposal by Great Wolf continues to ask for LUC (limited use commercial) zoning over the current GC (general commercial) zoning, but has been amended to include fewer variance requests.
The meeting room Thursday night had approximately 135 people in attendance. From their posture it was likely that most wanted to hear the rezoning proposal and have the council make a decision on the project.
But that did not occur. The council on a 4-1 vote agreed to move the proposal to the April 16 meeting, even though Great Wolf had requested an April 2 date.
The reason for the change in date was noted by Councilman Eric Imker on a post on the “Life in the PTC Bubble” Facebook page.
“Last night a decision was made to continue the agenda item to April 16. The reason it was not continued to April 2 was because of legal notification timing rules that would not have been met for re-advertising purposes,” Imker said. “If that was not the problem, trust me, it would have been continued to April 2.”
The motion to continue the proposal came from Councilman Terry Ernst with a second by Councilman Mike King. The vote was 4-1, with Imker opposed.
Imker in his Life in the PTC Bubble post elaborated on his vote.
“…I believe the agenda item should have been heard and voted on last night, March 19. To clarify, Great Wolf was at the meeting and prepared to present their case. I made sure this was known by pointing out that the city manager had informed GWL to be ready to proceed. He confirmed they were,” Imker said.
It was during the council discussion that Imker noted that some in the audience wanted to comment on the proposal. Mayor Vanessa Fleisch responded saying that public comments were not appropriate in that setting.
The room virtually cleared out after the vote was taken. One man as he was leaving yelled out, “Somebody’s getting money up here.”
