UPDATED — Planning Commission votes 5-0 against Great Wolf water park rezoning
UPDATED Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015 — Just about everybody liked the company’s water parks, but nearly all of the standing-room-only crowd didn’t want a Great Wolf Lodge in the heart of Peachtree City.
The Peachtree City Planning Commission Monday night agreed with the majority filling the City Hall meeting room, unanimously voting against the water park company’s proposal to take over the Dolce conference center on Aberdeen Parkway and convert it into a tourist resort.
Next stop for the company: a public hearing Feb. 19 before the final decider, the City Council, and preliminary indications are the water park idea might be sinking. Four of the five council members attended the Monday night hearing. Two of those four said afterwards, the park was not a good fit for the leafy campus formerly known as Aberdeen Woods.
A detailed report on the meeting will be following in The Citizen print edition.
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Earlier online version —
A group of Peachtree City residents living in the vicinity of the Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree Hotel and Resort on Aberdeen Parkway met with representatives of Great Wolf Lodge Family Resorts on Feb. 3 about the company’s proposal to establish a family-oriented indoor water park resort that will be heard Feb. 9 by the Peachtree City Planning Commission. Residents at the meeting provided a list of questions and concerns to Great Wolf representatives.
Though the press was not in attendance, a Feb. 3 Facebook posting by Peachtree City resident Cindy Harper Bowie Brant provided a look at the private meeting between area neighbors and Great Wolf representatives. Brian Rochester, of Rochester and Associates and a representative of Great Wolf, provided The Citizen with a list of concerns and suggestions on Feb. 5.
“We heard the concerns of neighbors and are working to mitigate some of their concerns without mitigating the ability to use the property the way they need to,” Rochester said Thursday. Brant in the posting referenced the meeting between residents and Great Wolf Lodge engineers.
She said the proposed plan “includes a nine-story (90-foot) water slide that will be outside the facility. This water slide will back up to Preston Chase subdivision on Wisdom Road. Entry and exit for the slide will be enclosed inside the facility. The water slide will operate until 10 p.m. This is a non-negotiable part of the proposed site.”
Other information provided in the Facebook post included: •An additional 3 story hotel will be added to the site. •Total impervious surface (driveways, parking lots, buildings) will be 16.48 acres.
Stormwater management was a large part of the discussion tonight due to existing runoff problems in surrounding areas. GWL engineers’ position was that they will not inherit (fix) existing problems. •A traffic study was done, but, it did not take into consideration any additional traffic that will be created by retail establishments located on the grounds of the facility that will be open to the public. So, in effect, the traffic study is null and void. •The GWL engineers will go back and try to address our concerns. A modified plan will be proposed at the planning meeting. Rochester in a Thursday email to The Citizen said concerns expressed at the meeting included:
• Traffic – the current traffic study that does not account for area residents using the public amenities and the belief that teenagers will use the public amenities more than at other Great Wolf properties and a request for Great Wolf to re-look at traffic impacts based on local residents using the restaurants and amenities.
• Light pollution – from light coming from new parking lots and the new three-story wing and questions on the use of lights atop the water slide.
• Noise – noise and noise suppression questions about the water pumps, noise from the water park in general, the use of soundproofing and the number of air-handling units. • Existing stormwater issues in nearby subdivisions – runoff from the resort property and the need for improvements to existing stormwater issues.
• Operational issues – percentage of the site open to the pubic, times of operation of the water slide, how many guests can slide at one time, the use of golf cart rentals for guests, the age of employees, the use of the outside patio, target opening date, enclosing slides in a structure, having a shorter slide, minimize or remove setback and buffer encroachment and minimum parking requirements.
• Screening – minimize or remove setbacks/buffer encroachment, consider changing the color of the slides, landscaping along the north side of the property and screening for the 90-foot water slide. Other questions and concerns dealt with Great Wolf having looked at other sites, if other facilities have nearby subdivisions, the concern of introducing people (strangers) into the residential area via walking on the cart path system and questioning if Great Wolf would consider removing the variance request for the stream buffer. The posting by Brant also noted that “a member of the press showed up and Great Wolf Lodge representatives would not allow them to be present during the meeting.
” “This is a private meeting and Ben is not welcome.” Those were the words of Peachtree City resident John Dufresne, the apparent spokesman for the group of Peachtree City residents prior to the meeting Tuesday night. The meeting of neighboring subdivisions bordering the Dolce property was about to take place so that neighbors’ questions could be addressed by Great Wolf representatives.
The Citizen reporter was there to attend and report on the meeting that was a precursor to the public hearing on the Great Wolf proposal that will be heard by the Peachtree City Planning Commission on Feb. 9. Dufresne maintained that the meeting was private, between Great Wolf and neighbors, and that it had been decided by both parties that the news media could not be present. Rochester and Associates Executive Vice President Brian Rochester, a representative for Great Wolf, approached the area where Dufresne and The Citizen reporter were talking and confirmed what Dufresne said. With that said, and after checking with the editor, the reporter left the area.
The mayor — who does not live in a neighboring subdivision — attended the meeting. Editor Cal Beverly lives in the neighboring Coventry subdivision. Reporter Ben Nelms lives about a quarter mile east of the proposed water park. Asked on Feb. 5 about her take on the meeting, Fleisch said she was there to listen only, adding that she was surprised by the amount of drainage issues in the Coventry subdivision. It seemed that most of the people attending were Coventry residents, she said.
The proposal by Great Wolf Lodge of Georgia LLC requests the rezoning of the 38.4-acre property from GC (general commercial) to LUC (limited use commercial) to redevelop the property. In addition to the indoor water park and hotel, the application states that the property will include specialty restaurants, arcades, spas, fitness rooms and children’s activity areas. Great Wolf Lodge currently operates 13 family-oriented, all-suites water park resorts. T
he only facility in the Southeast is located in Concord/Charlotte, N.C. Wyndham Hotel Group, a subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide, announced Feb. 2 it had acquired Dolce Hotels and Resorts, a leading provider and manager of group accommodations with a portfolio of 24 properties and over 5,500 guest rooms across seven countries in Europe and North America, for $57 million in cash, according to a company press release.
Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree currently operates the facility that includes 236 rooms and 65 meeting rooms in 178,593 sq. ft. of convention center space along with swimming pools, restaurants and tennis courts. Dolce has reportedly been looking for a buyer for at least two years.
Great Wolf is proposing to operate a family-oriented destination resort operating from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. each day which would include 398 guest rooms and a total of 173,615 sq. ft. of entertainment, retail, restaurant, meeting and support space. Beyond the existing hotel and conference center buildings spread throughout the 38-acre property, Great Wolf is proposing to add a 54,800 sq. ft. indoor water park connected to the current conference center, a three-story hotel on the north side of the site, increased parking, two additional stormwater ponds and a possible patio off one of the existing restaurants.
The acquisition of Dolce Hotels and Resorts by the Wyndham Hotel Group announced Feb. 2 means that the company potentially would have two properties in Peachtree City, the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center on Ga. Highway 54 and the Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree Hotel and Resort on Aberdeen Parkway. Contacted Monday, the Wyndham Worldwide Vice President for Marketing and Communications Michael Valentino said there are no current plans for any changes in the operation of the two Peachtree City hotels. “This acquisition (of Dolce properties by the Wyndham Hotel Group) will have no immediate impact to any existing hotel in either the Dolce or Wyndham portfolios.
The Peachtree hotels are independently owned franchised properties, and we look forward to growing the Dolce brand in the U.S. and around the world,” Valentino said. The property on which Dolce is located is owned by Chicago-based Leeward Strategic Properties, Inc. Constructed in 1984, the current fair market value of the property and buildings is $8.155 million, according to the Fayette County Tax Assessor. The existing Dolce property once housed the national training headquarters of Pitney-Bowes, the postage meter company. It was constructed in the mid 1980s.
Dolce paid $30 million for the Aberdeen Woods Conference Center in 2007. What Great Wolf intends to pay for the Dolce has not been disclosed at this point. The rezoning narrative states that Great Wolf’s architectural theme is based on “lodge” architecture and the entire resort will follow a natural design approach that incorporates preservation of the property’s natural resources and emphasizes low-impact design solutions.
Additional parking areas will be well-screened and buffer areas will be maintained or enhanced around the perimeter of the property, according to the plan narrative. While the property to the west and south include commercial businesses, the property to the east and north includes residential. It is on the north side of the property that Great Wolf is requesting a variance that would reduce the buffer and install a driveway adjacent to a proposed three-story hotel near the single-family homes in the Preston Chase subdivision and the Wisdom Woods Apartments.
Another long-established residential neighborhood — The Coventry, built in 1984 — predates the original Pitney-Bowes training center and lies just across Riley Parkway to the immediate east of the existing Dolce. The Coventry Homeowners Association is expected to oppose the proposal in its current form. In terms of the economic benefit to the city and county, Great Wolf said property taxes are estimated to total $108,000 while hotel/motel taxes are expected to generate $1.5 million. County property taxes are expected to total $433,000 while county and state sales taxes are estimated at $1.7 million.
As with other Great Wolf facilities, the water park is exclusively reserved for guests, according to the company’s website. Guests with visitors can purchase a limited number of wristbands, valid for one day, at $40 each. Amenities such as restaurants, spas and the interactive MagiQuest game are open to the public, according to the Great Wolf Lodge website. Elements open to the public at the Peachtree City site would include the Bear Essential retail store, Buckhorn Exchange retail store, Northern Lights Arcade, Howlywood XD Theatre, Bear Paw Cafe, Hungry as a Wolf Pizza, MagiQuest live-action virtual gaming, Howl at the Moon mini-golf, Ten Paw Alley bowling, Loose Moose buffet restaurant, Wood Fire Lodge Grill, Dunkin Donuts, Scoops Children’s Spa, a ropes course and meeting rooms.
The resort is projected to employ up to 500 people during peak operating times. Peachtree City Manager Jim Pennington said Dolce on its occupational license lists 99 full-time equivalents. The Great Wolf narrative stated that user demographics typically project five persons traveling from a distance of 200 miles by automobile and staying an average of 2-3 days.
The proposal asked for three variances. Those include reducing the stream buffer, reducing the 75-foot setback and buffer on the north side of the property to 40 feet for the water park building and related use and 20 feet for a proposed access drive and waiving requirements for additional stormwater management facilities for the existing impervious areas. A public hearing on the proposal will be hard by the Peachtree City Council on Feb. 19.
