A Columbus commission denies rezoning request for Macon Road development. What’s next
A second company’s rezoning request to build a new subdivision off Macon Road in Columbus was denied by the Planning Advisory Commission Wednesday after hundreds of residents opposed the development.
Wizer Homes requested to rezone 111.56 acres, currently owned by Calhoun Investments LLC, from one type of single-family residence zoning into another while also getting a small portion of the land zoned for multi-family residences. The current zoning, SFR2, requires lots to be bigger with fewer homes per acre, while the requested zoning would allow for smaller lots and more homes per acre.
The company plans to build 253 single-family homes and 84 townhomes for 337 new housing units.
This rezoning request comes months after another development company, Atlanta metro-based Proterra Development, had their rezoning request for commercial space denied by PAC after over 900 residents in bordering neighborhoods signed petitions opposing the plans.
Wizer faced similar opposition: a petition garnered 800 signatures urging PAC to vote against the rezoning request. Some opponents showed up at a town hall meeting last week to condemn the plans, which resulted in a brief confrontation between attendees and a representative of Wizer Homes.
Developer still wants to go forward
While Proterra withdrew the rezoning request after PAC denied it, Wizer plans to push forward and seek approval anyway, adviser and general contractor Dave Erickson told the Ledger-Enquirer. The rezoning request is scheduled to appear before the Columbus Council on Dec. 10. The PAC meeting allowed the committee to issue a recommendation, but the council could still give Wizer approval.
The rezoning request is for normal houses like those built in Columbus daily, Erickson said during the PAC meeting.
“On a bigger scale, this conversation is about change,” he said. “The city of Columbus is evolving to the needs of the community and citizens. The 200,000 people in the Columbus community.”
Argument for rezoning
Erickson presented the details of Wizer’s site plan before PAC, highlighting the company’s plans to add fencing where the site borders existing neighborhoods, conserve wetlands, use detention ponds to control stormwater and create a planted buffer.
He also explained how the townhomes on the east side of the site plan would transition the land into a neighboring undeveloped property already zoned for multifamily housing such as apartments.
Erickson argued the site plan and rezoning request account for how modern homes are built, stating that they are typically two-story homes on smaller lots. This is in contrast to the brick ranch-style homes found in the neighboring communities.
The zoning and building style of older neighborhoods began to go out of favor in the 1980s because of inflation, Erickson said during the meeting.
“We started building houses differently,” he said.
Erickson showed other areas across Columbus where neighborhoods zoned as SFR2, such as the ones opposing residents live in, border subdivisions that are zoned as SF3.
“You’d have a hard time going into most of the areas of Columbus that have been developed since the ‘60s and not finding SFR2, SFR3 and (multi-family housing zoning) living together as a cohesive area,” he said.
Residents voice concerns
At the beginning of the almost three-hour-long meeting, the chamber was standing room only as over a hundred residents attended to show their disapproval of the rezoning request.
The first resident to speak against the request, Wes Ezzell, represented the Sears Woods neighborhood that borders much of the site plan.
Ezzell spoke against Proterra’s development earlier this year, he said, and his reasons to oppose this development are similar. His fears there is a difference in character and fit, he has traffic concerns and is worried about added flooding problems.
“All these neighborhoods that are represented here (at the meeting) are established neighborhoods,” Ezzell said. “And the homes in the development will not look like this.”
Longtime resident William Kimbrough echoed Ezzell’s concerns about increased traffic.
Kimbrough and his wife, Beverly, have lived in their home for 37 years, he said, and they already have an increasing concern about traffic.
“We have had three cars come up on our property,” he said.
One car almost took out his bedroom, one almost hit their den and the third car almost hit his daughter’s bedroom, he said.
Wizer’s plan includes a current entrance off of Macon Road going up Saddle Ridge Drive, an additional entrance off Macon Road that requires approval from the Georgia Department of Transportation, and a connection with Donna Sue Drive.
Several cul-de-sacs were also in the plan to try to take traffic away from the existing neighborhoods and pull it towards Macon Road.
Erickson presented preliminary findings of a traffic study that hasn’t been completed yet, showing primary roads are below capacity.
The last big concern was flooding.
Tony Marbois, who lives on the south side of Macon Road in the Willow Bend neighborhood, spoke about the unintended consequences of building on this land.
Marbois and his neighbors have had chronic flooding after Macon Road was widened, he said during the meeting.
His home’s foundation had to be stabilized because of the flooding, he said. Normally the contractor he used has dig down around nine feet to find solid ground, Marbois said, but they had to dig down 30 feet at his home.
Marbois is concerned development on this Macon Road property could lead to more flooding problems in his neighborhood, even though it doesn’t directly border the site.
Why the rezoning was denied
After almost three hours of hearing Erickson’s presentation and listening to many of the residents who attended the meeting, PAC made its decision to reject the rezoning request.
Everybody has different opinions about this development, PAC member Brad Baker said.
“You all have done a good job in sharing your opinions and your concerns,” Baker said.
Erickson created a plan that, within reason, does match the zoning requirements, he said. But Baker still had concerns about traffic after considering everything that had been said during the meeting.
While there are other neighborhoods where multi-family housing is next to single-family housing, he said, they typically don’t use the same roads to get out of the neighborhood.
“I think this would be a fantastic place for single-family,” Baker said. “But my concern is the travel through that (area), the mixed-use between both of these and what that means for the neighborhood.”
Baker recommended that the rezoning request be denied, but explained that Wizer has the right to take the request to council. All members of the board except for John Steed voted to deny the request.
District 1 Councilor Byron Hickey already publicly promised to support residents in opposing the rezoning.
Erickson still believes in his plan for the potential new subdivision.
“I’m of the opinion that our proposal is well thought out and meets the neighborhood, and the housing needs of Columbus,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer. “There’s no logical reason it shouldn’t be approved.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 11:59 AM.
