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The Gene Hollins and Kelli Cawley proposal to develop acreage near North Hills has stirred up some neighborhood concerns in Marietta City Council Ward 3.
Council's Planning, Zoning, Annexation and Housing committee met Thursday night in Armory Room 10 with Hollins, other council members and residents of the area involved. The dialogue clarified some questions, but generated a lot more that will be handled in a meeting at 5:15 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Armory.
"Tuesday the 29th, 5:15. That's the next version of tonight," council planning committee chair Geoff Schenkel announced at the end of Thursday's meeting.
Hollins and his wife are interested in developing the land around the vacant Weiser and Cawley building and nearby storage building and another undeveloped 17 acres. They are requesting it be rezoned from R-1 to something else that could accommodate retail, some service businesses and professionals, possibly some multi-family housing. In Marietta's zoning terms, that might be C-3, Hollins said.
But what Hollins would really like to see is the "planned district" mechanism for zoning that he has encountered in areas like Columbus. He explained the concept, but it is not compatible with the zoning process Marietta currently has.
After discussion and questioning, Hollins and Schenkel agreed that adopting the "planned district" approach in Marietta would require the city to formally adopt the concept and create the districts before it could be applied to anything specific.
Thursday's meeting, as one resident pointed out in her remarks, touched on many things that are not going to be happening:
Schenkel described in detail why there was no danger of any kind of zoning change being enacted anytime soon. "We're not even close to being on Step One of the procedure," he said.
To avoid the possibility of any conflicts of interest, City Law Director Paul Bertram will be stepping aside as legal counsel during any issues that arise in dealing with the Hollins-Cawley proposal. Tom Webster will act as a stand-in legal source.
Hollins said there will be no Section 8 housing, no addiction recovery houses, no halfway houses in the development. This was a fear that had been expressed to Councilman Bill Gossett by several residents.
Schenkel encouraged residents to present their questions to council and Hollins Thursday. The issues will be addressed at the Aug. 29 meeting.
Among the questions asked by residents:
∫ Do they propose to finish the development now or over the course of a decade?
∫ Have they consulted with soil and water authorities? Will there be a medium to high risk of soil and slope slippage?
∫ Do they own the property, have a contract to buy it, have a set price per acre? Do they have financing with a lender?
∫ If they don't own the property, how are they going to keep the promises of things they won't develop on the land?
∫ Why is rezoning first? If something falls through, will people in the area be stuck with a re-zone?
∫ What do they want to do with the Weiser and Cawley building?
∫ Have potential wetlands been considered?
∫ What is the benefit to the community of a "planned district," or the benefit of any rezoning?
∫ How is traffic going to be accommodated? When school starts, drivers won't be able to make a left turn on Colegate without sitting a long time.
Hollins said he could address some of those concerns right then, but Schenkel asked him to wait until the next meeting to allow more time for study.