A private, gated addition to the large Sterling on the Lake community that is expected to add more than 200 new homes received final approval from the Flowery Branch City Council Thursday night.
The 85-acre plot of land has been referred to as the "Honeycutt Tract" by developers and city officials and sits on Capitola Farm Road. While the land was already zoned for Planned Unit Development, the tract had to be rezoned with conditions to allow for the gated community.
Flowery Branch City Planning Director Rich Atkinson said city officials were finally able to come to terms on the development with Looper Lake, LLC. after expressing some initial concerns about the project.
"It was kind of a surprise to us that they wanted to gate it," Atkinson said. "I think the process, once it was brought forward, has really just been the council working with the developer to come to a comfortable spot where they felt ok with allowing it to be gated. (The council) were concerned about the roads being privatized."
No one spoke against the development at Thursday's city council meeting and the rezoning was approved unanimously. The project will not add to the total number of homes originally planned for Sterling on the Lake when the community was originally annexed into Flowery Branch in 2001.
