GAINESVILLE – A unanimous recommendation for approval was given by the Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board for what will be Gainesville’s largest mixed-use community ever.
The project by Caballero Holdings, LLC, now goes to the Gainesville City Council for final ratification of its two applications: one to annex 140.77-acres into the city and onto the project site, the second to bring the combined acreage of the project site under one specific zoning category. Both applications were recommended for approval by the GPAB Tuesday evening.
If given final approval at the January 18th city council voting session “Gainesville Township” will total 1122.43-acres with 2365 total residential units. In addition 75,000-sqaure feet of commercial/retail space is planned.
(As a point of reference, giant Mundy Mill Subdivision is just over 600-acres in size.)
According to Brian Rochester of Rochester and Associates of Gainesville, his client plans to have a price point of $350,000 and up for the 1414 single-family homes, low $300,000 and up for the 311 townhomes, and market-pricing for the 640 rental apartments.
The development will be so large that property for two schools (20-acres apiece) and a public safety building for the use of the Gainesville Fire and Police Departments (2-acres minimum) is required of the applicant.
The main entrance into the development will adjoin the property of White Sulphur Elementary School and be in conjunction with the main entrance into “The Coop”, Gainesville Park and Recreation’s new youth sports complex named in honor of longtime Parks and Rec Director Melvin Cooper.
One of the aspects Rochester highlighted about the development is the amount of open space in the site plan. More than 57-percent of the development will be open space Rochester explained. “All of the buyers…will basically be able to walk out their front door or their back door and be in a park.”
He also pointed out that the developers are local, based in Cumming. “They are based right here in northeast Georgia. One of the owners lives off Browns Bridge Road.”
When asked how long it would take for the project to be fully built out, Rochester responded, “The fastest it would be built out is ten years.”
According to city documents “A Central Amenity Center is proposed off of the main entrance road to the community which will include a clubhouse, swim center with lap pool with children’s play area, tennis center with lighted courts, pickle ball courts, great lawn with pavilion for outdoor functions, mail kiosk and dog park, various pocket parks, disc golf, extensive trail, sidewalk and multi-use path system. Other satellite amenities may include boat/RV storage, bicycle racks, small open space cabana’s with neighborhood size pools.”
“This is going to be a mack-daddy clubhouse,” Rochester said.
The only comment made in opposition to the project was an expression of concern that the wetland areas in and around the development be preserved. The city assured the speaker that strict guidelines regarding stormwater management and stream buffers would be in place throughout construction.
