The Hall County Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of a proposed townhome development in the northwest part of the county Monday.
Atlanta developer Tyrus Brown was requesting to rezone just over nine and a half acres on Meadow Lane from Residential-I to Planned Residential Development to build 44 townhome units. He told planning commissioners his goal was to provide affordable housing in the Gainesville area.
"The amount of people coming into the Gainesville area, the new constructions being built, we want to provide affordable housing for people to come in," Joshua Green, who spoke on behalf of Brown at the meeting, said. "The supply of houses is low, the interest rates, the economy, that's why we want to provide these homes in these different areas."
Seven residents spoke against the development, saying they believed townhomes were a bad fit for the area, which is primarily made up of single-family homes.
"An additional 100 cars a day on that road is just an absolute nightmare. The density is just completely out of keeping with what we came there and bought our houses for," resident Vicky Sanders said. "If they want to come in and build more single-family houses, obviously we have no problem with that. That's how it's zoned, we understand that."
Planning Commissioner Trey Bell agreed with the residents.
"In my opinion, this is a perfect example of spot zoning," Bell said. "It's just not a good fit. That's not to say you couldn't come in and develop it some other way, there may be a change in this property at some point, but I think it's a little dense. I don't like 17-foot-wide units."
The vote by the planning commission to recommend denial was unanimous. The Hall County Commission will get the final say on the request at their meeting on July 28th.
Planning Commission Chairman Chris Braswell told Brown that he could talk with county staff and residents to potentially alter the site plan before that meeting.
