After months of negotiations, the rezoning application for a portion of the Four A development, which includes the Corner Market and the Village at Almand Creek, was approved unanimously Wednesday night by the Conyers City Council.
"The last six months have really been pivotal for Four A and the city to work out a lot of details," said David Roper, asset manager with Four A International, LLC. He described it as a learning process and a process of getting on the same page with city leadership through dialogue. "These are very hopeful and reassuring signs we can, in a public-private collaborative, do some good things."
The new zoning will be a mixed-use zoning, which will allow, among other things, for the building of the Market Lofts, a 84-unit mid rise on the Corner Market property, which is located at the corner of Flat Shoals and Parker roads.
It also moves forward the process of adding Phase II of the Village apartments, or another 203 units, and Phase II of the Village Townhouses, 100 townhome units.
The average density of the total 100.5 acres in question will remain 8.7 units per acre, but not necessarily for each acre. As part of the agreement, building or subdividing on empty acres will be prohibited.
"They won’t be allowed to subdivide the tract so that in effect, you would create more density than the ordinance would allow. It cannot be subdivided or split off without council approval," said city attorney Mike Waldrop.
In the rezoning agreement, Four A also agreed to pay $350,000 towards a multiuse trail through its property with the PATH foundation paying the remaining portion of the cost. The trail would connect the Parker Road portion and the Johnson Park portion of the PATH trail.
Other points of discussion included the addition of a traffic light at the entrance, and providing pedestrian street lighting.
Helen Gordon, a resident who lives right on the edge of the city and county on the 138 corridor, was effusive about the plans from Four A.
"I am so excited about Four A International," she said. Addressing the council, she said. "All of you guys are so much on board with understanding that we can’t continue to sprawl… What I envision is an entire corridor from Ga. Highway 20 and Miller’s Chapel all the way to Olde Town."
The economy has slowed the original pace of Four A’s development. The Market Lofts was originally planned to be sold as condo units but would probably start off as multi-family rental units, due to the economy, said Roper.
As for the question of sewage capacity, Roper said the Market Lofts project was granted the sewage capacity it needed by the Downtown Development Authority, which had approximately 20,000 gallons per day of sewage capacity to grant. The other two projects remain without capacity. There is currently a moratorium on granting new sewage capacity.
"I’d like to be able to go ‘here’s my invoice for x number of gallons and here’s my check,’" said Roper. "But that’s not where we are. There’s a moratorium. If we’re going to plan years down the road, the county needs to plan years down the road…There is no clear answer here."
Rockdale Water Resources Director Dwight Wicks said 95 percent of RWR’s current sewage capacity is already being used or is committed. Sewage from additional Village apartments or Market Lofts would go into either the Almand Creek Branch or Quigg wastewater treatment plants.
Wicks said the county had been in discussions with Four A. "We think there might be a long term solution," he said.
The 100.5 acre development is part of a larger development planned for land owned by Four A between Interstate 20 and Johnson Road.
