Smyrna board approves variances to allow home near Kingsview stream with stormwater mitigation

The City of Smyrna License and Variance Board on June 11, 2025, approved two variances allowing construction at 1241 Kingsview Drive that will encroach into the city's 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer and the city's 75-foot impervious-surface setback, the board confirmed during a public hearing.

The variances matter because the 0.65-acre lot is substantially encumbered by multiple buffer layers adopted after the lot was platted; without the variances the applicant says the parcel would be undevelopable. Caitlin Crow, Planner I in Smyrna Community Development, told the board: "this is variance v 25Dash052 to allow encroachment into the city's 50 foot undisturbed stream buffer" and summarized staff recommendations and standard conditions for approval.

Community development staff reported that the parcel was platted in 1965, before the city's stream-buffer ordinance took effect in February 2005, and that state and city buffers together would, if applied without relief, cover the entire lot. The applicant proposes a new single-family home (described in staff materials as four bedrooms and five bathrooms) and an optional inground swimming pool in the rear yard. To address runoff, plans include two best-management-practice (BMP) infiltration features — described in the application as "gravel sump" systems in the front and back yards — and engineering staff reviewed and supported that mitigation as meeting the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual requirements.

At the public hearing, neighbors raised concerns about environmental and drainage impacts. Walter McDonald, who lives at 1284 Kingsview Circle, said the lot is "one big gorge" and warned that disturbance would be "very invasive": "There will be nothing left of that little sanctuary there." Louisa Perkins, who lives directly behind the lot, described a spring-fed creek and wildlife on the site and asked for a visual site inspection and an environmental-impact analysis: "I was a little alarmed to hear that part of the plans is are to build a swimming pool." The applicant, Davin Harris, who lives across the street at 1234 Kingsview Drive and identified himself as the person planning the build, said: "we're trying to get this thing together and hopefully just beautify the area and make it look a lot better."

Sean Murphy, the landscape architect and certified arborist who prepared the plans, told the board he did not propose work inside the state's 25-foot stream buffer and said the design would minimize tree removal and include silt fencing and planting to enhance disturbed buffer areas. Murphy explained the BMP concept to the board: "A BMP just stands for best management practice" and described the gravel-sump infiltration pits the plan calls for.

After staff presentation and public comment, the board voted to approve variance v25-052 (encroachment into the 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer) and then variance v25-053 (encroachment into the 75-foot impervious-surface setback), each with staff's standard four stipulations: substantial compliance with the submitted site plan and elevations; execution and recording of a stormwater inspection and maintenance agreement with the Cobb County Superior Court before a building permit is issued; submission of a stormwater as-built certification to Community Development before final certificate of completion; and replacement of any curb damaged during construction prior to certificate of completion. The motions passed as recorded by the board minutes.

Board members and staff said site plans are available on request from Community Development; staff noted the city's online agenda was briefly unavailable to some residents before the meeting. The board record shows that engineering staff were present to answer technical questions and that staff found the variances to be the minimum relief necessary to allow a house to be built on the lot as proposed.

The approvals allow the applicant to pursue building permits subject to the recorded stormwater agreement, the as-built certification, and compliance with the submitted plans and the stated mitigation measures.