Council approves Portman Brookside mixed‑use plan with conditions after multi‑hour review

Alpharetta’s City Council on April 28 unanimously approved a comprehensive rezoning, master‑plan amendment and conditional‑use request from Portman Holdings for the Brookside MP pod A site, authorizing a mixed‑use redevelopment that includes a 5‑story for‑rent building, 75 for‑sale townhomes, about 60,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space, a 30,000‑square‑foot office conversion and roughly 13.75 acres of open space and greenway connections.

Staff described the project as a redevelopment consistent with the Brookside Small Area Plan and the 2040 comprehensive plan’s direction to retrofit older suburban office parks to more walkable, mixed‑use activity nodes. The applicant sought multiple approvals including a future land‑use map amendment, rezoning from ONI to MU (mixed use), conditional uses for dwelling units, and variances to reduce minimum lot size in the MU district, modestly increase the shared‑parking reduction (from 25% to 27%), and slightly reduce required driveway separation along Brookside Parkway.

Planning staff summarized technical elements: the plan retains one existing office building, demolishes the other, places a five‑story rental building that wraps a six‑level parking deck, locates a retail village and provides multiple multiuse path and greenway connections,…