Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Rezoning topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Planning commission recommends approval of White Hawk rezoning and annexation with tree-preservation stipulation
Summary
The Marietta Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of White Hawk Business Park’s rezoning to light industrial, annexation of an adjacent parcel and a future-land-use code amendment, adding a condition that an arborist be consulted on tree preservation and supplemental plantings.
The Marietta Planning Commission on May 29 voted to recommend approval of a package of actions for White Hawk Business Park LLC that would rezone several parcels to LI (light industrial), annex one parcel into the city and amend the city’s future land-use designation for the site to Industrial Warehousing.
The recommendation came after the applicant asked the commission to approve the rezoning “subject to our stipulation letter of May 6” and to incorporate the variances listed in the staff report, and after commissioners added a condition requiring consultation with an arborist. The commission’s vote was a recommendation to city council, not a final annexation or zoning ordinance.
The rezoning request covers unaddressed property on Weaver Drive and addresses listed in the staff report. The applicant representative said a neighboring residential owner signed a consent form and that the revised site plan submitted after the last hearing includes supplemental landscaping and tree-preservation measures around the residential corner lot. The applicant described plans to retain specimen trees where feasible and to bring an arborist in to evaluate which trees can be preserved and where supplemental screening plantings will be added.
Commissioners discussed variances flagged in the staff report, including one allowing disturbance of the required buffer adjacent to 611 Weaver Drive to accommodate stormwater outfall. The applicant said the intent is not wholesale clearing but to supplement and preserve existing mature trees where possible. Commissioner discussion resulted in an explicit stipulation that an arborist be consulted and that tree preservation and supplemental plantings be reflected in the final conditions.
City staff and the applicant’s engineering representative, Dan Khan (city employee working with the applicant), were present to answer technical questions. Family owner Cy Hedrick and on-site representative Boone Holcomb attended and were identified by the applicant as participants in neighbor outreach.
The commission also moved to recommend annexation of 601 (aka 160) Weaver Drive (approximately 1.5 acres) and approved the associated code amendment to designate the site IW (Industrial Warehousing) in the city’s future land-use map; both recommendations were made as part of the same composite action. All motions were made and seconded and carried to forward the commission’s recommendation to city council.
The commission’s recommendation incorporates the staff variances and the applicant’s May 6 stipulation letter and adds the arborist consultation as a condition. City council will take final action on annexation, rezoning and the future land-use map change.
The commission’s recommendation does not itself change zoning or municipal boundaries; those actions require subsequent ordinances from the Marietta City Council.
Next steps: the commission’s recommendation and the record, including the applicant’s stipulation letter and the staff report, will go to city council for final consideration and ordinance adoption.
