Conyers council approves AutoZone special-use permit, removes auto repair from Gateway Village and rezones downtown parcels

The Conyers City Council on a unanimous voice vote approved a string of land-use measures Wednesday, granting a special-use permit for an auto-parts store and adopting several zoning and annexation changes intended to guide redevelopment along key corridors.

City staff presented Ordinance 1456, a request for a special-use permit to establish an automotive parts store (AutoZone) at 425 Sigmund Road in the Northside Village Shopping Center. Staff told the council the largest suite in the center — about 25,800 square feet formerly occupied by American Freight and, earlier, Fred’s — was appropriate for retail reuse. Staff recommended approval with one condition that the permit be limited to an automotive parts store and not allow a tire store, citing the permit category’s inclusion of both use types.

Louie Milano, representing the applicant, said the proposal is a straightforward retail reuse of an existing space and that detailed façade or branding plans are not yet finalized. Council members asked whether final façade treatments and color schemes were available; the applicant said no final exterior plans had been submitted at this stage. After the public hearing — during which no members of the public registered in favor or opposition — the council approved the special-use permit by voice vote.

The council also adopted Ordinance 1457, a city-initiated text amendment to the Gateway Village District’s permitted-use table that removes automotive repair and maintenance from the district. Planning staff told the council the 1.3-mile corridor currently contains 11 automotive repair businesses; the change would prevent new automotive-repair operations from locating in that stretch while making the existing businesses legal nonconforming. Staff framed the change as consistent with the district’s goal to promote pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use redevelopment rather than auto-oriented service uses.

Separately, the council approved Ordinance 1458 to rezone 12 parcels bounded by North Main and Railroad Street from the Downtown Center district to a new Downtown Light Industrial subarea. Staff said the rezoning creates a transitional zone between heavy industrial uses to the west and residential areas to the east, and would remove several nonconforming situations on the parcels. The planning commission heard one property owner in favor and recommended adoption.

Finally, the council completed an annexation (Ordinance 1453) and an associated comprehensive-land-use amendment and rezoning (Ordinance 1454) for a roughly 0.722-acre parcel on Highway 138 that had previously been in an unincorporated pocket of Rockdale County. Staff said Georgia Department of Transportation coordination is complete for the parcel, which is affected by nearby roadwork and will have reconfigured access when the project is finished. The council adopted the annexation and later adopted the land-use and zoning changes and waived second readings.

What this means: The combined actions narrow where new automotive repair businesses can locate within the Gateway Village corridor, approve a specific retail reuse in a shopping center, and change zoning and municipal jurisdiction on parcels the city expects to redevelop in coming years. Several votes were approved by unanimous voice vote; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the meeting minutes.

Next steps: The special-use permit for the AutoZone includes the planning commission’s conditions and the restriction barring tire-store use; any future change to a tire store would require a separate application. The zoning changes take effect as provided in the adopted ordinances and the city will implement map amendments as needed.