Peachtree City planning commission recommends denial of rezoning for proposed FoamWorks car wash on Highway 54 West

The Peachtree City Planning Commission voted July 22 to recommend denial of a rezoning request that would have changed two parcels at 1999 and 2011 Highway 54 West from OI (Office/Institutional) to GC (General Commercial) for a proposed FoamWorks auto-spa.

Staff opened the public hearing by outlining existing zoning conditions on the site, including a required 25-foot undisturbed buffer along Sumner Road and a prohibition on vehicular access to Sumner. Staff noted the parcels were annexed into the city in 2013 and are located inside the city's village-center designation on the future land-use map.

Steven Jones, an attorney representing the applicants and their development team, described the proposal as a 1.95-acre FoamWorks auto-spa and said the owners had been unable to find buyers for OI uses for about a decade. Jones told the commission the applicant incorporated conditions requested in a prior review, including a 25-foot buffer, no access on Sumner Road, noise-reduction equipment and downward-shielded lighting. "We've tried to address some of the things that this board and the council said with the last application," Jones said during his presentation.

More than a dozen nearby residents testified in opposition. Regina Pitstick, who lives a lot away on Wilborn Road, said the parcel's previous identical request was unanimously denied by the commission and council less than a year earlier and that "to my knowledge, nothing has changed." Neighbors raised repeated concerns about increased traffic at the Sumner Road/Highway 54 intersection, safety for golf-cart and school traffic, potential property-value impacts and the cumulative effect of adding another automotive use in a corridor that already has multiple car washes.

Commissioners pressed the applicant and staff on technical issues the neighbors raised, including whether the owners had pursued non-automotive GC tenants, water-pressure and hydraulic impacts on the residential supply, the adequacy of applicant-provided noise data, and neighborhood outreach since the prior hearing. Jones said the owners had marketed the parcels for years and that the market had attracted mainly automotive uses; he estimated FoamWorks would typically operate about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and stressed equipment and vegetative buffers intended to reduce noise.

Commissioners said they appreciated the additional materials presented this time but remained unconvinced that the proposal met the municipal rezoning criteria, particularly the comp-plan step-down concept and potential impacts on adjacent residential properties. Commissioner Chris moved to recommend denial; the motion was seconded and passed by voice vote.

The commission's recommendation will be transmitted to the City Council for a final decision. The action recorded on the Planning Commission agenda was a recommendation for denial; no final zoning change was made at this meeting.