Roswell staff seek more time as council weighs 2045 comprehensive growth plan draft

Michelle Alexander, director of Community Development, and Deputy City Administrator Jeff Leatherman briefed the committee on the draft 2045 Comprehensive Growth Plan and stakeholder committee feedback and proposed process adjustments to allow more council input before the document is transmitted for state review.

Alexander reminded the committee that the comprehensive plan is a requirement of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and serves as a 20‑year umbrella for land use, housing, economic development, and environmental policy. She said staff and the consultant focused heavily on economic strategy and activity centers where growth is intended to be concentrated. The stakeholder committee, she said, proposed edits and additional clarity on seven topics and recommended extending the council comment deadline to July 2 so staff can consolidate changes before a July 27 transmittal to DCA and the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Participants stressed several substantive policy clarifications. On transportation, the committee recommended strengthening policy language to ensure traffic impact analysis is applied consistently for projects in activity centers — for example, when a development generates thresholds of peak‑hour trips. On land‑use sequencing and housing, the group urged that residential development in activity centers be explicitly framed as mixed‑use and not as stand‑alone multifamily. Members also requested clearer language about transition areas — how intensity and scale should taper from core activity centers toward neighborhoods — and asked that defining those transitions be added as an action item in the Community Work Program rather than embedded immediately into zoning code.

Housing and workforce housing were a major focus of discussion: councilors and staff agreed to commission a deeper housing study to quantify demand, define workforce housing by income band, and identify actionable policies. Committee members also debated how the plan should describe growth — the draft referenced a prior scenario of 120,000 population — and several participants preferred language emphasizing modest or measured economic growth rather than an absolute population target.

Jeff Leatherman emphasized calendar constraints from state reviews and noted the July 27 transmittal date is the critical deadline for a final package to be accepted for DCA and ARC review; adoption would follow later in the fall. Staff said they will consolidate council comments, return recommended edits to committee and hold a public hearing timed to the revised schedule.

Next steps: staff to accept written council comments by July 2, prepare a condensed list of recommended edits, meet with council members as needed, and target a July 27 transmittal to state reviewers with adoption expected by the end of September/October timeframe.