Developers Given Warning by Alpharetta Councilman

Alpharetta City Councilman D.C. Aiken put developers on notice that the city won't be automatically letting them change zoning applications in the middle of the approval process.

Aiken didn't want developers to get the idea that they could change their applications to a fallback zoning classification when things aren't going their way.

The City Council this week approved an application that changed after the Planning Commission  heard the original request. A 6.7-acre property on Webb Bridge Road that backs up to homes in Clipper Bay Subdivision in Windward first was considered for 12 lots. When City Council made it clear they were ready to reject that proposal, they also gave the developer a chance to change the application to a less dense proposal with only nine homes.

Paul Oswald, whose home is around the corner from the proposed Webb Bridge development, told City Council before its vote that the new version of the site plan should go back to the Planning Commission because "it is so much different."

Oswald said by not sending it back to the planning commissioners, the city would be setting a precedent and would be bypassing normal procedures.

"I'm not very happy with how this went," Aiken told Oswald before the vote was taken. "This gives me chills of what happened in 2005, 2006, 2007."

Aiken said during those years when many rezoning applications were made, developers would come to the city with one plan, knowing it wouldn't be approved. They were "using Planning Commission as a dress rehearsal."

Now that the city is heading back to time of increasing zoning applications and time for more construction, the City Councilman had words for zoning applicants.

"Developers need to be warned," he said, not to come in with one request thinking that they will be able to settle for a lower density when they get to City Council. Bring in the final plan, or expect to be sent back to the Planning Commission – and be forced to wait a full year before being allowed to apply again.

The new proposal got City Council approval because the site plan wasn't that much different than the original site plan, it just had larger lot sizes and fewer homes.

Scott Reece of Brumbelow-Reese & Associates presented the new version of the development proposal on behalf of Marjorie Harris, the property owner of this section of the old Harris farm.