HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Comment Card CC - 04/23/2018 - BIRMINGHAM CROSSROADS (3)Sudie Gordon
From: Cleveland Slater <clevelandslater@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2018 11:17 PM
To: Joe Lockwood; Matt Kunz; Laura Bentley; Burt Hewitt; Rick Mohrig; Joe Longoria; Peyton
Jamison
Cc: Cleveland Slater; Sudie Gordon; Steven Krokoff; Kathleen Field; Robyn Macdonald
Subject: Agenda Item No. 18-083 Birmingham Crossroads
Dear Mayor and City Council:
I am writing to you regarding Agenda Item No. 18-083. 1 oppose approval of ZM18-01/VC18-04, Zoning Modification and
Concurrent Variances for the Southeast Quadrant of the Birmingham Crossroads at Birmingham Hwy. and Birmingham
Rd.
The 75 foot buffer and 10 foot improvement setback provide a visual screen of the high density development propose
on the 6.63 acres zoned MIX:
24 detached units or 30 attached units on 6.63 acres will be a high density development. The required buffer
will provide a visual demarcation between the high density node and the rest of the AG -1 community.
The required buffer and setback provide more than one acre of protected area.
Elimination of the buffer increases density:
The applicant has submitted a plan that shows 30 units can be developed if the buffer and setback is
maintained. The maximum allowed 33 units likely can be obtained with careful site planning while maintaining
the buffer and the setback. However, if the developer wanted to construct 30 or 33 units on 20 foot wide lots,
he would not be seeking a variance. He would build the units on the small lots if thought that is what the
market desired.
The larger lots required for detached units may yield only 16 or 17 units if the buffer and setback is
maintained. Elimination of the buffer and setback allows the developer to construct at least 24 detached units,
an increase of at least 7 units.
The proposed 24 unit plan reduces site open space from 30.5% to less than 11%:
• The current zoning concept size plan maintains 30.5% of the site as open space.
• The current zoning concept size plan maintains 6.75 acres of the 22.119 acre site as open space.
• The proposed 24 unit plan maintains less than 11% of the site as open space.
• The proposed 24 unit plan contains approximately 2.42 acres of the 22.119 acre site as open space.
• The proposed 24 unit plan erroneously claims that 1.55 acres that is part of lots 1 through 5 is also open space.
• The proposed 24 unit plan also erroneously includes the 0.805 acre of the required detention facility as open
space.
Reduction of the AG -1 open space increases density:
• The proposed 24 unit plan eliminates the open space between lots 6 and 7 and eliminates the open space
between lots 8 and 9.
• Approximately four acres of open area is eliminated and the proposed site plans reconfigure the open area to
increase the AG -1 yield from the current 9 lots to 10 or 11 lots.
The 2004 zoning by Fulton County allowed for the construction of attached townhomes. The allowable density as
established by Fulton County predates the creation of the City of Milton. However, if Council elects to allow the removal
of the buffer and set back that Fulton County required, it will be this Council, and not Fulton County, that will have to
explain to Milton's citizens why there is no buffer screening the high density portion of the proposed development once
all the trees are removed from the site and why the open space requirements were reduce.
Please uphold the standards of our community and deny the variance request and site plan modification request.
Sincerely,
Cleveland Slater
13670 Bethany Road
Milton, GA