ICYMI: Smyrna Development Proposal Denied

A large outpouring of residents opposed to a proposal to build 15 new homes on an undeveloped six-acre plot helped sway the Smyrna City Council into narrowly voting down the measure at Monday’s city council meeting.

The meeting, which lasted more than four hours, saw approximately three hours’ worth of dialogue between the city, developers Venture Homes, and residents who were mobilized to speak out against the plans to rezone six acres of land behind North Cooper Lake Road from R-20 to RAD-conditional for the construction of 15 homes on the plot of land.

Opponents of the deal created a petition which collected 801 signatures on the website change.org. The petition claimed that Venture’s plans had a density of roughly four homes per acre due to the topography of the parcel. The high-density development would be out of character with the surroundings, which contain “established R-20 neighborhoods: Bennett Woods, Pineview Manor, Grace Meadows, and N. Cooper Lake Road.”

“You could drop two of the proposed units into one Plumcrest Road lot with room to spare,” according to the petition. Homes could be as close as 10 feet apart from one another.

When it came time to cast votes on Monday night, councilmembers Ron Fennel, Teri Anulewicz, and Melleny Pritchett voted in favor of the development, while councilmembers Charles “Corky” Welch, Andrea Blustein, Wade Lnenicka, and Susan Wilkinson voted against the proposal.

Anulewicz, speaking to the assembled audience during the meeting, commended those who stood up and spoke out against the plan as bringing a ”compelling case” to the podium, and expressed her internal conflicts on a decision she called “a real toughie.”

Welsh said he was not comfortable with voting for a proposal that did not meet all the conditions of the RAD-conditional zoning sought by developers. Wilkinson said she was not comfortable approving a proposal which created a non-conforming R-20 lot due to the construction of a road for the new developments.

Lnenicka said the conversations regarding the development led him to believe that the city was ready to have a different conversation on zoning criteria to make decisions for the city as it continues to grow and develop.