Six Flags Area Residents Get Vocal at County Zoning Hearing

South Cobb residents spoke out about the possible rezoning of the motel at 200 Six Flags Parkway at Tuesday’s county zoning hearing.

The proposal to rezone the motel from heavy industrial to general commercial was removed from the consent agenda and then unanimously voted down by the county commissioners.

According to a report from the Marietta Daily Journal, Naresh Patel, the motel owner’s representative, said he did not plan to expand his business.

Commissioner Bob Ott, who represents East  Cobb and Smyrna, said he could not support a rezoning proposal without plans and referred to the motel as an “eyesore.”

Also, at the zoning meeting, the commissioners unanimously voted to oppose a zoning change request for Creekside at Wade Farm subdivision, also in the Six Flags area, near Factory Shoals and Blair Bridge roads.

Zoning division manager John Pederson had recommended that commissoners postpone voting on the rezoning request until the next zoning hearing in February, but South Cobb Commissioner Woody Thompson said the developers had plenty of time to review and postponing a vote would not have made a difference, according to the MDJ report.

The builder, Dan O’Dwyer of O’Dwyer Homes, requested changing the lot size from 2,200 square feet to 1,800 feet so that he could build smaller homes with smaller pricetags of about $180,000.

He told the commissioners he had only built about 15 homes in the $400,000 range in the last five years due to the economic downturn.

Eleven residents of the subdivision petitioned to stop the rezoning because they felt it would negatively impact their property values.