Council To Consider Morgan's Ace Hardware Relocation

WOODSTOCK, GA — The Woodstock City Council on Monday is expected to consider an annexation and rezoning request that would accommodate the relocation of a long-running business from the downtown area.

The city and Morgan's Ace Hardware are petitioning Woodstock to annex and rezone 24.5 acres of vacant land along Main Street north of Ridgewalk Parkway and south of Brooke Boulevard. The City Council's meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at the Chambers at City Center.

The proposal would also rezone the land from R-20 residential in Cherokee County to neighborhood commercial and civic space in the city. According to city documents, 8.35 acres of the land would be used for the new Morgan's Ace Hardware and the 16.1 acres would be reserved for park land.

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Residents should note that planning for this park will be like the process Woodstock launched when it embarked on the Trickum Road park plan. A variance from the local ordinance related to stream buffer requirements is also requested in Morgan's application.

Morgan's plans to relocate from 109 East Main Street in downtown Woodstock is part of the city's initiative to redevelop about 3.5 acres in the heart of the city into a mixed-use hub. Woodstock selected Morris & Fellows, the firm behind the Woodstock Downtown project and the Alpharetta City Center redevelopment initiative, to assist in the project.

Initial concepts call for a mix of additional retail, professional office, restaurant space and boutique hotel with meeting space. The Morgan's site slated for redevelopment includes the gravel parking lot Woodstock already owns that's to the east of the store, the Wheeler Street parking lot it also owns and the seven undeveloped townhome lots owned by the Downtown Development Authority. Those lots sit next to the Wheeler Street parking lot. Readers should note the Park at City Center and the Amphitheater sites are not included in this redevelopment plan.

Woodstock previously said the project will allow the city to bring much-needed downtown parking options, improvements to the East Main Street/Main Street/Arnold Mill Road intersection and expanding pedestrian connectivity along the Arnold Mill corridor.

The Chambers at City Center is at 8534 Main Street.

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