Massive residential development proposed for Athens (Atlanta, Athens-Clarke County: sale, 2015, apartments)

[Airforceguy]

Considering the fact that GA 316 is already a hot mess when it comes to the amount of traffic it handles. The last thing it needs right now imo is another major development adding to the traffic. I wish GDOT would upgrade 316 to a freeway before more large projects like this are proposed...

Walton Georgia LLC is seeking to revise and expand an existing planned development proposal for the tract — actually nine separate tracts located on the north side of Atlanta Highway between Conway Drive and Cleveland Road — that never came to fruition. Walton Georgia acquired the tracts in February 2014 for $2.1 million in a foreclosure sale by Bank of the Ozarks, according to Athens-Clarke County tax records.
As envisioned, the project, dubbed Winslow Park, would include 307 single-family homes, 342 of what Walton Georgia is calling “traditional” apartments, and 204 “active adult” apartments, designed for older people.
The residential component of the development would be fronted with a set of seven commercial buildings, for which no potential tenants are yet being identified.
Because the proposal is an amendment of an existing planned development proposal — although Walton Georgia LLC is also seeking a zoning change, adding residential designations to the existing commercial designations — the Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission received it for comments only at its Nov. 5 meeting.
Planning commissioners did have a number of comments, ranging from concerns about the number of waivers from zoning regulations being requested for the project, to the logistics of getting vehicular traffic into and out of the proposed development. Dewberry Engineers, Inc., the firm working with Walton Georgia LLC, handled the Nov. 5 presentation in front of the planning commission, and returns to the county Monday, according to the firm’s Teresa Crisp.
Crisp, who was involved in the Nov. 5 presentation, said because the earlier planned development proposal was at one point OK’d by the county, Dewberry Engineering didn’t add a lot of detail for its first meeting with the planning commission.
“Since we were just altering it, we probably didn’t include as much as we should have,” Crisp said.
Among the major concerns of the planning commission was the fact that, at present, plans for Winslow Park show only a single entry and exit point into the development via Atlanta Highway. The plan shows a second entry and exit point via a connection with Conway Drive — Conway Drive goes on to intersect with Atlanta Highway — but does not make clear exactly how that connection will be made.

Engineering firm taking new look at massive Atlanta Highway development | Online Athens