Council to vote on distribution center

An Alpharetta developer plans to build a 338,550 square-foot logistics center and a 60,000-square-foot warehouse on nearly 126.7 acres of undeveloped land along Oglesby Road just outside Powder Spring’s southern boundaries.

The Native Development Group on Monday sought to have City Council rezone a 9.2acre portion of the development site that sits within city limits. The rezoning would allow light industrial activity within yards of the Spring- brook Estates subdivision, a community of about 40 homes north of the development site.

City Council is expected to annex the remaining 117.5 acres into Powder Springs on Oct. 18. That land is currently in unincorporated Cobb County. That’s when coun- cil members are expected to vote on the rezoning request.

Kevin Moore, a Marietta attorney representing the Native Development Group, said developers plan to meet with residents at a nearby subdivision who were “adamantly opposed” Monday to

the prospect of a distribution center being built adjacent to their neighborhood. Develop

ers also intend to conduct a traffic study to analyze the impact of truck traffic from the logistics center.

“I think that folks deserve that opportunity,” Moore

said of a community meeting. “They’ve asked for it and we certainly want to provide that to them.”

The warehouse and distri- bution center are proposed to be built near a juncture where C.H. James Parkway, Burrow Trail and Oglesby Road intersect.

City officials said the facilities can bring up to 200 jobs and about $85,000 in tax revenue to Powder Springs.

Many homeowners said those benefits would be outweighed by negatives.

“When we chose to call Springbrook Estates our home, this was not a part of our vision,” Kevin Sampler said.

It was not clear which trucking company intends to set up shop at the location. Powder Springs Community Development Director Tina Garver said the site was part of a 251acre property that city leaders once proposed for an Amazon operations center in 2017.

According to Garver, Powder Springs planners intend to meet with Cobb County and Georgia transportation officials this week to discuss the possibility of installing a traffic light, adding more turn lanes for trucks along Lewis Road and creating an access road that connects C.H. James Parkway with Oglesby Road. The only access to the proposed site currently is along Burrow Trail.