New assisted living facility planned

The Suwanee City Council voted recently to approve a rezoning request to allow for the construction of an assisted living facility at the southeast corner of Buford Highway and McGinnis Ferry Road. The Oaks at Suwanee assisted living facility on 6.6 acres will include 60 assisted living rooms and 26 memory care beds. Amenities will include social and recreational activities, meal, housekeeping and laundry services, 24-hour emergency response, shuttle transportation service, physiotherapy, virtual doctor services, hair salon, and a movie theatre for residents.

The front of the 66,795-square foot building will face Buford Highway with vehicular entrance points from McGinnis Ferry Road and Burnette Road. Conditions of approval restrict the facility to a maximum of 86 units to be built using residential craftsmen style architecture. All facades facing Buford Highway or McGinnis Ferry Road must be at least 50 percent stone or brick. All parking will be screened from public streets with landscaping.

Financial review citizens committee is appointed

Lawrenceville has appointed 15 community leaders to serve on the city’s newly formed Financial Review Citizens Committee. Members named to the community at last night’s council meeting included Michael Bolitz, Carla Crowe, Susan Sikes Davis, John Greenway, Liz Hartnett, Ryan Jensen, Glenn Martin, Jason Powell, Andres Rubio, Linda Stephens, Michael Thomas, Ann Vines, Jeff Wages, Sandra Webb and Carolyn Wright. The purpose of this committee is to educate citizens, business owners, and community leaders on the financial operations of the city and ultimately to encourage input into budgetary process in order to create better transparency with the public.

The committee consists of five residents, five business representatives, and five community leaders. Committee members will meet four times over the next two months, may be called upon to attend city council work sessions, concluding with budgetary recommendations to the city council in June.

City approves zoning for self-storage facility

The Snellville City Council voted recently to zoning and land use changes to allow Brannen Development Co. to construct a 72,000-square-foot, three-story, controlled air, self-storage facility on 2 acres at 2387-97 Lenora Church Road. A portion of the property at 2387 Lenora Church Road contains a partially built 48,000-square-foot vacant steel structure that shares parking with Carlin Vision.

The property had been designated within the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map for office/professional, but the developer stated a study of the market does not show a demand for medical or office/professional in the area. In documents filed with the city, Brannen Development Co. noted “for over 10 years, this partially built structure has become a source of vandalism and shelter for local transients.”

Approval came with conditions including a requirement the storage units may not be used for manufacturing, retail or wholesale selling, office or other business or service use or for human habitation.