Atlanta River Walk has crossed a hurdle with the Hall County Planning Commission.
In a unanimous vote Monday night, the planning board okayed rezoning for the 508-acre, $700 million multi-use project to be built on Old Winder Highway in the Braselton area.
The ambitious project includes some 1,260 residential units, more than 350,000 square feet of retail space, more than 480,000 square feet of office space, two hotels and a convention center, all built around a man-made water feature. ARW Group, LLC announced plans for the project in a press release on April 29.
More than two dozen residents attended the meeting at the Hall County Government Center. Several asked questions about the plan - saying they weren't opposed to it - but just needed clarification on a couple of issues, including how the construction process might impact their neighborhoods.
Elizabeth Stephens, a resident of The Ridge at Chestnut Mountain, said she wanted assurances from the developer that the mess would be kept at a minimum.
"I'm concerned about, during construction, the traffic - the construction trucks, the delivery of the equipment, the concrete trucks, the dump trucks," said Stephens. "What hours will the construction go on? Is there a limit?"
Stephens also said she was concerned because she and her neighbors had not been invited to a June 9 informational meeting that others in the area had attended.
Others expressed concern about traffic along Highway 211, noting that no new developments should be considered until the highway was widened by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
A resident of Old Winder Highway, Jill Cooper Hilton, told the planning board members she was concerned about the developer not having enough money to see the project through to completion.
"How do we know when the money runs out that we're not just going to have a residential area down there? Who's to say the commercial part of it's coming?," asked Hilton.
Project engineer Otis Aleman assured those in attendance that the goal of ARW Group, LLC was success, not failure.
"In terms of finances of the project, what I can say is that none of us are entering this project wanting to fail," said Aleman. "Talking to your economic development team [with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce], they're expecting 40,000 more people to come to Hall County within the next 10 years. Growth is coming to you folks. I guess what we're trying to do is give them a place to go shop, give them a place to live and make it so that you guys want to stay here."
Before calling for a vote on rezoning the property from AR-IV to PRD and PCD, Hall County Planning Commission Chairman Don Smallwood called Atlanta River Walk "a good project."
"Our charge here tonight is to zone it. If we agree to the zoning that you're asking for, we're not building it - we're zoning the property and the county commission may have something to say about that when it gets further up," said Smallwood.
Commission member Chris Braswell made the motion to approve the rezoning with conditions set forth by the county planning staff; the motion to rezone was approved unanimously. Commission member Bo Brooks was not in attendance.
The Hall County Commission considers the Atlanta River Walk plan at a meeting on July 14.
