About three dozen north Macon neighbors packed into Monday’s Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission but could not stop planned townhomes near the corner of Rivoli Drive and Bass Road.
Although the 68-unit gated community includes a few estate-sized lots up to 4.3 acres, 11 acre-size parcels and 10 building sites of .60 of an acre, residents mainly opposed the 30 townhomes in five clusters of six attached, three-story units.
P&Z commissioners heard from several concerned residents but unanimously approved the project.
“We’re running out of room in Bibb County, and if we want to provide housing, you’ve got to go denser,” P&Z Chair Jeane Easom explained.
Engineer Steven Rowland, who presented the application, called the property “one of the last pieces of great undeveloped land in north Macon.”
Plans for Truitt Preserve at 5646 Rivoli Drive call for 68 varied-size lots on about 66 acres, which is a dramatic change from 2009’s plans for a residential community featuring 512 units, including 309 rooms in a 212,000-square-foot retirement home, cottages, duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and houses that were planned by another developer but never built.
One of those speaking against the project was engineer Elmo Richardson, who has lived for 47 years next to the new proposed subdivision. He said it is not in keeping with the character of surrounding neighborhoods as he outlined in an email to P&Z.
“The Rivoli Drive Corridor is a ‘suburban’ area and should remain that way. The addition of three-story townhouses creates a departure from that environment,” Richardson emailed P&Z staff.
Rowland’s application included images of architecturally upscale brick and stone designs that he compared to the Avalon luxury community in Alpharetta.
A couple of Lake Wildwood residents expressed concerns about more stormwater tracking silt into their lake, but Rowland assured them the property does not drain in their direction. Developers plan to repair a breached dam and restore a more than six-acre lake on the western side of the property that will handle stormwater, he said.
Others cited traffic concerns because cars already back up at the traffic light near where Bass Road soon will be closed for six months to build a new railroad bridge.
Rowland assured the homeowners that the bridge will be finished long before they turn the first shovel of dirt on the development.
Nextdoor neighbor Russell Loyd also noted that Bibb County public schools in the area are already near capacity or over it.
Loyd also objected to the 4.57-acre parcel on the corner that the developer left out of the project.
Easom shared his concern about what the developer might have planned on the corner.
“I hope he doesn’t want to come back with something commercial,” she cautioned.
Rowland replied that there was talk about a professional office of some sort.
“It’s obvious this is not a residential corner,” he said.
The owner of all the land, who also lives nearby, plans to develop it himself and select builders for specific styles, Rowland said.
“He wants to see this developed in a quality fashion in a manner that will make everyone proud,” he said.
Rowland assured P&Z and the neighbors that this will be a high-quality neighborhood, not cookie-cutter houses but structures that vary in height, depth and style.
In its approval, P&Z mandated that if the undisturbed buffer around the development is not enough to adequately screen the townhouses from the road, the developer will add landscaping.
Other agenda items
P&Z also approved the expansion of the oncology medical suite at 5430 Bowman Road. The 1,800-square-foot addition will house CT imagery scanning equipment, a lab, patient waiting room and five patient rooms.
Commissioners signed off on DeShaydia Pope’s plans to have amplified music at her new event center at 2168 Jeffersonville Road. Pope wants to honor the memory of her late husband by hosting his family for large gatherings and also offering the space for rentals from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
At 5507, 5545 Hawkinsville Road, Widner & Associates secured conditional use approval to build a new 6,500-square-foot convenience store, 10 fuel islands, 10 tractor trailer parking spaces, 54 passenger vehicle spaces and an additional 2,500 square feet for a future commercial tenant. The store would be open around the clock with seven to eight employees.
The testimony for a proposed 199-foot telecommunications tower at 4460 N. Mumford Road was delayed until March 10. The applicant requested extra time to gather materials justifying his request for a variance to allow a tower more than twice the size of the 80-foot limit allowed in that residential district.
Public comment contention
Before Monday’s hearing, the owners of H&H Restaurant withdrew from the agenda their request to be able to sell alcohol amid growing opposition with a petition circulating, but defeated mayoral candidate Shekita Maxwell and former Macon-Bibb County commissioner Elaine Lucas signed up to speak against the proposal.
Because the application was withdrawn, Easom denied their request to be heard anyway.
“There’s no reason to hear anything,” Easom said, and at the start of the meeting declined to amend the agenda to allow them to speak
P&Z Executive Director Jeff Ruggieri gave them the option of coming back to a future meeting when a time for general public comments could be added to the agenda, as is P&Z’s custom, but they wanted to address the commission Monday.
As the Rivoli residents were leaving the hearing room after Truitt Preserve was approved, Maxwell approached Ruggieri to ask why they were not allowed to speak when others were able to testify about the north Macon neighborhood.
He explained that neighborhood agenda item had not been withdrawn, so commissioners had to vote.
When Maxwell declined to take a seat as directed and allow the meeting to continue, Easom asked if they could get an officer to intervene.
“Don’t always try to call the officer when people are trying to do a dialogue,” Maxwell said.
Easom replied, “You are interrupting our meeting.”
“It’s not interrupting. These people just walked out and you didn’t say nothing to them and they were interrupting the meeting,” Maxwell replied.
Ruggieri offered to speak to them after the meeting, but by this time, Lucas stood and questioned why there was no opportunity for general public comments as she had some other items of concern to share with commissioners.
Maxwell also declined to talk to Ruggieri after the meeting and stressed they wanted the comments on the record.
In the past, others have requested time to speak to P&Z about general matters and were given the opportunity to do so at a future meeting.
The debate eventually died down and the last agenda was heard, but following the meeting, Lucas approached commissioners and repeatedly urged them to provide a general public comment period at each meeting.
“Y’all are probably in violation of the open meetings act. I’m going to find out,” Lucas said.
Tuesday evening, she addressed the Macon-Bibb County Commission vowing to attend every government meeting to ensure the public has the opportunity to speak about issues of concern.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.
