December 27, 2007
Unless you have been asleep for the last year, you've probably heard the name Roswell East mentioned at least once and most likely with some amount of passion, either for or against.
For over one year, Charles Brown's company, CRB Realty Associates, championed a large-scale mixed-use plan along Holcomb Bridge Road and Ga. 400. However, the idea in its original form is lifeless, according to an August vote to maintain the status quo by the Roswell City Council.
"I think that issue died this summer," said Mayor Jere Wood. "I don't think any council member is going to come forward with a proposal on it within the next two years."
The project – located on 106 acres of land on Old Alabama Road south of Holcomb Bridge Road where the King's Bridge Apartments now stand – would have needed to be rezoned from its current allowed .44 floor area ratio (FAR) so that it could contain Brown's proposed FAR density of 1.29.
It was a rezoning that the City Council felt they could not live with.
The area's current OCMS zoning already allows office space, housing units, hotel rooms and limited commercial space similar to that of Brown's proposed designs. However, OCMS only permits mid-rise buildings of up to nine stories. Roswell East, in its proposed form, would have put up several buildings between 14 and 15-stories. Three of those buildings were designed to be over 20 stories, with a hotel topping out at 27 stories.
In all, the project would have contained approximately 5,169 residents within 2,975 residential units, which included 16 single-family homes, 80 townhomes and 2,879 condos. To fully utilize a "mixed-use" zoning, the project would have also built 750,000 square feet of office space and 200,000 square feet of retail space.
The city would have been responsible for building a new fire station and hiring three additional police officers to handle all of the public safety requirements in Roswell East.
"I think that project is dead, I think Charlie Brown's proposal [at least in its original form] is not coming back," said Wood. "I don't know what's going to happen to that site, but I don't think it's going to be a Charlie Brown project."
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