After hearing opposition from neighborhood residents – one of whom unboxed a box turtle – and receiving a request from the Ogeechee Riverkeeper organization, Statesboro City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 18, tabled to Dec. 2 a decision on a request to rezone a 28-acre tract on Cypress Lake Road at the bypass for a mixed-use development containing a Kroger supermarket.
Southeastern Property Acquisitions LLC, based in Augusta, has requested that the two adjoining parcels with the addresses 6850 Cypress Lake Road and 7406 Veterans Memorial Parkway, at the intersection, be rezoned from R-3 residential to MX “mixed use.” What makes the plan “mixed” commercial and residential is an area sketched for about 75 homes between the existing Whispering Pines neighborhood and the proposed Kroger shopping center on the Cypress Lake Road side.
The preliminary site plan shows a 99,992-square-foot Kroger supermarket as the commercial centerpiece. For comparison, the Statesboro Publix store, not counting outbuildings, covers about 49,000 square feet.
The Kroger shopping center plan also calls for four outparcels, each a little more or less than one acre. Two of those lots for restaurants, stores or shops, with a Kroger Fuel Center on a narrower strip between them, would be on the side facing Veterans Memorial Parkway, also known as the U.S. 301 Statesboro Bypass, while the other two outparcels would face Cypress Lake Road.
Why this location?
When the rezoning request arrived at City Council for a hearing as part of the Nov. 18 council meeting, local attorney Stephen Rushing, representing Southeastern Property Acquisitions LLC as the applicant, was the one citizen to speak for the request.
“Certainly the infrastructure that the city has available as far as water and sewer and natural gas is what interested us in this site,” Rushing said. “Right now, of course, it is in the R-3 zone, which would permit well in excess of 200 residences, if it remained that zone and was fully developed.
“We’ve seen quite a number of residences come before you the last couple of years,” he continued, speaking to the council, “and so that’s why we’re looking at this one as a mixture, to mix in the commercial with some residential.”
That, he said, would probably reduce the number of homes added to about 75, instead of the more than 200 that could be built there as a purely residential project under the current R-3 zoning.
The site is the southwestern-most edge of the city of Statesboro, Rushing noted. Cypress Lake Road in that section is a county road, not a city street.
At this time, the developers are proposing up to five vehicle access points, one being a right-in/right-out-only opening from the westbound side of Veterans Memorial Parkway. Two of the access points on Cypress Lake Road would be entrance-and-exit openings, and one would be a right-in/right-out-only. The fifth suggested entrance would be from the existing Whispering Pines Boulevard into the residential area.
Who owns it?
The Statesboro Planning Commission had voted 7-0, after a Nov. 4 hearing, to recommend conditional approval of the zoning change.
Southeastern Property Acquisitions LLC does not own the property, but has it under contract for purchase from two local property owners, John R. Altman, owner of a 23.14-acre parcel, and 3 Eagles Solutions LLC, owner of a 5.22 acre parcel, which together add up to the 28.36-acre tract of the city rezoning request. The planned development also includes an area of a little over six acres that is outside the city limits in county jurisdiction, and the developer has a separate rezoning request pending for a Bulloch County Planning and Zoning Board hearing in December and county Board of Commissioners consideration in January.
At the beginning of Statesboro City Council’s Nov. 18 hearing, Mayor Jonathan McCollar announced that he was recusing himself, and turned that portion of the meeting over to Mayor Pro Tem Shari Barr, the District 5 council member, to conduct. McCollar didn’t state a reason then, but when asked later, he said his family owns a small portion of the land that is outside the city limits but proposed for the project. He said he wanted to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.
Three conditions
As city Planning and Development Director Justin Williams noted at the start of the hearing, the staff had recommended approval with three conditions, all adopted by the Planning Commission in its unanimous recommendation.
The first condition is a requirement that Southeastern Property Acquisitions LLC provide a wetland plan to ensure that “substantial issues” are mitigated before an LDAP, or land disturbing activity permit, is issued.
The second is a requirement for a traffic study.
Third, “to reduce the potential of negative environmental impacts, the property owner must utilize standards” from the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual for “stormwater detention, TSS (total suspended solids) removal, overbank protection and extreme flood protection in submitting engineering plans,” the city staff report stated.
The applicants have already obtained a determination of wetlands from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Williams noted, and Rushing said “minimal jurisdictional wetlands” were identified.
At the corner of the property at the Veterans Memorial Parkway intersection, an old borrow pit forms what Wiliams described as a “swamp area,” and the plans show this being turned into a stormwater detention pond, largest of three proposed around the site.
Neighborhood opposition
The first Whispering Pines resident to speak in opposition was Josiah McDaniel, who said he and his wife were thrilled to be able to purchase their home there in July.
“Since July we’ve found it to be a quiet community, full of good neighbors, and we have tried to be good neighbors to our new neighbors, and we love living there. …,” said McDaniel. “We are opposed to this development because it would put a busy, commercial property right in our backyard. It would butt up against Scotch Pine (Avenue). It would rob the peacefulness and privacy or our neighborhood and replace it with the noise pollution of construction and commerce, as well as increase traffic for Cypress Lake and the bypass.”
He also asked why it was necessary to place a grocery store that close to Publix, which is less than two miles around the bypass.
Beth Wolf, who is also a Whispering Pines neighborhood resident, said she is a “a long-time supporter of Kroger,” and believes one of their stores would be an excellent fit for Statesboro.
“However, I’m strongly opposed to the proposed Kroger site at the corner of Cypress Lake Road and 301 directly beside my neighborhood,” Wolf said. “This location presents serious environmental, logistical and community impact concerns that I urge the council to consider.”
In regard to the environment, she said, the development would destroy “a forested ecosystem that includes a beaver-maintained wetland that is home to an abundant diversity of native wildlife.”
Cypress the turtle
The third of the six citizens who spoke in opposition, Jordan Gray, brought a small, lidded plastic box to the lectern and asked city officials’ permission to open the box. After answering that the box contained a turtle, he set the box down unopened and introduced himself as both a resident of the Whispering Pines community and member of the leadership committee of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Turtle & Tortoise Specialist Group.
“I support responsible infill that respects both existing human residents and the wildlife that depend upon local natural habitats,” Gray said. “However, I must oppose this proposed development as I do not believe it nor the adjacent tracts meet the standards of responsible development. …”
Picking up the box and opening it, he said, “Today, I want to introduce you to one of the property’s under discussion’s vulnerable residents. This is an Eastern box turtle named Cypress. Cypress came from a woodland on Cypress Lake Road … that was recently clearcut and has been graded in which a new housing development is going in.”
Several of those who spoke also cited concerns about traffic.
The developers are currently proposing up to five vehicle access points, one being a right-in/right-out-only opening from the westbound side of Veterans Memorial Parkway. Two of the access points on Cypress Lake Road would be entrance-and-exit openings, and one would be a right-in/right-out-only. The fifth suggested entrance would be from the existing Whispering Pines Boulevard into the residential area.
In addition to the six who spoke, another area resident sent a letter, and when it was time for council discussion, Mayor Pro Tem Barr noted that the council had received an emailed letter from Ogeechee Riverkeeper. Signed by Ben Kirsch, the organization’s legal director, the letter suggested that the conditions needed to be clarified on several points and requested that a decision on the rezoning be tabled until Dec. 16.
“So there are some questions in my mind as well as concerns expressed by the Riverkeepers,” Barr said.
District 2 Councilmember Paulette Chavers wanted to move forward with a decision.
“My thing is we’re voting on rezoning. …,” she said. “We’re not developing anything; we’re voting on rezoning.”
Barr said, “These are considerations that we look at when we decide whether to rezone from residential to this mixed use, which allows this commercial part of it.”
She made a motion to table, not until Dec. 16, but to the next council meeting, at 9 a.m. Dec. 2.
District 1 Councilmember Tangie Reese seconded, and the motion to table passed 3-1, with Chavers voting “nay” and District 4 Councilmember John Riggs absent.