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Meeting Report

More information was revealed by City Staff on the size of the development. The presentation they gave is available on the roswellgov.com website Click Here

Also note: many people were waiting to ask questions or make comments when the meeting was ended. It was announced at the meeting that any further comments could be made at the Open Forum City Council Meeting this Monday July 30th 7:30pm at City Hall

Density

Bottom line, as questions posed by Councilman Jerry Orlans revealed, the proposal consists of essentially the same commercial elements that are in the current zoning, but then adds about six million additional square feet of residential space on top.

This addition of six million square feet over and above the current zoning is what is requiring the high rises. The high rises provide the only way to fit this kind of increase in square footage into the same piece of land originally zoned for millions less square feet.

Current Zoning
Office	957,830	sq. ft.
Office/Hotel	180,000	sq. ft.
Office/Commercial	48,000	sq. ft.
Total	1,185,830	sq. ft.*

* There are also 471 rental apartments ranging from 1 to 3 bedrooms either built or approved under the current zoning that would need to be added to the above total. An average sq. ft. figure is not known at this time to use as a multiplier.

Proposed Zoning
Office	750,000	sq. ft.
Retail	200,000	sq. ft.
Hotel	400,000	sq. ft.*
Residential	5,950,000	sq. ft.**
Total	7,300,000	sq. ft.

*200 room hotel, staff indicated they allow 2000 sq. ft. per room to allow for the room, meeting space, and other elements of a hotel required to support a room

**Using staff number of average 2000 sq. ft. per housing unit.

Traffic

The traffic study was also discussed. Most numbers in the study double or more when comparing the current zoning to the proposed zoning. This checks out considering the proposal is for three or more times the square feet of the current zoning.

Traffic Generated by Development Scenarios

Development	Daily Vehicle Trips	AM Peak Hour Vehicle Trips		PM Peak Hour Vehicle Trips
		Entering	Exiting	Entering	Exiting
Roswell East Existing Zoning	12,765	1,539	190	216	1,325
Roswell East Proposed Zoning	27,769	1,164	978	1,275	1,584

Schools

Both the developers numbers and the City's numbers indicate that the 2,975 residential units being built will contribute fewer students in the school system than the current 300 or so apartments. The new housing units will have very few families with children. Essentially what this does is create more capacity at Esther Jackson Elementary School for bussing in students from the apartments at the northwest quadrant of Holcomb Bridge and 400.

CBS Channel 46 Atlanta covered the meeting:

Roswell East Work Session Recast as Town Hall Meeting

There is a meeting on the Roswell East project this Thursday July 19th at 7:30pm in Council Chambers at Roswell City Hall.

It was originally scheduled as a nondescript work session where City Staff would present their findings in a small meeting room in City Hall to an audience consisting mostly of the Mayor and City Council, though the public is generally allowed to come to these meetings too.

This work session has since been recast as a "Town Hall Meeting", presumably by the Mayor who controls this meeting, and it has been publicized to all major Roswell and Atlanta area media outlets, and will now be held in Council Chambers which is the large public meeting room normally reserved for full City Council meetings.

For anyone interested in the Roswell East development for any reason, this is probably a very important meeting to go to.

Although it is being held in Council Chambers, it is still officially a work session as far as we can tell, so the format of the meeting is not entirely clear. The City Staff will certainly still present their report, but beyond that, nothing seems to be set in stone as to format.

Initial reports described the meeting as a presentation of findings by City Staff followed by a presentation or rebuttal by The Pinnacle Companies and/or CRB Realty (the developer and his lobbying firm). Later clarifications indicated anyone who wanted to ask questions, including the developer, could do so, but would be limited to three minutes total time. Further clarifications indicated that the developer may be allowed to speak for more than the three minute limit if so prompted by the Mayor who will ultimately be in charge of the meeting and who can speak and for how long.

The meeting is this Thursday 19 July at 7:30pm in Council Chambers at Roswell City Hall.

Department of Transportation: More Shortfalls

There had been recent suggestions that maybe the DOT was not really out of funds, but now on 6/29 The Georgia Department of Transportation issued a new press release indicating that in fact their funding shortfall of 7.7 billion has gotten worse, not better:

"By now many of you have already heard that the Georgia DOT is facing a $7.7 billion transportation funding shortfall over the next six years. But that is only part of the story. Georgia faced a $444.7 million road maintenance, safety and improvement funding shortfall in FY 2007.

Today, 63% of Georgia’s roads are rated as excellent or good. Only 37% of our roads are rated fair, poor or bad. If we continue on this path, in just six years, roadway conditions will be completely reversed! By 2013, 84% of our roads will be rated fair poor or bad."

There is more on a Georgia Department of Transportation website created for this general subject area: Click Here

Southbound 400 On Ramp at Holcomb Bridge Congestion

As is made clear from the pictures below of a typical morning drive time, the on-ramp to 400 South at Holcomb Bridge is fully congested, with a very tense merge process to get from the ramp onto 400. The blockage occurs on the ramp, and in the area in front of the ramp, which is 400 Southbound itself. Even without the proposed 7,715 residents at Roswell East, this blockage already exists.

The office component of Roswell East will not add traffic to this ramp at morning drive time when it is congested, because this ramp is used by residents leaving the area in the morning, not workers arriving in the area in the morning. The residential component, however, will add traffic on this exact exit ramp at morning drive time.

There have been proposals to add flyovers behind this congested on-ramp, but many are pointing out that if the on-ramp itself is already congested, a flyover behind this congested ramp is not likely to remedy the situation.

However one improvement that might mitigate the residential traffic added by the development would be an additional lane on GA 400 South from Holcomb Bridge down to 285.

400 South On-Ramp at Holcomb Bridge (click to enlarge)

400 South On-Ramp at Holcomb Bridge (click to enlarge)

Riverside Road Traffic Situation

The developer of Roswell East is proposing 2,975 new household units (over 7,000 residents), plus 950,000 sq ft of new office/commercial/retail. There has been discussion about effects on Holcomb Bridge traffic, but residents of the area are increasingly asking about the effects on traffic in the Riverside Road corridor which is closer to much of the development than Holcomb Bridge.

The questions are related to the traffic in construction materials and equipment during the ~12 year construction phase, as well as the traffic generated by the new residents, workers, and customers at the site once it is built.

Some of these questions have been in the form of letters to the editor of various local newspapers. The residents are asking for information about what what traffic studies, if any, have been completed on this specific corridor, and what plans, if any, the developer has to prevent this corridor from getting worse as a result of the added density in the rezoning he is asking Roswell for.

Here are pictures of the areas under discussion, each with a map showing its location so that interested parties can get a point of reference for what these residents are asking about.

Riverside Road and Old Alabama Intersection looking East (click to enlarge)	Riverside Road and Old Alabama Intersection looking West (click to enlarge)
Riverside Road Bridge over Vickery Creek looking East (click to enlarge)	Riverside Road and Highway 9 Intersection looking East (click to enlarge)
Riverside Road in front of Riverside Park looking West (click to enlarge)	Riverside Road and Highway 9 Intersection looking North (click to enlarge)
Azalea Drive and Highway 9 Intersection looking West (click to enlarge)

Roswell East Presentation Online

The presentation of 4/22/2007 at East Roswell park is posted. It took awhile to synchronize the presentation with the audio that was recorded at the event, and the slides need the audio to be clear. This is why it took us a week to get it done.

The presentation was just over an hour, and we time-compressed the audio by 15% so it goes faster than that, just under an hour.

Here is the link:

Roswell East Presentation 4/22/2007 30mb - Windows Media - 256kbps

This is the presentation from 4/22. The various proposals and data are likely to continue to change as they were changing right up until the day of the presentation.

If you are interested in a higher quality DVD copy, send an email to dvd@roswelleast.org with your name and address and we will mail a free DVD that can be played in an ordinary DVD player.

Roswell East Information Meeting Well Attended

A detailed informational presentation about the Roswell East project that has been proposed by Charlie Brown Realty and Pinnacle Properties was made Sunday 4/23 at East Roswell Park. The presentation room was full to or past capacity, with estimates of 200 attendees, and chairs being scavenged from adjacent rooms to accomodate the crowd. WSB Channel 2 covered the presentation:

(click on the image above to see the video)

Also, here are pictures taken at the event:

(click on the image above to see the pictures)
When you get to the pictures, you can cycle thru them by clicking on the right arrow ()

Neighborhood Meeting Scheduled

A group of neighbors are putting together a presentation with factual information about the development and proposing alternatives. Everyone is invited.

Sunday April 22
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
East Roswell Park
9000 Fouts Road
Click here for the flyer: roswell_east_flyer.pdf

Proposal: City of Roswell to Fund Holcomb Bridge Improvements Using Tax Revenue

An earlier AJC article, Huge Roswell Project Faces Hurdles (click to view) said:

"Wood also says he won't vote for Roswell East unless the project is built in conjunction with a major overhaul of the interchange at Ga. 400 and Holcomb Bridge Road."

There had been some hopes expressed by supporters in the community that the developer would either fund these improvements needed for his project, or would be able to convince the Department of Transportation to cancel other projects in order to fund this project. At the moment however, those possibilities seem to have fallen through.

In this new AJC posting: Mayor Supports Tax District for Holcomb Bridge (click to view) , the Mayor is quoted:

"... with a $7 billion shortfall in state funding for transportation projects, I expect Roswell will have to make a substantial contribution to the cost of improving this interchange..."

Read the full article here: Mayor Supports Tax District for Holcomb Bridge (click to view) (free AJC registration may be required)

Apartments Feeding Esther Jackson Elementary

There has been interest in the contribution of apartments to the K-5 student population at Esther Jackson Elementary School, and in particular how the demolition of the King's Bridge apartments to make way for Roswell East would affect the composition of the Esther Jackson Elementary student population.

This information from Fulton County indicates that 70% of students who live in apartments and attend Esther Jackson Elementary come from apartments other than King's Bridge, mostly from the West side of GA 400. (King's Bridge is on the East).

The developer states "Proposed type and number of residential units proposed for Roswell East creates about 50 fewer students for the surrounding schools when compared to the current apartments"

Therefore, after Roswell East is built, the contribution that the apartments on the other side (West side) of GA 400 make to Esther Jackson should be a higher percentage than it is now, and may go up in absolute terms as well if additional capacity at Esther Jackson Elementary is opened up by the Roswell East project.

The map shows the student counts from the various apartment complexes and their locations.

	Gables Wood Crossing	King's Bridge	Avistele	Roswell Gables	Wood Creek	All Apartments
Number of K-5 Students	43	123	47	71	128	412
Percentage of apartments	10.4%	29.9%	11.4%	17.2%	31.1%	100%

ROSWELL: Huge project faces hurdles

Click here for an AJC article on the subject with the above title. (free AJC registration required)
Here is another link to a similar AJC article: click here
Basically mayor Jere Wood reiterates / clarifies that his support for the "Charlie Brown" Roswell East project is conditional on "certainty", not just "probability" of funding for the road projects to offset the added traffic load.

More Roswell East Conceptual Pictures. These made by the Developer.

This is the Developer's drawing of their proposed Roswell East development: (click the image for a larger version)

Burbs Going Vertical

AJC also did an article on the Roswell East development: Is Roswell Ready (free AJC registration may be required)

Relative Roswell East Project Density

	Roswell East	Centennial Walk	Windfaire	Martin's Landing
Households	2,975	167	38	1,964
Retail/Office Sq Ft	950,000	159,900	0	0
Status	Not yet approved	Recently approved	Recently approved	Existing

3D Drawings of Roswell East Proposal Based on Conceptual Site Plan

(New image set from 3/2/2007)
All Views in one PDF file
roswell_east.pdf (large - 4.2mb)
Chart Listing Building Heights
(click the above image for a larger image)
First Conceptual View (Looking North on State Route 400)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)
Second Conceptual View (Looking Northwest from Martin's Landing)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)
Third Conceptual View (Looking West from Martin's Landing)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)
Fourth Conceptual View (Looking East from State Route 400)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)
Fifth Conceptual View (Looking East from State Route 400 - Through Buildings)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)
Sixth Conceptual View (Birds eye view looking Northeast along State Route 400)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)
Seventh Conceptual View (Birds eye view looking Northwest from Martin's Landing)
With building placement
(click the above image for a larger image)

Conceptual images produced by City of Roswell Community Development Department Staff from Conceptual Site plan and building heights provided by the applicant

The drawings and buildings at this stage in the development process are conceptual. The City has only been provided by the applicant a conceptual site plan as well as a general table that indicates the number of stories of the parts of the buildings but not elevations. From the site plan you can identify what is the taller part of the building. From the aerial photo you can measure a known building and then transfer the proportions to the other aspects of the other buildings which was done such that the buildings are internally proportionate. However, they have been placed on the plain of the photo image which is a flat surface. The actual topography of the land varies by 100 feet(+/-). The city is working on representing the topography of the site such that the building height could be seen in relation to a representation of the actual ground.

Note: If you click on an image to get a larger view, Internet Explorer might shrink the image to fit in the new window. If you want to see the image in full resolution, hover your mouse over the image and an expand image like this will appear:
If you click on it you will see the image in full resolution.

Pricey change at Holcomb Bridge interchange may be hard to fund

By PAUL KAPLAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/14/07

Most of the talk swirling around Roswell East, Charlie Brown's $2 billion megaproject, has focused on his plan to build high-rise towers in a city that has no tall buildings.

But for Brown, a potentially higher hurdle has emerged. Improvements to the interchange of Ga. 400 and Holcomb Bridge Road aren't on the regional planning agency's 25-year wish list.

The biggest project in Roswell's history now hinges largely on a road improvement that isn't even on the land where the development would be built.

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood says he can't support the development without a major improvement to the interchange at Ga. 400 and Holcomb Bridge Road.

Brown's high-density project would feed traffic onto both of those roads, which are already overburdened.

"I support his proposal, provided we do an interchange improvement at the same time," Wood said. "Charlie Brown has some thoughts on that, but we need [more]. We need to have a commitment. This isn't a matter of faith."

But a commitment from whom?

Brown's vision of a flyover bridge to feed westbound Holcomb Bridge traffic directly onto southbound 400 would cost a fortune. There are no official estimates, but it would cost much more than either Brown or Roswell could likely afford. And the interchange is not on the Atlanta Regional Commission's 25-year wish list of road projects to fund.

So what will Wood and Brown do?

"You go down on your knees and you beg," Wood said. "You go to the Department of Transportation, you go to the Atlanta Regional Commission, you go to the governor, you go to your local representative, your senator, your congressman. You get on your knees and beg."

Brown knows the drill.

Ask the veteran deal-maker what he actually does at his company, CRB Realty, and he says, "Tilt at windmills."

What he means is that the development process is fraught with roadblocks, and you have to work through each of them, one by one. The bigger the project, the taller the roadblocks, and Roswell East is big.

Brown had hoped to present his project to the city, get it approved and then push for funding for the interchange improvement. But without Wood's support, that approach appears dead.

"Charlie would like to get his project started without this interchange, but I don't think the public will support it without a large improvement," Wood said.

Brown is not shrinking from the task. He points out that Holcomb Bridge connects Fulton to three counties — Cobb, Cherokee and Gwinnett — and that 400 connects Fulton and Forsyth counties, so he expects support from several stakeholders.

"This is a regional situation, a regional crossroads, so it's reasonable to expect a regional solution," Brown said.

Roswell has asked the ARC to add the Holcomb Bridge/400 interchange to its priority list, but road money is getting tighter, not looser. Because of a projected shortfall in state road funds, more projects are coming off the list than are being added to it.

A $2 billion development would generate a lot of tax revenue, however, and Wood thinks the potential revenue could give Roswell a leg up in getting the interchange rebuilt.

"It's easier to do it if you've got money coming to the city, county and state from a project — there are a lot more financing options," Wood said.

One option would be support from the city, and Wood has not ruled that out. Roswell has commissioned its own study of the interchange and will be getting feedback soon on how best to build the flyover and what it would cost.

But Wood would need support from the City Council, and several members are already dubious about the height and density of Brown's proposed project. An expensive road addition tossed in could push the whole package over the edge, so it's not Wood's preferred approach.

"Who pays for it I haven't resolved yet," he said. "My first preference is to use other people's money."