A rezoning request to accommodate proposed apartments on a six-acre tract near Fort Gordon proved contentious at the Augusta Planning Commission’s monthly meeting Monday afternoon.
The Harper Franklin Group had petitioned to rezone a 4113 C Elders Drive from R-1C One-family Residential to B-2 General Business. The developers plan to build 24 one-bedroom apartments in three buildings, along with five townhomes.
“What I was trying to do was the least impactful for the development of this area,” said developer Matthew Eschelbach to the commissioners, regarding objections from neighbors to the project and the rezoning request.
In July of last year, the group received development plan approval to build 47 townhome units on parcels just north of the Elders Drive property, which are already zoned B-2, with an entrance on Harper Franklin Avenue, the first phase of a proposed neighborhood called Cypress Crossing.
The Harper Franklin Group had also applied for a special exception for the parcel in 2015 to build 24 townhomes at three units per acre. The special exception became void when the project never materialized.
Eschelbach told the commissioners that the group had waited to pursue another project on the property until further development, noting intersection improvement along Harper Franklin Avenue and the beginning of the construction of the Kroger Marketplace across the street.
He also said that he would be willing to donate a portion of the land for use as a park or some other community area.
Patricia Jeter is a board member of the Elderberry subdivision’s homeowners association. She told the commissioners that some 128 of her neighbors signed a petition opposing the rezoning request and the apartment development.
“Not only will it destroy our property values, but the traffic is already over capacity,” said Jeter, citing concerns about potential increase in traffic and potential impact on nearby wetlands. “We don’t even have sidewalks for our residents, and he wants to put an additional strain on the current infrastructure.”
Jeter also told commissioners that the Group had signed an agreement in 2015 to not build apartments on the property. Eschelbach denied this, saying there had been a covenant on the land that had expired in 2017.
The planning and development staff recommended denying the request to rezone to B-2, determining that the apartments would “not be compatible with the existing single-family residential development immediately adjacent.”
However, staff advised the commission that a continuation of the already approved townhomes that would make up the first phase of Cypress Cross would be more compatible, and so recommended changing the request to an R1-E zoning. Among the conditions of that modified recommendation was that no more than 24 townhomes be built, and that all construction be located outside of the wetlands area.
The commission’s vote was initially split 50-50 opposing and approving. Chairman Sonny Pittman broke the tie by voting in favor of the updated rezoning request.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
