At tonight's meeting, the City will be holding a Design Review hearing for 25 townhomes and 2,100 sq ft of commercial space to be built on 2.69 acres off of Hillcrest Drive, next to the site where they plan to build the 300 apartments they notified the public about earlier this year. These 4-bed, 4.5 bath townhomes are currently supposed to be "fee-simple," meaning they are for purchase at a price in the high 500's. The developer is currently referring to them as "Skyview on Broad." At this price, the townhomes hardly contribute to the stock of what many people would consider affordable housing.
The City had a presentation and some very light discussion of the project at last week's City Council work session.
Like Solis (the 300 apartments next door), the City didn't have to conduct hearings about whether or not to do the project. It's given itself the power not to do that for anything in the downtown area. If they're so certain that the community supports what they're doing, I'm not sure what a hearing to approve/disapprove the project overall would hurt. Apparently, the City feels like it can't afford to take public feedback into consideratoion on these projects.
These townhomes will be built. This hearing is merely to weigh in on the design of the townhomes themselves.
According to the planning application, the commercial space is planned to be a micro-brewery with a fire pit and outdoor seating, a lawn area for outdoor games, and spaces along Hillcrest Drive for food trucks. I've heard no mention if they actually have an interest or a commitment from a particular micro-brewery to go into the space once the project is complete.
At the design review for Solis, I mentioned the traffic situation in downtown. Marc Cohen did the same. My concern is that Solis only has two entrances, one off of Hillcrest Drive and another off of Temple Drive. Many people already turn onto Hillcrest from 20 to access their neighborhoods, both in downtown and the surrounding area. I use it to get to my home off of Whitehead Road. The addition of food truck parking on one side introduces a pedestrian element that further complicates the situation. Despite having two civil engineers at City Hall (one on Council, one on staff), the traffic situation in downtown is not user-friendly and not making any strides toward improving. The idea that everyone in Sugar Hill will walk everywhere still seems a tad unrealistic to me. It's not a matter of possibility, but of preference.
While the City, primarily City Manager Paul Radford, often like to refer to maintaining the character of the community and preserving the small-town feel, they usually fall pretty short. The elevation document the City is showing on its Interactive Development Map shows attractive homes.
There was some bait-and-switch, though. The presentation given at the City Council Work Session and the builder's website show something that looks pretty different. The style of these homes is blockier and less traditional than what appeared in the initial documents, and IMO, not a style in keeping with a small-town feel. I'm not even sure they are in keeping with the look of the other downtown buildings. While the mockup photos show a good bit of trees and landscaping, the site plan provided to the City looks like a lot of concrete and not much landscaping or greenery.
Sugar Hill's documents, for your review: