Woodstock Postpones Decision on Billboard Near Outlet Mall

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The Woodstock City Council last week put off making a decision on whether to approve or deny a request to install a billboard near the Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta.

The Council tabled until March 9 an appeal from Tinsley/Postiglione to place a billboard on 3.49 acres on Woodstock Parkway south of Ridgewalk Parkway, fronting the northbound lanes of Interstate 575.

City staff denied the application due to the city’s code that restricts billboards within 500 feet of properties either zoned or designated for single-family residential use. According to the city, the proposed location is located 426 from the Deer Run subdivision. It’s also zoned light industrial within the city’s Technology Park Overlay, which would allow for the development of single-family residential uses on the property.

The same company in 2013 originally submitted a request to install the billboard on the same parcel. City staff denied the request, and the company appealed the decision. However, Tinsley/Postiglione eventually withdrew its appeal of city staff’s decision.

Council members also approved the first reading of a deannexation ordinance for land lots 105, 153 and 154 of Kingsridge Estates.

Residents Sharon Oglesby, Donald Moncrief, Jr., and Jackson A. Norton want the city to return their homes located at 1070 and 1080 Castlewood Drive and 890 Tanglewood Trail to the jurisdiction of unincorporated Cherokee County.

The parcels were annexed and rezoned in 2010 to general commercial as part of Hennessy Honda’s plans to use the properties for inventory space.

A group of neighbors — the Kingsridge Neighborhood Coalition — sued the city, the three property owners and Hennessy Honda over the acquisition. Due to the lawsuit, Hennessy Honda did not move forward with the purchase of the property, according to city documents. To have the lawsuit dropped, the three properties must be de-annexed and returned to unincorporated Cherokee County.

The county Board of Commissioners in September 2014 signed a resolution authorizing the de-annexation, and a settlement and mutual release agreement between the plaintiffs and defendants has been signed, which will cause the lawsuit to be dismissed upon the de-annexation.

The council also:

• awarded a request for proposals from RD Construction Company to build restrooms at Olde Rope Mill Park for $113,500;
• approved a resolution in support of Senate Bill 63, which would allow craft breweries and brewpubs to sell their products for off-site consumption.
• approved transferring $18,000 from Impact Fees to the Park Capital Outlay account, which would be used for a proposed disk golf course at Dupree Park; the money would be used to purchase 18-disk golf baskets, course signage, building materials for footbridge and course-related concrete pads; and
• approved a budget amendment to transfer $25,000 from Impact Fees to the Park Capital Outlay for the purchase gravel/rock, split rail fencing, wood border timbers, signage and related materials for the expansion of the parking lot at Woofstock Park.

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