The Locust Grove City Council voted at its October 3 regular meeting to approve a request to rezone 156.82 acres from residential-agricultural to light industrial. The property is adjacent to I-75 and the railroad north of Bethlehem Road, and the applicant intends to develop a 1,845,000-square-foot light industrial warehouse, according to a city staff report.
The site was reviewed and approved earlier this year by the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority as a Development of Regional Impact. The property was annexed into Locust Grove in 2021 so that the entire development could proceed through permitting and inspection phases in a single local jurisdiction.
City staff reported that the rezoning was consistent with Locust Grove’s future land use plan and that there are already numerous industrial uses in the vicinity of the property.
In other business, a request for rezoning from general commercial to planned development for a 50.16-acre site on Price Drive was tabled until the November 7 meeting. The property is currently vacant and undeveloped.
The revised site plan includes 332 apartments, 56 townhomes and commercial space. The apartment portion consists of 10 garden-style apartment buildings and four that have a “carriage house” design with attached garages.
The council approved architectural plans submitted for Home2Suites on Marketplace Blvd. The applicant’s proposal includes a four-story hotel building measuring 60,392 square feet with 100 guest rooms and an outdoor pool.
Also approved was a revised memorandum of understanding with the Georgia Department of Transportation for work along I-75 on the Commercial Vehicle Lanes Project, an investment of nearly $2 billion for truck lanes between I-475 and Bethlehem Road.
The city’s new rate schedule reflecting a 24 percent increase for sanitation services was approved. Officials noted that the new rates are similar to what other cities and counties are experiencing with recent rapid increases in fuel, supplies and labor costs.
