The McDonough City Council voted at its August 1 meeting to approve an annexation and rezoning for a retail tract next to I-75.

  The actual address of the site is 1168 Hwy. 20/81, which is at the northeast corner of the Exit 218 interchange and at the entrance to the Walmart shopping center, next to Cracker Barrel and other existing retail and restaurant spaces. Those developments are already in the city along the property’s norther boundary and make the applicant site contiguous.

  The rezoning is from C-2 in the county to C-2 in the city, which is classified at Central Commercial, so the actual zoning change is negligible. The property is designated for commercial development under the county’s Future Land Use Map and was formerly the site of a Ruby Tuesday restaurant.

  The votes to annex and rezone the site were both unanimous.

  Two other rezoning requests were discussed with no action taken, as public hearings for both are scheduled for the council’s August 19 meeting. One is for a 1.77-acre tract whose address is 1033B Hwy. 155 North, across the highway from St. James Catholic Church. The applicant, Lisa Mobley, has requested a change to R-100 (single-family residential) to allow use of the house on the property as a private residence. That use is not allowed under the site’s current OI (office-institutional) zoning.

  The other rezoning request discussed last week in advance of an August 19 vote is for a 29.45-acre site on South Point Blvd. adjacent to the existing South Point retail development. In addition to an RM-75 zoning for multifamily residential, the applicant wants a variance to allow an increase from eight to ten units per acre. The applicant has stated the intention of developing a 294-unit luxury apartment community.

  In other business, the council voted to award Onsite Paving the contract for repaving and resurfacing work under the 2019 Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant administered by the Georgia Department of Transportation. The total cost is $598,755.00, of which $242,987.17 will be paid from LMIG funds and $355,776.83 will be paid from the city’s SPLOST IV account. A total of 15 roads are set to be improved on this year’s LMIG list. The LMIG contract was approved as part of the consent agenda, along with approval of an administrative variance to reduce front yard setbacks in Arnold Estates subdivision off McGarity Road from 40 feet to 36 feet.

  After executive session, the council voted to appoint James E. Elliott, Jr. as the city attorney effective August 1. The vote was unanimous.