More than 10 years after it was begun, the initial draft of the Ridgewalk master plan – a planning guideline for the area north and east of Interstate 575 that also encompasses the future Rope Mill Road interchange – made its debut before Woodstock residents last week.
About 120 residents attended two informal question-and-answer sessions hosted by Woodstock’s planning department Jan. 21 at the Woodstock Community Center on Arnold Mill Road. Another 25 to 30 people attended a town hall meeting hosted by Ward 1 Councilman Randy Brewer, who represents the area under the master plan.
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The master plan for the Ridgewalk area along Interstate 575 north of Towne Lake Parkway to the future Rope Mill Road interchange is available on Woodstock’s Web site at www.woodstockga.gov under the “Community Development” heading.
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“We got very strong positive response for the intent of the plan,” said Woodstock’s Director of Community Development Richard McLeod, who hosted the meetings with Woodstock City Planner Brian Stockton and Woodstock Planning Commission Chairman John Szczesniak.
Brewer also is encouraged by the draft of the Ridgewalk master plan.
“We may find some areas that need to be tweaked down the road, but I think, overall, it is a very comprehensive plan that will protect all the property owners and the city’s interest to ensure we get the type of development we have all been waiting for,” he said. “I feel this is a plan that will be looked back on in the future as a model of how planning should be done to create live, work and play communities.”
Copies of the plan and the presentation from the meetings are available online at the city’s Web site: www.woodstockga.gov, under the “Community Development” heading.
The open house meetings were the initial stage of the process for the plan to be adopted by the Woodstock City Council so Georgia Department of Transportation construction of the interchange can begin.
McLeod said he anticipates two public hearings some time in March, prior to a finalized plan being presented to the city council. The city anticipates groundbreaking on construction at the interchange to begin some time in the fall.
Brewer said he requested the master plan to address previous zonings and his constituents’ complaints about allowing more apartments in the area.
“The city and the developer had disagreements on how many more apartments were allowed in this area, and it was all based on years of so-called verbal commitments and poorly written past zonings,” Brewer said. “I asked the staff, over a year ago, to start working on a master plan, so we could get everything on paper once and for all and stop having to constantly argue over what was promised by someone in 1995, 1998 or 2002.”
The current draft of the plan includes eight zoning categories and is an attempt at tightening future development classifications over the 20-year period the city expects the build-out of the area to take.
The development zones in the draft plan are:
• Gateway – The most intense development, located near the interchange, that requires ground-floor retail and allows upper-floor office/residential up to 10 stories;
• Town Center – A commercial node located at Ridgewalk Parkway and Ridge Trail, that requires ground-floor retail but allows upper-floor office/residential up to five stories;
• Corridor – Single-use office or residential, located along Ridgewalk Parkway, Ridge Trail and Woodstock Parkway, that allows limited ground-floor retail and buildings up to five stories;
• NB Corridor – More residential in character, located along Main Street, Rope Mill Road and Ashland Parkway, that allows live/work space in buildings up to three stories;
• Neighborhood – Residential, located between Activity Zones and includes existing neighborhoods, that allows attached or detached housing up to three stories;
• Workplace – Office and light industrial, Located along North Rope Mill Road, with more flexible regulations to allow distribution and warehouse-type buildings;
• Retail/entertainment – Destination-type development, located along Woodstock Parkway and the north side of Ridgewalk Parkway, with more flexible regulations to allow larger entertainment buildings, such as theaters, skating rinks, etc.;
• Greenspace.
“It’s a whole lot better than what the current, very broad zoning does, because the current zoning retains (a) light industrial (classification) that doesn’t really maximize economic potential and the desires of current residents,” McLeod said. “The vision is maximizing capital of economic development with the interchange; there’s no denying it’s a significant opportunity for significant tax base improvement.”
The city also plans to move forward at a pace that gives city residents enough time to digest the plan’s entirety and to address any issues residents might have before the plan reaches a final version that goes before the council.
“Equally important to the economic development is what the residents want and protecting the residents who are already there,” McLeod said. “We’re setting out a sustainable development pattern that isn’t going end up as empty strip malls in 10 years.”
Brewer said future development under the master plan could bring in “thousands of retail and white collar office jobs and transform the city into a live, work and play community that is “one of our last shots” at fixing traffic problems and increasing the standard of living.
“This is one of Woodstock’s last chances to really bring in a some high-end retail, restaurants, Class A office space and, potentially, more hotels and even possibly a conference center,” he said. “So we wanted to make sure we got this right.”
