The Sandy Springs Board of Appeals approved a request by Fairfield Springs for a variance that would allow them to leave out a required masonry buffer wall at the back of the former North Springs Center shopping plaza, which is being redeveloped into a multi-unit residential property with retail.
The 10.44-acre property is at 7400 Roswell Road, on the east side of Roswell Road and just south of Dalrymple Road.
The request was only for the exclusion of the requirements of the buffer wall. All neighborhood transition buffer planting must be followed, LaQuita Williams, Planner I with the city’s Planning & Zoning Department, said.
“Staff has discovered that the conditions on the property are extraordinary and exceptional due to the extreme topography near their required transition buffer. That topography not only makes the wall installation infeasible, but the substantial grade change also makes the wall ineffective in providing screening of the development from the neighbors,” she said.
Development code and comprehensive plan policies promote preserving and enhancing tree canopies, Williams said.
Staff recommended approving the variance to the buffer wall, but only under the condition that the applicant’s revegetation plan is approved by the city’s arborist and sustainability manager, she said.
Steve Rossman, an attorney for Fairfield Springs, said the developer plans to build an 8-foot tall, solid wood fence with no pickets. It has made agreements with the immediate neighbors.
“We’re asking you to eliminate the wall because a wall by definition is masonry. The problem we have with a masonry wall is you have to build footings and dig them. And that requires going into the neighbor’s yard. If we do a wooden fence or wall, a solid wooden fence, I’ll call it that, you don’t have to dig into their yard,” he said.
Rossman also said Fairfield Springs has separate agreements with those neighbors to install screening walls within their properties from Fairfield’s property to their homes.
Tyler Lyon of Wyncourtney Drive, whose property is adjacent to the development, said he’s also a professional and certified arborist.
“One of my big reasons for asking that they be allowed not to build a masonry buffer wall and instead build a wooden fence is because the construction of a wall would be significantly more impactful and devastating to the ground and the trees,” he said.
Community Development Director Ginger Sottile said the buffer wall variance only removes the requirement of building that wall from the developer. Wall materials cannot be subject to a variance, so the agreements neighbors have made with Fairfield Springs are not enforceable by the city.
“You can’t come back to Community Development or this board and say they didn’t put the wall where they said they were going to. That’s going to be a private civil dispute,” Board of Appeals Chair Mel Mobley said.