The Norcross Planning and Zoning Board saw plans on July 1 for a 27-home, single-family redevelopment that would transform a block within the city’s historic downtown district, mostly between Hunt and Beutell streets.
While the new residential community replaces some large lots, the city’s planning documents support increased residential density around its downtown to support new generations of community members and local businesses.
The 4.33-acre site called “The Foundry” does not border Lawrenceville Street. Instead, it is situated just northeast of Norcross Elementary School, abutting existing single-family homes.
New homes in downtown Norcross
Last March, the city council rezoned five parcels – either R-75 or R-100 – to a Planned Residence Development (PRD). The classification is flexible in the city’s code of ordinances, allowing higher density and sometimes multi-family developments. The Foundry’s preliminary plat has only single-family, detached houses.
This spring’s updates to the comprehensive plan require a special-use permit (SUP) for multi-family and mixed-use developments, which is “a backstop” that requires a majority of elected officials to approve a project. Elected officials’ support for rentals and owner-occupied homes varies.
The developer’s proposed preliminary plat includes 27 new single-family, detached homes, averaging about 3,800 square feet on 0.1-acre lots. Two existing homes on the southwest side of Beutell Street will remain.
The conditions of the council’s approval require each home to have three parking spaces. The developer’s additional requirements include eight-foot-wide sidewalks, streetlights, and landscaping strips along Beutell and Hunt streets, as well as buried utilities and an internal sidewalk network.
Council to abandon ROW
A cut-through between Beutell and Hunt streets, called Foundry Drive, creates the proposed community with two cul-de-sacs branching off Beutell Street.
Despite some tension on the city council and among residents, a vast majority in Norcross supports increasing the availability of owner-occupied homes. Council Member Josh Bare said he wanted the city to create “more opportunities for people to invest their money in their homes,” before voting against the March updates.
The Norfolk Southern Railway, a hallmark of downtown Norcross, is just northeast of The Foundry. The city council will decide whether to grant the developer’s request to abandon a slice of city-owned, undeveloped 30-foot-wide right-of-way. The land extends 160 feet between Beutell Street and Norfolk Southern’s right-of-way.
In a city memo, staff wrote that the land conveyance “is in the best interest of the public” and would include new city-owned ROW along The Foundry’s new property lines.
The owner and developer are listed as Norcross-based Mutual Home Solutions and Musah Lotallah. The civil engineer is from Peachtree Corners-based Foresite Group and Josh Carnes.
Because the rezoning requires the developer to “obtain a land disturbance permit within 18 months” of the rezoning, construction is likely to begin before this fall.
