By Sarah Fay Campbell | May 26, 2020
Click here to read article on The Newnan Times-Herald.
Celebration Village, a retirement community with independent and assisted living components off Fischer Road and Highway 34, has now been approved.
The development was rejected in November, when the Coweta County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 against amending conditions that were placed on the property in 2018, when there was a different developer.
The request had been withdrawn in August and resubmitted.
The property was zoned to the county's Residential Retirement Community and Care district back in 2015, but with a condition that it could have no more than 70 lots. That was changed in 2018 to 95 lots.
Local attorney George Rosenzweig, representing developer Active Senior Concepts, became involved in the project after the November denial. He said that as he and County Attorney Jerry Ann Conner reevaluated the situation, "we decided that the project could be developed under the existing zoning conditions, but that we needed a conditional use permit for the assisted living facilities."
The earlier 95-lot proposal was for single-family homes restricted to those 55 and older. The new development won't have any individual lots, Conner said.
Instead, there will be independent living cottages/bungalows and independent living apartments, as well as a three-story assisted living/memory care facility with 96 units/136 beds, and two personal care homes with a total of 20 beds, for a total of 375 units. A conditional use permit was approved by the commissioners unanimously.
The RRCC zoning district allows for maximum density of 12 units per acre. Celebration Village is proposed to have six units per acre.
the development was initially opposed by neighbors, and developer Armand Vari withdrew it and worker with neighbors on their concerns -- including creating access to the development from Highway 34. When the project went back before the commissioners in November, it was with significant support from neighbors.
"We have our zoning in place," Rosenzweig said to the commissioners this week. At the Board of Zoning Appeals, there was substantial constituent support and no opposition, he said, though the developers of another senior development across Fischer Road asked that the exteriors be made of noncombustible materials.
"We topped that because each of these three buildings will be built entirely from noncombustible materials," Rosenzweig said.
Developer Armand Vari said he had talked to people in the adjacent subdivisions, and even some farther away, as well as the nearby Lutheran church.
"We would hope that you would look at this again. It's something that is special," Vari said.
Active Senior Concepts has other Celebration Village developments in Georgia. However, the name has been rejected by the county's Name Review Committee, which makes sure that road and area names aren't too similar to existing names, for public safety purposes. Rosenzweig said that they are working on the name issue.