The Kennesaw City Council denied a controversial proposal on Oct.16 for a new off-campus student housing complex that would have potentially provided a living space for around 400 students.
The Dallas, Texas-based real estate agency Fountain Residential Partners submitted plans over the summer to the city of Kennesaw to buy three single-family homes off of Shiloh Road. The agency planned to rezone part of the Pinetree neighborhood in order to build a 125-unit apartment for KSU students. The rezoning plan’s worth was estimated at more than $100 million.
The student housing idea was opposed by many Pinetree residents in the area, who expressed their roads were are already cluttered from cut-through traffic from other off-campus student housing complexes. Kennesaw City Council members voted unanimously against the proposal in a 5-0 decision.
Michael Lavender, president of the Pinetree Civic Association, said if the city had moved forward with the development the Pinetree neighborhood could have expected loud noises, trash and other unwanted activities.
In a statement released from the association, residents said the explosion in growth and development of the area around them would clearly increase the traffic and decrease the safety of the streets as more non-residential drivers use their neighborhood to cut across to get to their classes.
“The development they’re looking at, to add 360 beds on Shiloh Road, which is already congested in the mornings and evenings, will probably get more congested during the day as the students are driving back and forth,” Lavender said.
The development underwent several design changes after its initial conception, including a limit on the height of the complex’s buildings and a shift of the entire complex closer to the road and away from the Pinetree neighborhood.
Cobb County commissioners voted Oct. 9 to place a moratorium on rezoning applications for student housing proposals through July 2018. This will delay future applications until further studies can be done on Cobb’s student housing developments.
