Developers of Verdae’s newest subdivision development met with city planning commissioners last week at a workshop to clarify their plans and assuage concerns about how well the finished product would meet the standards the city expected from Verdae Development.
The workshop was held at Verdae’s office. The commission expressed that they were satisfied with what they saw by the end of the meeting and Chairman Matt Johnson suggested that more information up front would help avoid confusion and reduce skepticism.
Commissioner David Keller, who had raised many questions at a planning commission meeting the previous week, was not present. Those issues included landscaping, stormwater retention and the quality control of housing.
Mark Eisenbeis of Atlanta-based SF Capital Developers presented an overview of plans for the 154-home Belhaven development, including slight changes that had been made in response to concerns raised at the previous meeting. He insisted that the development would be high quality and similar to the existing Ruskin Square at Hollingsworth Park, another Verdae development. Homes at Ruskin Square range from the $200,000s to $500,000s. Belhaven homes would be priced in the $200,000s to $300,000s, he said, with materials including brick, stone and hardy plants.
“We’re not talking about vinyl siding or anything like that,” Eisenbeis said.
He showed a revised plan with two housing units removed in order to create more usable green space, and said the water retention pond would be designed as an attractive amenity. He said grading the land would be more of an issue than initially anticipated and so some details had yet to be determined.
A finalized proposal was delivered to the city early this week.
The meeting was open to the public, though not for public comment. A handful of observers were mostly residents of other parts of the development. Verdae staff and staff from the city attorney’s office, planning and development and engineering offices were also present.
