Residents oppose planned Zebulon Road development in Macon

More than 50 residents gathered Wednesday at the Howard Community Club on Forsyth Road in Macon to plan their opposition to a proposed mixed-use development on Zebulon Road.

“We need to bombard (members of the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission) with letters and emails,” said Billy Hester, who lives in the Stone Edge subdivision which borders the proposed development site.

Sierra Development Group and SPP Commercial Group, both based in Macon, plan to build a $30 million residential and retail center on about 25 acres between 5801 and 5885 Zebulon Road. The site comprises seven contiguous tracts of residential property owned by seven different owners who have agreed to sell their property.

The developers have filed an application to rezone the property and it is expected to be heard Dec. 14 by the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission.

If the rezoning is approved and the development built, “it would be the early death of our neighborhood,” Hester said.

He passed out a map of the area marked with several other locations between Foster Road and west of Interstate 475 that the development could be built.

“There are a lot of places to put these things,” Hester said. “There’s no sense in messing up a neighborhood when you have all these (other locations). ... Sometime down the road when there are no more commercial sites to build on ... then they may have a leg to stand on.”

As planned, the 241-unit, pedestrian-friendly development to be called Lofts at Zebulon would include some units with garages and amenities such as an outdoor swimming pool, a nearly 3-acre park with walking trails, a fitness center, urban gardens and a Wi-Fi cafe, according to the plans.

Ground floor retail space will be in one of four, four-story buildings with lofts above. Four outparcels — lots near Zebulon Road with separate buildings — are designated for restaurants.

Other developers have failed to develop anything along this stretch of Zebulon Road — all were opposed by area residents.

Birmingham, Alabama-based developer Blackwater Resources tried to build a retail center with 200,000 to 250,000 square feet of space, including five outparcels.

Many residents protested that development, and hundreds signed petitions and showed up at multiple zoning meetings, asking the board to deny the rezoning for the project.

The commission approved the rezoning in July 2014. But residents took the matter to court, and the court reversed the zoning decision. Blackwater did not pursue the matter further.

Jim Daws, president of Sierra Development Group, and Travis Griffith, president of Southern Pines Plantations Commercial Group, who are behind the development, say their project is different from other projects, especially because the Lofts at Zebulon would be about 90-percent residential.

But the residents are not swayed. Hester and others said they needed to contact residents in all surrounding neighborhoods to support opposition to the proposal.

Hester said it was important for residents to impress upon the commissioners that “it shouldn’t ever come before them again.”

Years ago Southern Pines developed the commercial property on both sides of Zebulon Road adjacent to I-475 and large shopping centers were built. Residents say the company promised it would not develop past Sonny Carter Elementary School and Northway Church and that it is now backing out of that deal.

Hester said he just learned recently that Southern Pines — who has supported the residents in their opposition to other proposed developments — paid nearly $63,000 of the $64,800 in legal fees to fight Blackwater’s planned development.

“I was one (of the residents) in the lawsuit and I didn’t know that,” he said.

He suggested Southern Pines wanted to keep anyone else from developing the site so that it could develop it later.

Griffin recently agreed that the company was trying to protect its assets when it fought against other developments on Zebulon. But after seeing how close the zoning commission was to approving Blackwater’s site plan, he and Daws began to discuss what might work on the site.

But the residents Wednesday night said they plan to fill the Macon-Bibb County Government Center to oppose the plan.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Linda S. Morris at 744-4223 or find her on Twitter @MidGaBiz.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Residents oppose planned Zebulon Road development in Macon."