Forsyth Planning Commission Recommends Ga. 400 Rezoning for Warehouses, Prohibits Data Centers

Forsyth County planning commissioners voted to recommend approval of rezoning requests for land off Georgia Highway 400, including property listed as 5485 Georgia Highway 400 in Cumming, changing parcels from Agricultural District (A1) to Restricted Industrial District (M1) for warehouse use. County staff language on the agenda reads "RECOMMENDED APPROVAL WITH VARIANCES AND CONDITIONS," and an original brief supplied with the case states the decision prohibits data centers at the proposed complex.

The largest county entry, listed as case ZA4253 and owned by HREP Acquisitions, LLC, appears in staff excerpts as either 21.652 acres for warehouses totaling 228,240 square feet with 289 parking spaces or as 31.719 acres for warehouses totaling 321,300 square feet with 326 parking spaces. The Forsyth County staff text requests multiple variances tied to the site plan, including reducing the 40-foot zoning buffer to 0 feet as shown on the site plan, and it recommends approval with conditions. The agenda excerpt is fragmented and does not clearly state a count of buildings; the original brief accompanying the case says "three warehouse buildings," but the county snippets list only square footage and parking totals.

Other county cases advanced by planning staff include ZA4252, an application from Rocket Brew, Inc., to rezone 0.306 acres at a Buford Highway address for a 777-square-foot drive-through restaurant with six parking spaces. Staff recommended approval with variances that would reduce the Buford Highway setback from 40 feet to 22 feet and reduce side setbacks from 10 feet to 0 feet as shown on the site plan. Case ZA4269, filed by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, covers 6.63 acres immediately south of properties known as 4920 and 4940 Piney Grove Road and was also recommended for approval with conditions. Case ZA4254, applicant Austin Edelen, seeks rezoning of 21.237 acres for a 135,672-square-foot large-scale retail establishment with 424 parking spaces and conditional use permits for vehicle rental, open storage yard, and open air business; that entry appears on the agenda as a continued public hearing and the staff text is truncated.

The Forsyth County agenda repeatedly cites variances to Unified Development Code standards: reductions of side setbacks from 10 feet to 0 feet (UDC Table 21.6), landscape strips along sides and rear from 10 feet to 0 feet (UDC 21-6.5(A)(2)), by-pass lane width from 9 feet to 0 feet (UDC 21-6.5(J)(4)), rear setback from 25 feet to 0 feet (UDC Table 21.6), and zoning buffer reductions from 40 feet to 0 feet (UDC Table 14.2).

Separately, Forsyth City Planning & Zoning handled a much larger proposal called the Forsyth Technology Campus or Forsyth Technology Park, a developer-led plan for roughly 1,600 acres and as much as 12 million square feet of data-center or tech campus space. The city board tabled the key conditional-use vote and requested a Development of Regional Impact report from the Georgia Regional Commission before making a recommendation to City Council. Developer partners Trammell Crow Company and H&H Timberlands faced questions about water and electricity; H&H partner Tye Hanna said, "We don't want to be like Henry County," and emphasized, "This project [has] (sic) no trucking, no distribution, no warehouses, no semi-trucks rolling up and down the streets."

Public turnout for the city hearing was large, with neighbors raising traffic and quality-of-life concerns. Long-time resident Williams told board members, "It’s too much traffic out here as it is," adding, "It will take the country out of this like this has next door to me," and that, "The peace and quiet that’s been here for many years, now there’s no peace and quiet." Neighbor Lynette Mazyck said she was "Worried about how it’s going to affect the quality of my life."

The county planning commission's recommendations now move to elected bodies for final action; the city P&Z scheduled further consideration at a special meeting and awaited the DRI before sending a recommendation to City Council. County staff packet excerpts supplied to the agenda are truncated and do not show the full motion texts or vote tallies, nor do they explicitly reproduce the written condition that forbids data centers on the Ga. 400 site; those documents will determine whether the "no data center" statement in the original brief is a formal condition or a summary description.