Rockdale Citizen

CONYERS - Developers of the Corner Market mixed-use development at Parker and Flat Shoals roads met with city of Conyers officials Friday to discuss ways to get the long-delayed project back on course.Keith Gartin, the design project manager of the development, and Atlanta attorney Bradley Skidmore met with the city officials to review the issues remaining for the development.The development includes the Corner Market shopping center and the Village at Almand Creek apartments at the Parker Road-Flat Shoals Road intersection. Two other phases remain to complete the development that will have another 230 apartments and 100 town homes connecting with the Corner Market.Friday's meeting followed a vote by the Conyers Rockdale Planning Commission Thursday night that recommended approval of the group's zoning request from strictly town homes to mixed-use development.However, Conyers Councilmen Marty Jones and Gerald Hinesley said the zoning change will likely be tabled at Wednesday's City Council meeting as the parties work out issues holding up construction.Gartin told city officials his biggest concern is the county's road improvement project planned for Parker Road south of Flat Shoals Road that has a median in front of the existing entrance to Corner Market and the apartment complex. If completed as currently planned, the entrance would be limited to right turns only to enter and exit the development.The possibility of relocating the entrance farther down Parker Road with a traffic signal and turn lanes appeared to be less of an option for the developers. Gartin said the move would cause an extensive redesign of the project and have traffic coming into the rear of the current apartment complex.Another concern was the city's condition to construct a multi-use path through the development and a spur trail to Johnson Park on Ebenezer Road. Gartin said his group does own property where the trail is proposed. The trail is part of a project planned to connect Olde Town Conyers with the county's South River trail.There were other issues, including some road improvement conditions placed by the county for roads in the area, that the parties pledged to resolve."I take this as a positive," Gartin said. "We've been working on this for some time now, and I think we're all at a point to where we can move forward."The project covers 100 acres and is an example of "smart growth" development where walking paths connect residential with commercial and retail areas.The Corner Market shopping center was seen as the first piece of the development when it was completed in 2007. However, the budget shortfall at the Georgia Department of Transportation suspended road construction at Parker and Flat Shoals roads and caused retailers to back out of their leases.The size of the development required a regional impact study from the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which delayed the project since November.Gartin said he was still optimistic about getting the development completed. He noted that similar development, the Vinings Jubilee on East Paces Ferry Road in Vinings, took five years to get established."We're in year three for this one, though I wish we could have be further along in the process than we are now," he said.Jay Jones can be reached at jay.jones@rockdalecitizen.com