Development is coming, but for now a neighborhood who are seeking to keep out the construction work and expanding housing won’t see the earth movers coming into their neck of the woods for the immediate moment.

The Rockmart City Council denied an application for a planned development being sought by Smith Douglas Homes to put up 160 homes in a neighborhood that would have also included a permanent lake, a swimming pool, nature trail and other amenities that would have been managed by a homeowners association if it were to have moved forward under the current plan.

March’s regular session for the Rockmart City Council was a packed house on Tuesday night, March 12 as homeowners around the old Carlton Drive neighborhood came out to voice their displeasure with the planned development sought by Smith Douglas.

Smith Douglas have more than 30 neighborhoods in Georgia built in the past decades, and are a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company did provide an independent traffic study that was produced and briefly discussed, but had only been received by the city the day before. The crowd laughed when a representative from the company claimed the traffic wouldn’t significantly increase due to the number of new homes in the neighborhood.

Additionally, a plan that would require a right turn acceleration lane onto Highway 113 and have drivers make a U-turn at the intersection with Rockmart High School and Marquette Road was also put forth.

Developers also cited the need for housing options in Rockmart and Polk County as a whole, citing figures that put neighboring counties ahead of local housing starts in recent years for single family homes.

However that denial ultimately might be a temporary measure. The reason that Council Member Marty Robinson gave for denying the request was due to the development not meeting regulations put in place several years ago requiring 90 feet lot frontages (or three-quarter acre lots) instead of the 70 foot lots requested by the builders.

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Among the neighbors who complained about the issue was Kelly Scott, first to come before the City Council to seek their vote against the project in public comment.

She brought forth concerns about the Rockmart Fire and Rescue listing one of their concerns as increased traffic on Highway 113 coming in and out of a busy area causing more wrecks.

“There are at least three to four accidents that happen a month at our entrance,” she told the Council. “It’s just a matter of time before someone gets killed.”

She also brought up concerns about the lot sizes as well.

Other neighbors brought up similar concerns, ranging from the traffic problems to be caused by such a development and water and sewer concerns from new homes tapping into a system that one neighbor complained was already underpressurized for the residents already there.

Even County Commissioner Ray Carter came out to speak against the proposal. He didn’t have a specific complaint against the development, but instead cited code over how planned developments are supposed to be laid out. Code that he reminded the council he was involved in writing when he served on the Rockmart City Council several years ago.

“We did a lot of work, a lot of passionate work on planned developments, which is what is being requested here,” he said. “I appreciate the passion and concerns that people are bringing up here, and they are absolutely right to feel how they feel. We understand the traffic flow as it is today. I anticipate that DOT is going to change Carlton Drive at some point, and make it right turn only and we all end up going to down to the red light at the high school during the busiest times to make a U-turn and come back. That isn’t feasible, and DOT isn’t going to put in a red light.”

Developers requested of the council to consider tabling their proposal for at least a month to allow for members to mull over their proposal, but due to the plans put forth not meeting the requested 96 units the city put forth to developers they had no choice. City Attorney

Council members during closing comments on Tuesday evening made it clear they weren’t against new housing. They just want housing that will work within the development regulations in place.

“I always have said that we should grow the way that we want to grow, and I appreciate that people are taking an interest in housing here,” Council member Mike Bradley noted during council comments at meeting’s end. “This one, we were just too far apart on… I’d like to see it redone and relooked at, and we can go from there.”

Robinson echoed those thoughts, reminding residents the growth is coming.

The residents in the Old Carlton Drive neighborhood might have celebrated on Tuesday evening as many left to head home after the session lasted more than an hour, but development has the potential to come right back to acreage still open around their homes.

The project can seek to return in front of planning and zoning officials in Rockmart after a six month wait with a new set of plans that follow the planned development regulations set forth by the city. That could put a potential plan before the city council later this fall.

Check back for more updates on Rockmart development proposals as they become available.