Cedartown Commissioners want more answers, so they’re willing to wait at least until February before giving a developer seeking to add new housing to a parcel behind Home Depot on Davis Road chance to change the zoning and get started on the work.

Kevin Stephenson is a developer and longtime civil engineer who is seeking to undertake a new housing project on land he plans to purchase from the York family situated on around two dozen acres of land stretching from Davis Road to the area behind Tractor Supply Company along the Highway 27 North business corridor.

He brought a proposal before the City Commission during their Monday regular session to make changes to the current planned development zoning and allow for upward of 189 townhomes to be built in a multi-year phased project.

Stephenson explained that he seeks to build the townhomes for sale, ranging from 1,400 to 1,800 square foot designs starting in the $230,000 range.

“There’s a need for new residential development in Cedartown thanks to SOLARCYCLE,” he said. Stephenson added that his decision to consider the investment and development of the townhome project was linked solely to the company’s forthcoming move into Cedartown and the desire to build homes for workers that can be close to their place of employment.

The proposed development would also come with amenities including a play area for children, a pavilion residents can use for gatherings, a centralized mail kiosk, and even the possibility of Pickleball courts.

Stephenson said he plans to build in stages – adding 18 new townhomes to the acreage every four months, or as the market dictates – over a 3 to 3 1/2 year time frame.

During the public hearing on the project, concerns by Cedartown Development Authority and Development Authority of Polk County member Jamie Morris (also owner of Cedarstream along with his family, located not far from the future development in the Northside Industrial Park.)

Morris was worried that the increase in housing along with the soon-to-start SOLARCYCLE project and current residents and businesses in the area might not be able to travel down Davis Road in its immediate state.

The Cedartown Development Authority purchased a good portion of the remaining York Property land several years ago looking for an investor like SOLARCYCLE to utilize the space, and with the help of Georgia Power grants spent thousands already on preparations on the site. However they did not purchase the land adjacent to the industrial park behind Home Depot, where the proposed development is set to be located.

Morris wasn’t the only one concerned about traffic on Davis Road.

Commissioners Dale Tuck and Jessica Payton both raised issues with potential traffic issues, with points raised about the amount of traffic a 189 unit development would create on Davis Road, and a potential widening project that would cause six of those planned units to be in the way of where new lanes might one day need to go.

Payton also made it clear that she wanted a traffic study already set to get underway to be completed in the coming weeks before the City Commission signed off on any future developments.

“I am excited about seeing individually deeded units with this development, but I think we need to see a traffic study before we can move forward,” she said.

Tuck also wanted to see an additional entrance and exit available for the development. Stephenson did tell Commissioners concerned about the traffic headaches coming for the corridor that he does have a potential 40-foot right of way to build a second entrance and exit into and out of the proposed development, but it hasn’t been locked down. Tuck said she wanted to see that as a part of the plans to relieve some of the problems and provide residents another option to reach a red light within a short distance.

City Manager Edward Guzman did report that a traffic study is soon to be conducted for Davis Road. He said it was scheduled for the weeks ahead as part of work underway to get funding from the state for widening of Davis Road ahead of the forthcoming SOLARCYCLE build and a new 1,200+ workers coming and going daily from the site in the years ahead.

Until that work is done, Commissioners agreed the request Stephenson put forth should be tabled until the traffic study is completed, and return to it for the February regular session as old business.

They additionally requested an updated plan from Stephenson on adding a second entrance and exit around Tractor Supply to provide an access route that won’t get hung up in industrial traffic, and to move the six units on the plan that would be in the way of the widening project in the future.

Concerns were also raised about density of the units, which Stephenson understood but also pointed out that due to the price of the land and the cost of construction, the total number of units couldn’t be diminished too much to be able to make a profit off the project.

Stephenson said he would submit updated plans to the city before they made any decision.

If the city goes forward with the changes to the zoning for the land and allow the development to move to the next stage, Stephenson will then have to submit building plans, get environmental surveys and reports completed, and plans to install all the utility infrastructure before beginning the housing build.

It would likely mean that would put the start of the project for groundbreaking of the first set of units sometime around early 2026.