The City Council holds a hearing Tuesday, Nov. 17, on 106 stacked townhomes off Hurricane Shoals Road. Staff back the plan, but the 7.9-acre site is short of the 10-acre minimum.
Updated Nov. 13: The City Council holds the public hearing on the rezoning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, at City Hall, with the RM-24 rewrite as the item before it, according to the Nov. 17 agenda. The council discusses both at its 2 p.m. work session that day. The staff report in the Nov. 17 packet still recommends approval “subject to appropriate conditions and resolution of the minimum lot-area requirement,” and the RM-24 draft still lists the 10-acre minimum. The Planning Commission’s Nov. 2 recommendation is left blank in the packet, and its minutes have not been posted. The 272 Hurricane Shoals Road permits are on the same agenda.
A builder wants to put 106 stacked townhomes on the land between the planned Costco and Hurricane Shoals Road. Lawrenceville’s Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the rezoning at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2.
City planning staff recommend approval with conditions. But staff also flagged a problem the city has not yet solved: the site is smaller than the zoning district allows, and the rule cannot be waived by a variance.
What is proposed
Parkland Homebuilders LLC applied to rezone about 7.9 acres at 2555 University Parkway and 104 Hurricane Shoals Road, case RZM2026-00007. The land is zoned for general business and light manufacturing. The builder wants RM-24, the city’s multifamily district.
The staff report in the Nov. 2 packet describes the plan:
- 106 homes, about 13.5 per acre
- buildings of up to three stories in brick, stone and fiber cement siding, in rows of three to eight
- each building holds two homes stacked one above the other: a two-bedroom and a three-bedroom, each with two and a half bathrooms and at least 1,600 square feet
- a one-car garage and a driveway space for every home, reached from a rear alley
- 237 parking spaces in all, against the 216 the code requires
- a pool, clubhouse, pavilion, playground and mail kiosk, run by a property management company
Because one home sits on top of another, the building code treats them as apartments, not townhouses, the report said.
The builder’s letter of intent says the land now holds a used car sales and service business. About 29.2% of the site would be common open space, the letter said. The main entrance would be on Hurricane Shoals Road, with a second link to the driveway between RaceTrac and the fast-food restaurant on Buford Drive.
Part of the land is public. The application form lists the Downtown Development Authority of Lawrenceville as owner of the 5.5-acre piece at 2555 University Parkway. The rest is in private hands.
Next door to Costco
The townhomes would take the southern part of the same assemblage as the Costco warehouse the City Council approved 4-0 on Sept. 28. The staff report calls Costco’s “Wholesale Membership Club” a neighbor “directly to the north.”
Mini-storage buildings sit to the west. To the east are a fast-food restaurant, a convenience store with gas pumps, an auto repair shop and office warehouses, the report said.
A trail would connect the townhomes to the future stores, according to the site plan.
The rules it would bend
The plan needs nine variances from city standards. The main ones:
| Rule | City standard | Proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum site size | 10 acres | 7.9 acres |
| Front setback | 50 feet | 30 feet |
| Landscaped strip on outside streets | 50 feet | 30 feet |
| Share of three-bedroom homes | 10% | 65% |
| Brick or stone on each side | 75% | 30% |
The others would let each home have its own outside front door instead of a shared inside hallway, and let parts of the development reach into the 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer and the extra 25-foot buffer beyond it.
Staff said most of the variances match those granted for case RZM2026-00001, 90 stacked townhomes at Spring Lake and Paper Mill Road. The stream buffer work would allow the trail link to the commercial land, the report said.
The 10-acre problem
The applicant did not give reasons for the variances, the staff report said. One request is not covered at all.
RM-24 requires at least 10 acres, and the ordinance says that minimum “shall not be reduced by a Variance.” Staff wrote that “a text amendment may be required to proceed.” The report’s recommendation is “subject to appropriate conditions and resolution of the minimum lot-area requirement.”
The same Nov. 2 agenda carries a staff presentation on a rewrite of the RM-24 section of the zoning code, ordinance ZON-ORD-2026-14. It is listed as “presentation only,” with no vote. The draft in the packet still lists the 10-acre minimum.
The road work the builder would pay for
The recommended conditions require three improvements on Hurricane Shoals Road, at no cost to the city or Gwinnett County and subject to Gwinnett County DOT approval:
- a right-turn lane into the development
- a left-turn lane into the development, with the road widened as needed
- a sidewalk from the development to Lyle Circle
Other conditions cap the site at 106 homes, require carriage-style garage doors and require the pool, clubhouse and playground to be built.
Also on the Nov. 2 agenda
The commission will also hear special use permits for 272 Hurricane Shoals Road, about 16.23 acres in the light manufacturing district. The owner, 272 Hurricane Shoals LLC, wants to run a heavy and civil contractor’s office, a vehicle storage lot and parking on gravel there. Staff recommend approval with conditions but do not support the related variances, the packet shows.
Both cases were tabled at the commission’s Oct. 5 meeting, according to the draft minutes. The City Council discussed both at its Oct. 13 work session, according to that agenda.
What it means for you
- You can speak. The City Council hearing is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the council chambers at City Hall, 70 S. Clayton St. Zoning hearings allow 10 minutes a side, including rebuttal, according to the Nov. 17 agenda.
- The council decides. The Planning Commission only recommends; the City Council makes the decision.
- Drive Hurricane Shoals Road or Buford Drive? This site and Costco would both feed onto them. Road work notices go on our road construction and closures page.
- Other zoning cases are on our building permits and zoning page.
Have your say