Henry County officials have adopted a moratorium in the vicinity of Atlanta Motor Speedway and Atlanta Speedway Airport. The board of commissioners approved the measure at their September 17 meeting.
The moratorium is for one year. It will allow county staff to prepare a small area master plan. They undertook a similar initiative earlier this year in Ola. Update: the county hired a plan consultant in November 2024.
Atlanta Speedway Moratorium
The Atlanta Speedway Moratorium covers an area measuring about 3,350 acres. It extends from the Henry County line to US Highway 19 / 41. Its northern boundary is Shoal Creek Reservoir (also known as Lake Talmadge). Finally, the southern boundary is the Hampton city limits. The area includes both Atlanta Motor Speedway and Atlanta Speedway Airport. It is located entirely within unincorporated Henry County.
The Henry County Board of Commissioners added the moratorium as a walk-on item onto the agenda at the end of Tuesday night’s meeting. When the item was brought forward, District 5 Commissioner Kevin Lewis shared the following:
This is something I have been working on for about a year now. It has finally come to fruition thankfully. At this time, I would like to call for a moratorium on rezoning requests, comp plan amendments, lot modifications greater than five total acres, as well as commercial and residential development applications in the Atlanta Motor Speedway and Airport Area.
This moratorium will not stop a private property owner from building a single-family residence or accessory structures, but it will reject all applications for mass development such as subdivisions or commercial complexes in this area until an Atlanta Motor Speedway & Airport Area Master Plan has been devised by staff and consultants.
Commissioner Kevin Lewis, September 17, 2024.
The moratorium will last up to one year, or until September 17, 2025. If the county completes the area master plan sooner, then the moratorium would expire.
The board unanimously approved the moratorium by a 5-0 vote. Commissioner Anglyn was absent from Tuesday’s vote.
Speedway Area Plan RFP
Also on Tuesday, September 17, Henry County began to advertise a request for proposals (RFP) for the Atlanta Speedway Area Plan. The purpose of the RFP is to hire a consultant to lead the master planning process. Specifically, the consultant will be tasked to complete the following:
- Conceptual Plan (Residential and Commercial)
- Analysis for future airport expansion and entertainment
- Pods of various densities
- Plan Book that includes the following:
a. Architectural Guidelines
b. Landscaping Guidelines
c. Signage Guidelines
d. Streetscape Guidelines
Interested companies should have proven experience and knowledge in land planning, project management, effective public involvement, and work closely with the Planning and Zoning staff. They have until Tuesday, October 15, to submit their proposals.
Afterwards, county staff will review the proposals then recommend a firm for the county to hire. If the plan cost is less than $100 thousand, then the county manager may approve the contract without board authorization.
History & The Vicinity
The area within the moratorium is labeled as low-density mixed-use on the county’s future land use map. This supports development up to eight net units per acre. The county added the low-density mixed-use category during the 2023 comp plan update. The previous plan update in 2018 had set aside the area for the ‘Hampton Mega Site.’ In addition, the 2018 comp plan labeled the area for mixed-use development. That designation carried a density up to 16 net units per acre.
In February 2019, Henry County hired a consultant to master plan the mega site. The consultant shared an update with the board in September 2019. Shortly thereafter, the master planning effort ended. This was because of two factors:
- A large property owner annexed about 2,000 acres of land into the city of Hampton, and
- Atlanta Motor Speedway unveiled their casino and entertainment district proposal.
Based on the uncertainties brought on at the time by these two changes, the Hampton Mega Site plan did not proceed further.
Since 2022, several other property owners south of Atlanta Motor Speedway have annexed into Hampton. They include properties off Lower Woolsey Road and Minter Drive. In addition, the first construction on the aforementioned 2,000 acres saw Target open a new distribution center.
In January 2023, Henry County Land Company LLC and Geosam Capital US unveiled their proposal on the north shores of Lake Talmadge. The project is proposing over 7,000 housing units and a significant amount of retail space. At this time, the project remains pending as a rezoning request.
Finally, this year, there’s been several residential projects put forth at US Highway 19 / 41 and Franklin Rivers Road / Little Road. In the past six months, the county has considered four requests at the intersection. The projects were one on each corner. At the time of writing, the county has approved two requests. They denied one and the fourth remains pending.
The moratorium will delay any additional rezoning requests within the affected area until the county completes the master plan. It does not affect any pending requests, nor any property inside the city limits of Hampton.
Featured image shows race cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway. AMS photo. [/mepr-show]
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