-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The Rome City Commission has approved a rezoning request for a new townhome development in North Rome.
Multiple parcels on North Broad Street and Dwinell Street are being rezoned from High Density Traditional to Multi-Family Residential in order to demo the existing homes and build a total of 14 townhomes in two phases.
“One of the big challenges with this property is the topography,” Rome-Floyd County Planning Director Brice Wood. There is about a 40-foot difference in the elevation from the front to the back of the property. One row will be sitting on top of the others since it is built into a hillside. The side that would face Heard Street ups the hill and the side that would face down the hill on North Broad. One of the comments the planning commission made was that they wanted to maintain some sort of walkable access to the sidewalks down on North Broad. The applicant has gone back and added those. One of the questions they had was regarding the retaining walls that would be on Broad Street. At one end, one of the walls would reportedly be 4‘7“and go up to 10. Then up it goes to 11 feet, and then it starts coming back down to the walls in the back. None of them show above 6 feet. Then there is one on the other side. The reason for these walls is that if you do this, the circular drive comes all the way around; you’re going to need a large flat space.”
