Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission recommends OK for event center

ALBANY — The Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission voted 6-0 Thursday to recommend that the Albany City Commission grant Melissa Strother special approval for an indoor/outdoor special event center on property at 1308 Dawson Road.

Commissioner Gloria Gaines asked Strother if she objected to a condition limiting attendance to events at the proposed center to 100, 25 less than the fire marshal’s maximum of 125, and when Strother said she had no objection, the board voted unanimously to recommend approval.

“During the application process, the fire marshal said 125 is the maximum number allowed during any one event at that location, but we have no problem with the lower number,” said Strother, who attended the meeting with her mother, businesswoman Vicki Barnhill. “We expect our average attendance per event to be around 30.”

The property in question is known in the community as the “Pink House” or the McCormack House. Strother said she plans to locate her graphic design business in a portion of the 2,674-square-foot house’s downstairs and also use the facility for such events as baby and bridal showers, corporate meetings and luncheons.

Planning staff said such usage is allowed in the city’s C-5 (office-institutional-residential district) with special approval of the commission.

Strother said she’d received permission — and she presented a letter saying as much — from Sam Shugart, owner of the nearby Executive Center, for use of 40 parking spaces at the nearby 1216 Dawson Road establishment. That allows Strother to show the minimum required 27 parking spaces for the planned event center, which has only 14 spaces without the letter from Shugart.

Planning allows the use of overflow parking located within 500 feet of the subject property.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the commission voted to approve a zoning variance request that will allow MHT of Valdosta an extended front yard setback, parking between the primary structure and the edge of the street at 1520 W. Third Ave., and front yard parking within the 30-foot front yard setback on Second Avenue. The variance will also eliminate the sidewalk requirement on the property along Second Avenue.

“The required zoning district for that property doesn’t actually match the surrounding property because the district has evolved over the years,” Planning Director Paul Forgey said. “These variances will actually allow the building to conform with the existing neighborhood.

Forgey said the planned construction is for an office that will be used by a governmental agency.