SNELLVILLE – The city's Towne Center will have its first new development after the Mayor and Council gave the go-ahead to an 88-unit affordable senior housing development adjacent to Snellville United Methodist Church.
Wendover Housing Partners' 55-plus age restricted housing project is also the first development approved under the new 2040 Comprehensive Plan regulations.
The 111,412-square-foot building will be located on the southwest corner of the SUMC campus on the corner of Henry Clower Boulevard and Pate Street. The development will be on existing church property, mostly in an existing parking lot.
"The proposed … age restricted community will not only add value to the nearby properties. It's very close to the Senior Center in the Towne Center and Wendover's residents will frequent that facility often," Wendover officials said in the project's letter of intent. "The Comprehensive Plan/LCI Study does have a need for affordable senior housing and that's what we're proposing to develop adjacent to the Snellville United Methodist Church."
Named Asbury Pointe, the L-shaped development will have one- and two-bedroom living quarters. The building will feature two elevators, interior air conditioned hallways, and clubhouse amenities may include a hair salon, social gathering room, an exercise room and/or business center. Some of the outdoor amenities may include a gazebo, a garden area and a shuffleboard court.
"As the rapid increase of senior-oriented development in Snellville and the Atlanta metro will attest, there is a large and growing need for housing for an aging population other than detached single-family homes on large lots, which is by far the most common development type in Snellville," city officials said. "Not all present and future residents wish to give up that lifestyle, but more and more are expressing a desire to at least have other options, so that they do not have to make the choice between an unsustainable lifestyle or leaving their city. The hope is that these would produce development that is walkable, human-scaled, and less dependent on automobiles as the primary method of transportation."