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Five-tower Sandy Springs mega-development is still on table

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The proposal by a Korean developer would swallow a large swath of land adjacent to the Sandy Springs MARTA station

At the beginning of the year, a mysterious Korean development firm proposed a massive five-tower development in Sandy Springs, breaking precedent for even the densest of proposals in the Perimeter Center district.

While little news has emerged since the initial unveil in January, it seems the proposal — thought dead by many people — is still alive. An embellished vision of the scheme was unveiled earlier this week at a community meeting, according to Reporter Newspapers.

The community meeting provided new renderings of the proposal, which would include five towers — three residential and two office. The mini village, clustered around an existing hexagonal mid-rise office building, would feature up to 1,600 residential units, almost 1.5 million square feet of office space, and 200,000 square feet of retail.

The development would be served by more than 5,000 parking spaces. While that may seem like a lot — especially considering the project’s adjacency to MARTA — if built to the required zoning, the project would actually need more than 8,000 spaces.

Despite the scaling down of the towers from up to 40 stores to the now proposed 35, and the reduction in parking, Sandy Springs residents still seem unhappy with the density. Considering the consternation, it could be an uphill battle to get the necessary variances for parking and use type that are required for the project to move forward.

And prior approval by the Atlanta Regional Commission — really a mere hat-tip by the nongovernment advistory group — will not necessarily translate to approval from the Sandy Springs City Council come October when the proposal is up for a vote.

Though given the desire for development in the area, it's likely this proposal will be realized in some form. Just not built of wood.