Local brief
7 Brew’s next design test: screen the drive-through
A Nov. 20 landscape review puts the State Bridge Road coffee project’s greenery in focus after separate August votes approved building-related design and deferred landscaping.
7 Brew Coffee’s landscape plan is headed to Alpharetta’s Design Review Board on Nov. 20, with a practical issue behind the greenery: screening drive-through lanes and parking from State Bridge Road. The review concerns the site at 11378 State Bridge Road.[1][2]
The city’s unofficial summary of the Aug. 21 meeting describes a split result—not a rejection of the whole project. Board members voted 7-0 to approve the site plan, elevations and materials with conditions, then voted separately, also 7-0, to defer landscaping.[2]
A zoning condition quoted in the summary calls for a landscape strip at least 20 feet wide along State Bridge Road, with a berm at least 2 feet high and/or a decorative knee wall, plus trees and shrubs to screen the lanes and parking. Board members sought more vertical screening on that frontage and reconsideration of whether trees marked for preservation could realistically be saved.[2]
The planting sheet in the November packet calls for double rows of shrubs at least 2 feet tall when planted and evergreen screening at least 4 feet tall around the dumpster. It also specifies northern sea oats for unplanted portions of an existing drainage swale and protective fencing outside saved specimen trees’ critical root zones.[3]
The same planting sheet appeared in the Oct. 16 packet. The records reviewed do not establish the outcome of that meeting; the Nov. 20 agenda schedules a landscape review, not a final approval.[1][3][4]
The Nov. 20 meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in the Council Chambers at Alpharetta City Hall, 2 Park Plaza.[1]
Sources
4 official sources cited in this report. The bracketed numbers in the text link here.