Developer Leasing Vacant Buildings near Canton for Commercial Use

Two vacant buildings on Marietta Highway near Canton may soon be leased for commercial uses.

The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 Sept. 3 to approve a request from Michael Bray for Ghani Massoud to rezone about 0.290 acres at 3350 Marietta Highway from single family residential to general commercial to operate commercial businesses.

Commissioner Corey Ragsdale was absent from the meeting.

“I am happy to see this small piece of property get back into a productive state,” Commissioner Benny Carter said.

In addition to this approval, a number of concurrent variances were approved to reduce the minimum site distance from 0.5 acres to 0.29 acres, reduce the building setback from Marietta Highway from 75 feet to 27 feet, reduce the rear setback from 15 feet to 8.5 feet and to reduce the north side yard setback from 10 feet to three feet.

Additional concurrent variances were approved to reduce the south side buffer from 35 feet to eight feet and to remove the 10-foot landscaping strip on the east side of the property adjacent to the road, and remove the 6-foot landscaping strip to the north and west sides of the property.

The property contains two vacant commercial structures. One of those buildings was the former Biskit Barn restaurant. This one-story building is almost 740 square feet. The second vacant facility is a 1,245 square-foot, one-story building, according to county documents.

The applicant plans to lease the two buildings for commercial businesses, according to the county.

The property has one point of entrance into a parking lot, leading to a drive-thru that wraps around the back of the property and exits out onto Marietta Highway.

The requested variances will help bring the non-conforming structures into compliance with the county code, according to county documents.