A new grocery store could be coming to north Forsyth.

At a work session on Tuesday, Forsyth County Commissioners voted 5-0 to start the process for a county-initiated rezoning for about .3 acres for Master Planned District to Community Business District and variances for a proposed Publix Supermarket and out parcels near the northeast corner of the intersection of Bannister Road and Matt Highway (Hwy. 369 west). 

“This community has been longing for a grocery store here for a long, long time,” said District 4 Commissioner Cindy Jones Mills.

Since previous variances for the property have expired, Mills said the county’s action was needed.

“Even though [developers] spent money, there is no grandfathering the variance because it only lasted a year as opposed to now when they go on and on,” she said. “That’s what this county-initiated [zoning] is: to try to go back and let them have the variances that they had back then that they’ve already spent money working toward.”

Mills said plans for the property have changed over the last few years, and it was first zoned more than a decade ago.

“This property was zoned in 2004 or 2005, and it is the first (Master Planned District) that was ever done in the county,” Mills said.

The development had some changes on the residential side last year.

In January 2017, commissioners approved changes to the zoning conditions on the development. 

At the time, the project was to have 123 single-family detached homes and 88 townhomes. Commissioners said on Tuesday the development could see a reduction in townhomes due to space issues.

When the project was first announced in 2005, it was with 309 homes and 65 townhomes for 374 total units, which was reduced in 2006 to 210 homes and 55 townhomes. 

County Attorney Ken Jarrard said the matter would come back to the board at a later date.