WOODSTOCK, GA — The Woodstock City Council on Monday unanimously voted to approve an annexation and rezoning petition that would allow Morgan's Ace Hardware to move into space on the northern side of the city.

Morgan's Ace Hardware petitioned Woodstock to annex and rezone 24.5 acres of vacant land along Main Street north of Ridgewalk Parkway and south of Brooke Boulevard from R-20 residential in the county to neighborhood commercial and civic space in the city. According to city documents, 8.35 acres of the land would be used for the new Morgan's Ace Hardware and the 16.1 acres on the back side of the property would be reserved for park land. Morgan's would be located on northern parcel closer to Main Street. The neighborhood commercial tract that would house Morgan's will be subdivided to house another business that would fit the zoning category, said Katie O'Connor, the city's senior city planner.

No details about the type of park space has been developed, and Woodstock plans to use a process similar to develop its Trickum Road park property to come up with a use agreed upon by the City Council and public. (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here)

Morgan's plans to relocate from 109 East Main Street in downtown Woodstock is part of the city's initiative to redevelop about 3.5 acres in the heart of the city into a mixed-use hub. The city selected Morris & Fellows, the firm behind the Woodstock Downtown project and the Alpharetta City Center redevelopment initiative, to assist in the project.

Initial concepts call for a mix of additional retail, professional office, restaurant space and boutique hotel with meeting space. The Morgan's site slated for redevelopment includes the gravel parking lot Woodstock already owns that's to the east of the store, the Wheeler Street parking lot it also owns and the seven undeveloped townhome lots owned by the Downtown Development Authority. Those lots sit next to the Wheeler Street parking lot.

Readers should note the Park at City Center and the Amphitheater sites are not included in this redevelopment plan.

Woodstock previously said the project will allow the city to bring much-needed downtown parking options, improvements to the East Main Street/Main Street/Arnold Mill Road intersection and expanding pedestrian connectivity along the Arnold Mill corridor.