Proposed 323 Moreland Ave NE Retail / Residential Development

•   TIMING: The developer is looking to break ground end of December / Jan 2024.  This development is very real and the time to speak up IS NOW!

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•  MASTER PLAN. Candler Park Neighborhood Organization’s (“CPNO”) 2013 Candler Park Master Plan (“Master Plan”) adopted by the City Council includes a previous “… Moreland Ave Corridors Study” recommending a limitation on Little Five Points buildings “to 3 stories or 35 feet.” (Page 11, Master Plan, (https://candlerpark.org/cp-master-plan/).

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•  MOBILITY PLAN. Furthermore the Little Five Points Mobility Plan (“Mobility Plan”) (last updated 2021) provides that “development should be appropriately scaled to the community” with “… heights, transitional height planes and planted buffers along the Candler Park and Inman Park edges.” (Page 36, Mobility Plan, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bdc96aa1aef1d29062daaad/t/617b3c7a898a7b444d8cf97d/1635466380199/210611_L5P_MobilityPlanFINAL-compressed.pdf).

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•  RECOMMENDATIONS AND NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL DISTRICTS. Despite the clear recommendations for height restrictions for L5P in the Master Plan and Mobility Plan, NC-1 (Ord. No. 2002-34) has remained unchanged since its 2002 enactment. In fact, L5P was the first district in Atlanta to be rezoned “Neighborhood Commercial” – a designation intended by the City of Atlanta to protect and enhance the specific size, scale and character of primarily historic neighborhood-oriented commercial nodes. Since 2002, other neighborhoods such as East Atlanta Village (“EAV”), a neighborhood similar to L5P in size and character, have enacted Neighborhood Commercial Districts which implement height limitations for developments in close proximity to R-5 zones. Specifically, EAV’s NC-2 (enacted in 2013) restricts buildings to three (3) stories (Atlanta Municipal Code, § 16-32B.002 (7)). Furthermore, the Little Five Points Community Improvement District (“CID”) has failed to act for a number of years on height restrictions for NC-1, and even as recent as January 10, 2023, the CID recognized the need for a zoning update to the “outdated NC-1 zoning.” (https://l5pa.com/cid-meetings).

 

•  IMPORTANT.  The surrounding community is NOT opposed to growth and development.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  We all very much welcome growth, however, within the scope and landscape of our community. For us and many 0thers, this development is grossly out of context both in size and design for the community.

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•  ZONING PERMIT. Per the CPNO zoom meeting (4.17.23) it was shared that the developer has an unrestricted zoning permit.  This means the surrounding community will have literally NO input and the developer will have carte blanch in building out the project. 

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• CPNO. The CPNO has made it clear, they are going to have NO involvement in this development.

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• MASSIVE LACK OF COMMUNICATION.  The developer and L5P CID has had NO communication with the community as a whole.  The first notice of this development was at the 4.17.23 CPNO zoom meeting, with a City SAP zoning meeting a week and a half away. 

Question.  If this proposed development in it's current draft state is so good for the community, at a minumum why no community awareness?  This development has been in the development phase for some time.

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• MASSIVE COMMUNITY PARKING ISSUES. In removing the 163 public pay parking spaces, and adding 94 Residential Units with 53 (totaling 147), the surrounding neighborhood will in no way be able to absorb the retail, residential, and visitor parking.  All surrounding neighborhoods are already over capacity.  You really need to ask yourself, realistically where will all these people park.  There is no public parking besides the lot behind Rag O Rama and behind the Star Bar.

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• TRANSPORTATION ISSUES. The planners and CID premise is people will not be owning cars, utilizing Marta, biking and walking.  As much as we would like the see that happen, it will not.  That ends at hopeful thinking.  It's a sales pitch, however, not a very good one.

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• THE DEVELOPMENT.  Please really look at the picture.  This development is grossly out of context both in size and design to our community.

 

Regardless if you agree or not, you should educate yourself to the facts. Again, the developer is sharing very little with the community and flying under the radar with the hope of quietly acquiring the necessary permits. This development will have a major impact on our community, property values and quality of life. I am sharing this with the community so after the fact people do not say "how did this happen".

 

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