Grant Park, SAND Community Associations Take Two-Pronged Approach in 800 Glenwood Fight

GRANT PARK — In the battle over the proposed redevelopment of 800 Glenwood Ave. SE, leaders of this southeast Atlanta historic neighborhood have pushed one mantra: It's not which retailers come to the site but how its renaissance ultimately fits in with what the community wants.

It explains why, on Aug. 9, the Grant Park Neighborhood Association and South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development, filed an appeal with the city's Board of Zoning Adjustment to reverse the planning department's July 12 approval of a special administrative permit on the project.

The appeal follows Grant Park's critical Aug. 8 victory where the Atlanta Zoning Review Board voted to support a legislative proposal to rezone the 20-acre property from industrial to a high density, mixed-use residential designation.

The fight pits Grant Park, which says the change — if ultimately approved by the City Council and signed by Mayor Kasim Reed — would bring development that's in keeping with what the neighborhood wants.

Atlanta-based Fuqua Development LP, which wants to develop the property and LaFarge North America, the concrete and asphalt concern that owns the site and is under contract to sell it to Fuqua, say the Zoning Review Board's action amounts to an illegal attempt to curb property owner rights.

Fuqua's founder, Jeffrey S. Fuqua, was the force behind the Edgewood Retail District.

LaFarge's attorney, G. Douglas Dillard, said Thursday if forced, the sides will end up in court.

Since the current zoning allows the project Fuqua envisions — 197,590 square feet of retail and parking for 1,201 motor vehicles — if the rezoning is ultimately approved and signed by the mayor, it wouldn't affect the project.

That's why the neighborhood is fighting to reverse the SAP approval at the BZA appeal hearing, scheduled for noon at Atlanta City Hall on Oct. 10.

If successful on the zoning change and its appeal, Fuqua would have to resubmit a fourth new proposal under the the new designation.

Sharon A. Gay, the attorney representing Fuqua, said she did not have an immediate comment on Thursday.

In its 11-page appeal, the community associations argue that city planners, who twice rejected Fuqua's application, erred in granting it after the company's third submission, because it doesn't meet several guiding principals in the Atlanta BeltLine Overlay.

When complete, the Atlanta BeltLine is to be 22 miles of green space that will form a necklace of parks and transit around the city.

The overlay gives guidance on how development projects adjacent to the BeltLine ought to be built, with particular attention to pedestrian, bike and transit traffic modes.

But the Overlay's authority as binding is what LaFarge's attorney contests, arguing it's a guideline, not binding.

The neighborhoods see it differently.

"It's not that we're against development," Rick Hudson, GPNA's land use and zoning chairman told East Atlanta Patch. "We are for development, but we're for smart development."

Indeed, GPNA's and SAND's leaders, which have hired their own attorney, David J. Marmins and formed a group, Smart Growth Atlanta, to push for their view, say they welcome a project at the site, which is near the Bill Kennedy Way intersection.

"It's the matter of developing it the right way," Ana Allain, SAND's president, told Patch.

By the neighborhood associations' calculations, Fuqua's plan would generate about $2 million a year in taxes for the city, Lauren Rocereta, who is GPNA's president, said.

Under a plan with the high-density, mixed use designation, the organizations project that tax revenue to rise to $7 million a year.

GPNA and SAND say they are prepared to fight and seek to raise $50,000 toward a protracted legal battle, Rocereta said.

GPNA has contributed $2,500 toward the fund, as did SAND. The Glenwood Park neighborhood, which abuts Grant Park and also opposes the current project, contributed $5,000.