Zoning Adjustment Board Denies Grant Park Appeal on 800 Glenwood Place Project

The Atlanta Zoning Board of Adjustment on Thursday denied the Grant Park Neighborhood Association's request to appeal the city Planning Department's approval of a special administrative permit application for a controversial proposed development project at 800 Glenwood Ave.

The denial, which followed some two hours of presentations and discussion — and a last-minute request for a 30-day deferment  — was unanimous.

GPNA and the two individuals who filed the appeal, have 30 days to appeal that denial in Fulton County Superior Court.

Dana K. Maine, the attorney representing GPNA and the two homeowners, told East Atlanta Patch that a decision has not yet been made.

Fuqua Development LP wants to redevelop the property at 800 Glenwood — just off Bill Kennedy Way — into a mixed-used retail development.

The 20-acre property is owned by LaFarge North America, the concrete and asphalt concern, which is under contract to sell it to Fuqua.

As envisioned, Jeffrey S. Fuqua, who heads the Buckhead-based company, wants to the build 197,590 square feet of retail and parking for 1,201 motor vehicles on the property which is off the Atlanta BeltLine.

The Planning Department approved the Fuqua's request for a special administrative permit — which would give the company variances on street grid and streetscape requirements.

But in order to overrule the Planning Department's SAP approval, Grant Park and the two homeowners would have had to prove they were uniquely affected by the project.

It was a point raised by the phalanx of silk stocking attorneys representing Fuqua and LaFarge at the hearing.

It also was reiterated by Lemuel Ward, the city attorney representing the the Planning Department.

Key among the residents' and GPNA's arguments for the SAP appeal was the traffic and spillover parking concerns such a project would create.

Though LaFarge currently has trucks coming in and out of the site, the neighborhood notes those are much smaller than the tractor-trailers that would be coming to make deliveries.

But Ward said general traffic concerns are "not sufficient to meet the standard as an aggrieved citizen." For the BZA to grant the appeal, they would have have to find the homeowners or the neighborhood were uniquely impacted.

The issue is the latest in the ongoing battle between Fuqua, who also developed the Edgewood Retail District when he was a principal at the Sembler Cos., and Grant Park, which has received support from residents in neighboring Ormewood Park and Glenwood Park, who also oppose the project in its current form.

In August, Atlanta City Councilwoman Carla Smith, whose district includes Grant Park, successfully passed legislation that changed the site's current zoning from heavy industrial to high-density residential with some commercial.

The idea behind the change — which would not have affected Fuqua, unless the project was nixed and he had to resubmit — was the neighborhood's desire to make any development conform with the BeltLine's land use plan.

Last week, attorneys representing both Fuqua and LaFarge filed lawsuits against the city in response to that change.