East Atlanta Resident Starts Online Letter Campaign Against Glenwood Place

An East Atlanta resident has created a website that ais to bring more awareness to the Glenwood Place project and what he says is its potential to undermine the goals of the Atlanta BeltLine.

Ted Bradford created the Save the BeltLine page to highlight the project's impact on the part of the BeltLine that hits Glenwood Avenue and Bill Kennedy Way in Grant Park.

It also include a digital letter along with links to various city and state leaders that supporters can electronically sign and send to them.

The project at 800 Glenwood Ave. would create 199,050 square feet of retail space — which includes a 155,000-square-foot anchor tenant — by the spring of 2014. It also calls for some 1,000 parking spaces.

Many residents in Grant Park, Ormewood Park anf Glenwood Park are opposed to the project by Fuqua Development LLC, saying it will bring scores of traffic to the an area of the city not designed to handle that volume.

Bradford takes the argument a step further saying proposal, as designed, ignores the Atlanta BeltLine Inc.'s recommendations for how the surrounding parcels of land ought to be developed or redeveloped.

But the parcel in question is zoned industrial so Fuqua Development doesn't need to seek a variance.

"Instead, all they have to do is get a Special Administrative Permit from the Office of Planning. The BeltLine Subarea 4 Masterplan that was the result of a lengthy process of public input is simply being ignored," Bradford wrote on the Save the BeltLine page.

"If this development is allowed to move forward it will undermine the goals of the BeltLine and will send a signal that the City of Atlanta is not committed to the future of the BeltLine.

"If the city cannot ensure that development of this parcel happens in a way that is consistent with the Subarea 4 Masterplan, then there is no way to be assured that any development along the BeltLine will occur according to any of the masterplans."

Jeffrey S. Fuqua, the prinicipal of Atlanta-based Fuqua Development, failed to return several telephone calls and an e-mail seeking comment about the ongoing controversy.

His company developed Town Brookhaven, and the company has projects in Jacksonville and Denver. When he was an executive at the Sembler Cos., he developed the Edgewood Retail District.

Bradford's campaign follows another online petition in opposition to the project, which has garnered 897 singnatures to date.

It also comes as several homeowners and residents plan to rally Oct. 29 in Glenwood Park to stage a protest against the project.