800 Glenwood Ave. Project: Neighborhood Group Responds to Latest Application

After yet another rejection, Atlanta builder Fuqua Development LP last week resubmitted an amended plan to city planning officials for the 800 Glenwood Ave. project.

But Neighborhood Planning Unit-W thinks the company should stop amending its original application and simply submit a new one that conforms to the zoning requirements for the site on Glenwood, just west of the Glenwood-Memorial Connector.

The project would take the 20-acre site and create 197,590 square feet of retail and parking for 1,201 vehicles.

The company has repeatedly sought variances to zoning regulations that outline the scope of development for the site in its first and subsequent two resubmissions.

"There really is no reason for an applicant to not have a fully compliant plan other than they chose not to," Edward Gilgor, NPU-W's chairman told East Atlanta Patch.

But an additional wrinkle in the controversial project is that the company can continue to resubmit revisions to its original plan in perpetuity, something the ordinance governing development project planning submissions, doesn''t specifically address.

"My problem is Planning has opened up the proverbial Pandora’s Box," Gilgor said, explaining opponents to the project have spent some 700 hours on reviewing the plans and submitting rebuttals.

"The idea that there are multiple bites at the apple is not supported by the ordinance."

Gilgor wrote a response to city planning officials concerning Fuqua's latest submission on April 2 and shared it with Patch:

Via Electronic Mail
Ms. Charletta Wilson-Jacks
Office of Planning, Department of Planning and Community Development
55 Trinity Avenue, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303

Re: Neighborhood Planning Unit W’s Response to Second Revised Application for BL-12-035 – 800 Glenwood Avenue, SE, Atlanta, GA 30316

Dear Ms. Wilson-Jacks,

On behalf of NPU-W, I submit this preliminary response to the submission from the Applicant file-stamped March 26, 2013, which shall hereinafter be referred to as the Second Revised Application.

NPU-W has reviewed the Beltline District Overlay Regulations, Chapter 36, and the Special Permits, Chapter 25, and it finds no provision of any sort for revised submissions of the original application.

The Ordinance is explicit that Planning has three options in responding to applications: Issue the Permit, Accept the Permit conditional on certain changes being made, or Deny the Permit. The express language is reproduced below:

Action by Planning Director: The director, bureau of planning shall examine the application and supporting materials for conformity with the requirements and stated intent of this part, make such referrals as are called for in the circumstances of the case, and shall within 30 days (unless a longer period is mutually agreed upon) decide on the application. The director may issue the permit as applied for, may issue a permit conditional upon changes from the application, set forth in writing, as necessary to assure conformity with the requirements and stated intent of this part, or may deny the application, with written reasons for such denial.

Code of City of Atlanta, Part III – Land Development Code, Part 16 - Zoning, Chapter 25, Section. 16-25.004(3) - Special administrative permits, procedural requirements.

Therefore, NPU-W requests that the City immediately confirm that it will summarily inform the applicant that it must submit a new complete new application, and not submit the second revised version of an application first submitted in September of last year. If the City has a different interpretation the relevant portion of Chapter 25, then NPU-W requests that this information be immediately shared with it as well as the complete factual basis for that interpretation.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

See our topics page for our full coverage on the Glenwood Avenue project: 800 Glenwood Development.