Grant Park, SAND Community Associations Seek Smart Growth in 800 Glenwood Place Project

The GPNA (Grant Park Neighborhood Association) and SAND (South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development) have teamed together to promote Smart Growth and Good Development along The Beltline.  The tract of land across from Jackson (formerly Southside) High School is coming before the Zoning Review Board for the City of Atlanta to be rezoned to support mixed use of retail and multifamily above it.

The Developer that has it under contract just wants to put a 144,000 square foot big box retailer with over 1000 parking spaces in front of it in that location.  We do not feel this suburban style development fits in our neighborhood nor with the Spirit and Vision of The Beltline that we have all worked so hard over the last 7 years to help plan.  This rezoning is part of a multi-pronged approach to help protect our neighborhoods and we need your help!

We need 3 things from you:

1. Please make plans to attend the City of Atlanta’s Zoning Review Board meeting this Thursday 8/8/2013 at 6:00pm!  They meet at Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303 in the City Council Chambers.  Council chambers are on the second floor of City Hall.  Before them is the proactive rezoning of the 800 Glenwood Avenue parcel to better reflect the Beltline Sub Area 4 Master Plan. Currently a developer has a plan to put a 144,000 square foot big box store with a sea of parking in front of it with no consideration for the thousands of person hours that went into the Master Plan and no consideration for the wishes of the neighborhoods. We are not against Big Box stores in any way; but we want the plan to reflect the density of housing as well as retail that came out of the Master Planning process.  The Beltline is funded by Tax Allocation District funding and will depend on the Tax increment of all that housing for funding as well as ridership.  We want our section of the Beltline to be viable and to match the spirit and vision of what we all crafted back in 2011.
2. We need you to go to smartgrowthatlanta.org and sign up for the mailing list (right hand column of the page) to stay informed on upcoming meetings, strategy, and efforts to support the vision and spirit of The Beltline.
3. We need you to go to smartgrowthatlanta.org and contribute to our attorney fund.  We have several legal hurdles to cross and only by working together with your help and financial support can we make these happen.