Rezoning Progresses for Colonial Homes Parcel

Pope and Land is on course to receive higher-density rezoning to redevelop a section of the Colonial Homes Apartments.

NPU-C at its meeting Tuesday night split 5-5 on a motion to deny recommendation of the rezoning from RG3 to MR4, according to the NPU’s minutes. The motion to deny was because of the lack of a specific site plan, the minutes said.

The city of Atlanta has previously rejected the rezoning for the parcel at 240 Colonial Homes Drive, but a Fulton Superior Court judge subsequently ruled in favor of Pope and Land. The judge's actioin which will require the city to grant the rezoning.

“The existing zoning has already been found unconstitutional, so the city has to rezone it,” said Carl Westmoreland, the attorney representing Pope and Land. "We’re at the next step up, so I don’t anticipate any problem with it, but we do have to go through the normal processes.”

The matter will go to the Zoning Review Board April 19, and then to the Atlanta City Council, he said.

Westmoreland said the parcel of the apartments to be developed lies the closest to Peachtree Road, and that the rest of the apartment complex's parcels can’t be redeveloped because they are in a flood plain. Colonial Homes was built in 1947.

The units at 240 Colonial Homes Drive will be torn down for the redevelopment, he said. He said up to 250 units could be developed on the site, although the exact number will depend on the square footage of each, he said.

A four- or five-story unit would replace the present building. The complex sits near other multistory apartment complexes, including the Wesley Townsend.