Special Zoning District to Guide Buckhead Commercial Growth

The upgrade of the special zoning district in the Buckhead commercial area will set the course of development over the next 20 years, a consultant told NPU-B members Tuesday night.

Aaron Fortner of the urban planning group Market + Main said the upgrade of Special Public Interest District 12, one of the oldest in the city, will remove various underlying and overlaying zoning districts so that the SPI stands alone.

Sponsored by District 7 City Councilman Howard Shook and funded by the Buckhead CID, the upgrade brings the area, known as SPI-12 in line with other zoning districts in the city that have undergone similar upgrades.

"This is the next generation of development in Buckhead," Fortner said. "This is the future and will make the next 20 years of development easier for you."

Fortner said a steering committee of commercial property owners, retailers, restaurants, hotels and representatives of surrounding neighborhoods began working on the redesign earlier this year and intend to have it approved by the Alanta City Council by the end of the year.

He said the different "stakeholders" are "working together and trying to make sure we come up with a SPI everybody's happy with."

After taking an in-depth look at the existing zoning, the committee plans to have a final draft by September and will "really shoot for this end of this year for adaption." He said a public meeting on the upgrade will be held May 12.

He told the NPU that development restrictions the NPU has implemented over the year will become part of the district's zoning ordinance. The committee, he said, will "make sure none will be forgotten. They won't be conditions anymore, they will become part of the zoning."

The upgrade, he said, "takes all of those things you've fought for and now requires them and gets them ahead of development. You don't have it fight for it, it's already there."

NPU Chairman Sally Silver, a steering committee member,  said the upgrade will result in the "same function, the same density." The upgrade will bring more green space, more connectivity, shared parking and better storm-water management, she said.

"What we're asking people to do is develop best practices in their development," she said. "The property owners are very receptive; they know that to market their property, they need to keep with with what's going on."

Fortner said that under the upgrade, "everybody benefits. This becomes the gatekeeper and keeps out all of the bad stuff."

The upgrade will incorporate a connectivity study carried out for the Buckhead Loop area, as well as the Buckhead Collection effort to develop more green space for District 7.

SPI-12 is "lagging so pitifully behind any other SPI in the city" in receiving upgrades, Silver said. She said that the Buckhead CID, funded by a special tax of business owners, is funding the process because "if we waited for the planning department, it would take five years to do this." She added, "The CID is funding this because the city cannot afford to do this."

Fortner said that the new ordinance will help the district "implement the vision of the community for that area. It can be a tool to implement that vision."

For information on the SPI-12 upgrade, see this link to the project on the Buckhead CID's Web site.