After a very long meeting yesterday evening, Decatur’s Zoning Board of Appeals tabled its decision on whether to allow the Peer Support and Wellness Center to continue operating in the Decatur Heights residential neighborhood.

Here’s a round-up of reports from the scene…

• AJC: Challenge to Decatur Mental Health Center ongoing
• InDecatur: Decatur ZBA hears 444 Sycamore arguments
• DNO: 444 Sycamore Gets Late Night Zoning Board Hearing

Good luck board members.  Either way, people are going to yell at you.

At first glance, it may seem that there are few local topics up for discussion as insanely boring as parking.  But just try discussing it with your neighbor and you’ll quickly discover that “parking” is a volatile closet issue for many.  Open that door and you may suddenly find yourself knee-deep in a personal struggle for “what is right” and “what is annoying.”

Here in Decatur, a walkable ‘burb fighting the influence of surrounding speedable sprawl, the issue takes on added weight and dimension.

For decades now, Decatur has bucked almost any developmental trend taken up by the rest of greater Atlanta.  Back in the 1970s, when many of those same suburbs shunned MARTA, Decatur asked that the line be moved so it would cut straight through the center of the city.  And while the Atlanta suburbs continued to crawl across the Georgia piedmont and into the mountains and swamps (circa 2008), Decatur looked towards greater density, shunning wider artery roads with highway-like speed limits in favor of street-narrowing.

But there’s one area where Decatur has a harder time ignoring the car-tendencies of greater Atlanta. Parking.

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This past Monday, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved Farm Burger’s parking variance to set up shop in the old Voila space at 410 West Ponce de Leon Ave.

The request was tabled in November and the applicant, WPD Center, was asked to return after complying with the required public notice procedures.  At the time, a handful of area residents submitted letters (pages 22 & 23) asking the ZBA to deny the application.

However, with the applicant now in compliance with the public notice procedures, a variance, which includes a shared parking agreement with Sharian Inc. and First Christian Church of Decatur, was approved on Monday, .  The ZBA added the following new conditions…

- Signage shall be placed at the front of the property that indicates the location of off- site parking and the hours of availability,

- The shared parking agreements with the First Christian Church of Decatur and Sharian, Inc. submitted with the application shall be revised to include notice to the city if the parking agreement is changed or terminated,

- The variance is limited to this application and the Farm Burger tenant, and

- Employee ID cards will be visible in or on the employee’s car parked at the First Christian Church.

Neil Dobbs recused himself from the ZBA vote, presumably because he lives in the adjoining neighborhood where parking has become a rather contentious topic.

h/t: TheDNO

At least 125 residents crammed themselves into the confines of the city hall meeting room last night to hear and respond to 315 developers application for a parking variance. When asked about contingency planning and theoretical conditions, the representitives for the developer seemed flexible. They agreed to small conditions proposed by the board (like including Flexcar in the parking lot, dedicated parking for scooters) and even one large one (that the owner would have to reapply for a variance if the property was ever converted to condos – due to dedicated parking concerns).

After hearing the plans and arguments of JLB thru the owner, architect, and traffic and parking consultants, the massive crowd was asked to respond.

Only 4 folks stood up in favor of the development, even though murmurings within the crowd seemed to be rather mixed, and of those only one lived in the affected area.

It wasn’t until 10-10:30p that chair Mark Burnette asked to hear the opposition. It didn’t take long to see where this meeting was going…other than late into the night. Local resident Jeff Davis stood and argued that a. the applicant’s application was not complete b. that the board didn’t have the authority to approve a parking variance because the city code doesn’t identify shared parking between residential and office according to 8.1.5) and c. that the proceedings were invalid because they weren’t conducted in precisely the correct way. (Chair Burnette took particular exception to this final point) Everyone still in the room, not privy to the strategy of the neighborhood beforehand, now saw it clearly through sleepy eyes.

Go after the legality of the “concept” of shared parking and stall the process.

Davis then called up a Livable Growth-retained parking consultant, who argued that the developer’s parking estimates were much too low according to a different “national” calculation.

After that rather tense back-and-forth, residents of the neighborhood started speaking up…Pat Davis reiterated Jeff Davis’ statements that the board could not grant a variance for something that the city had not approved (the concept of “shared parking”). She also noted that Livable Growth’s petition had received over 1,000 signatures. It was 11:30p when Steven Saunders approached the commission with a cardboard and Styrofoam model of the property…and I realized I wouldn’t make it to the end. There were lots of residents itching to speak after waiting patiently through the first few opponents. So I left…defeated by lots of questions and concerns and an 8:30p start-time.

So how do I know the issue was tabled? Because Creative Loafing’s Thomas Wheatley has a stronger constitution than I…plus he gets paid. Not only did he stay ’til the end, but he also wrote about it on Fresh Loaf…all before 3am! It’s a definite read to hear how things turned out, plus he got to hear DeKalb Commissioner Kathy Gannon (a 335 W. Ponce resident) express her concerns about the development. I had seen her at the back of the room…but wasn’t sure if she would speak up.

So the issue is tabled and I’m unclear of next steps. If anyone would like to fill me in, I would greatly appreciate it. If not, I’m sure Wheatley can fill us in when he wakes up.