At this morning’s school board meeting, DeKalb school officials voted unanimously against selling some 30+ acres of land to the Sembler Company to build its much-criticized mini-city.

It’s an important victory for local residents that have opposed the development’s insanely grand scale at an already congested intersection, though Sembler still has plans to build a scaled-down version of “Town Briarcliff” on the 70 acres it already owns at the corner of Briarcliff and N. Druid.

Town Briarcliff? Is that like City Decatur? Nothing institutionalizes community like “Town [Insert Road Name Here]“!

Hmm…I wonder what the school board thinks about letting their tax dollars go towards the TAD. Yeah, not so much.

UPDATE: Fresh Loaf’s Scott Henry also reports from the meeting and gives the story a bit more context.

Sembler is still planning to develop another 70 acres on Briarcliff Road that it has under contract from the county housing authority, but the loss of the school property means no frontage on North Druid Hills Road. That, in turn, means plans for a grand boulevard linking the two roads will likely be scrapped.

In other words, it’s back to the drawing board for all concerned.

(Photo courtesy of the AJC)