Nine “Townhome” Plan for Vacant Lenore Street Lot Approved
Decatur Metro | February 8, 2011
UPDATE: Scott points out in a comment that these single-family, detached “townhomes” are actually just houses. The zoning ordinance requires the designation.
Everything is evaluated in context.
Nine detached. single-family townhomes sounds pleasant enough in a vacuum, but compare those nine residences to a vacant lot where 20 units were originally planned and approved, and its suddenly a reason to celebrate.
At last night’s meeting, Decatur’s City Commission unanimously approved a plan by an Oakhurst resident and his business partner to build nine detached townhomes on a Lenore Street lot that has long been a vacant “PVC Park”. According to one of the potential developers at the meeting, 100% of area residents who reviewed the plan were in favor of it.
Learning that three of the townhomes in the plan would actually front Lenore Street, Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Baskett remarked the development was “very nice”.
In more ways than one, it’s all about context.
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One clarification, in case anyone’s scratching their head. These aren’t actually townhomes. They’re single family detached as people understand that term. They’re only referred to as townhomes because of the silly way the ordinance is written.
Title should say Lenore, right? I was just about to marvel that there were still more parts of Decatur that I hadn’t discovered yet (but that my kids had inevitably been to already and so they’d lament “Oh, Mom, everyone knows where….). But then I noticed the correct spelling in the body of the post.
Is there minimal yardwork involved in these homes? That would be my dream–no shared walls and shared noise with neighbors but no yardwork either.
Hooray. Now, what about the unfinished subdivision on Midway Road?
I thought you were buying that Chad. What happened?
Woo-hoo! “Chadly’s Chalets”! Now, that’s a subdiv we could sink our backhoes into…
I want one!
That picture is probably three years old and the lot still looks exactly the same… except for the fact that the home in the background under construction is now on its second set of owners! Very glad it’s going to finally move forward.
As for “100% of the residents who reviewed it being in favor of it” I’m not sure how much that means. One day a couple months ago some guys went walking around ringing doorbells and showing some presentation. I wasn’t home, so my wife asked them to come back later. That was the last thing we heard until just now.
An idea of estimated time of construction starting and finishing? Will all be built on spec or will they build as they’re sold?
The Commissioners were very enthused about the project, so it was covered quickly. No details on building timeline/ game plan came out of their discussion. (The City folks all had packets on it, so one of them could provide more info.) The 3 houses along Lenore St. will be craftsman bungalows, and the 9 houses are 1800-2400 sq ft.
Thanks. That’s some good information. Would love to see concept drawings.
Does anybody know if it’s possible to view the plan someplace?
I found a lot more good information in the minutes of the Commision meeting. Includes drawings of the lots, locations of homes and some renderings. Sure looks great. Can’t wait for them to get started: http://www.decaturga.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1618
It’s helpful to have confirmed that “detached townhouses” means simply detached single-family houses. THere had been some controversy over that regarding the “mixed-use” ordinance, which allows “detached townhouses” and has no minimum (i.e. potentially zero) commercial component.
Now how about Stage II of that half-finished townhouse development on Oakview between 3rd and 4th Aves.? Any word on what?
I don’t believe any of those every sold, even in Phase I. The completed building are all rentals.
Hopefully, when the school across the street is up and online, some interest will be generated there.
For what it is worth, there are a number of local developers looking to get back into the game. The lack of available funds impacted the new construction in Decatur more than the actual real estate market. Many financial institutions were unwilling to finance spec homes over the past 2 years even for builders in good financial standing.
Decatur home values have held strong compared to our immediate neighbors even more so when compared to metro Atlanta in general. I have heard from a couple of builders in the past month that they have secured financing to begin building again. It seems that most are connecting with private backers willing to invest where the banks are not.
Sean, I’d be interested in knowing the number of new construction unsold houses in Decatur. It sounds like the developers may be getting ahead of the curve again.
For those who don’t know where this is, like me:
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=gmail&rls=gm&q=Lenore+Street,+decatur,+ga&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Lenore+St,+Decatur,+GA+30030&gl=us&ei=PIpRTaraO9K4twf7ufCdCQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA
GOOD NEWS: The site will finally be developed…eliminating an eyesore.
BAD NEWS: The Project Manager is the owner of the Decatur Diner!!
Is that true? If not, your post needs to be deleted as it’s a personal attack on the developer and that just can’t be allowed.