Townhomes Coming to Hillyer Site
Decatur Metro | September 5, 2013
Last week, Thomas sent in this photo of a Public Hearing sign on the vacant Hillyer Place property and basically asked “what’s up?”.
Here’s the answer.
The City’s Planning Director Amanda Thompson tells DM that 24 townhomes are being designed and built on the site. Here are a few details on the project.
- 24 townhome units. Three story with drive under garages
- 25’ minimum townhome setback from the R-60 (there is a small, open air garden shed within the 25’ setback).
- Guest parking next to the smaller units within the 25’ setback.
- There is an evergreen tree buffer along the R-60 property.
- The front building along E Howard will be designed as live/work.
- 6’ sidewalks will be installed along the street frontage.
Ms. Thompson also sent along this drawn plan… (PDF version HERE)
Additionally, according to Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne, “The developer has worked closely with surrounding neighbors and gotten their support for this proposal.”
Latest from Decaturish
OH MY GOD CHILDREN MIGHT MOVE HERE NO MORE CHILDREN WHAT ABOUT THE TRAFFIC WHAT ABOUT MY VIEW? TRAFFIC TRAFFIC TRAFFIC!!!! I CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE CHILDREN OR TRAFFIC. WHAT ABOUT TRADER JOES WE NEED TRADER JOES. PLEASE LET GOD INTERVENE AND MAKE THIS A WHOLE FOODS
Brilliant! We’re done here.
At least we can all agree that this property is, by God, IN DECATUR!
but is it indie-catur?
It’s near the Dequator, as well. Maybe near the belly button?
Also not too far from the taint, neither. Cheers to whoever came up with that a while back!
You know, these townhome developments always need a quaint name. I’m sure they could figure out a way to incorporate “Taint” into the name…
“Taintview townhomes” – sounds nice, right?
Plus, it might help to keep families with kids from moving in!
Taint Crossing.
That would have be “Tainte Chase” in developer speak.
Perhaps one of the live/work purchasers will open a little erotic novelties shop called “T’aint Misbehavin'”.
OMG – I love this blog.
Anyone know the history of the street name? There’s a Hillyer Place in Decatur and a Hillyer Avenue in Avondale.
“What’s the name of this hill?”
“It’s the hill yer standin’ on.”
“That’ll work.”
+1
The Hillyer family was prominent in the area in the 1800s. Junius Hillyer served 2 terms in the US congress and was a circuit judge. His son George held a number of elected offices, state senate, mayor of Atlanta, etc. Junius’ daughter Kate Hillyer ran one of the only schools in Decatur for years.
Hillyer Place was originally called Line Street (name changed in the 1920s). It was the original eastern boundary of Decatur when the town was laid out in 1822.
Thanks! That’s what I was looking for!
DM, can we get the draw plan in a format that can be enlarged and is still clear/able to be read when enlarged?
Link to PDF now included in the post above.
I hope the residents like trains.
Good point because folks upset with train noise take a while to understand that the railroad has almost eminent domain and isn’t going to change for residents. Maybe they should name the condo complex something like “Whistlestop Station” so no one can say they didn’t suspect there would be train noise!
Fact is they can’t change due to federal law. The only way would be to establish a quiet zone with appropriate safeguards, but that comes with a pretty high cost which neither GDOT nor the railroad will pay and some folks are against a quiet zone anyway.
Exactly. Folks should know what they are getting into. Folks from areas without train traffic, e.g. many modern suburbs, don’t realize that trains make substantial noise. And the real estate promotional brochures aren’t likely to mention it! The City might save it itself a lot of trouble responding to owner complaints if it insists that the complex be named something that reflects the ambient noise–Whistle-stop Station…Clickety Clack Condos…Train Tremor Manor. Personally, I find train noise nostalgic of cross-country trains out West or the NY Subway, but other folks find it disturbing.
Agreed that folks should know what they’re getting into but, as someone whose bed is immediately adjacent to the tracks (give or take 50 yards or so), I gotta say: It’s really not that bad. The horn woke us for about a month or two after we bought our house but, in the 17 years since, we’ve come to barely notice it.
Just because people like to position themselves as victims doesn’t mean the broader community needs to share that view. My hope is that people will consider the rumble and honk in the same way they weigh the other pros and cons of any particular house.
Ain’t no thang!
it is amazing what the brain will learn to ignore.
Gotcha beat Scott. My bed is approximately 30 feet from the tracks and I sleep with my windows open when it is cool enough. I typically sleep right through passing trains.
You’re lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o’clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
Luxury!
I used to live right on W. Howard and although I eventually got used to the noise, I never got used to the vibrations caused by passing trains. At the time I had a digital TV antenna; the TV would go out for a solid minute every time a train passed because the whole house wobbled. That wasn’t so bad, but I didn’t get a good night’s sleep the entire time I lived there, to the point that I developed a sleep disorder (hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations — I thought I had a brain tumor!). My quality of life improved immensely (and the hallucinations quit!) when I moved about half a mile further from the tracks.
Whoah. You win!
This is the true story… of 24 strangers… picked to live in townhomes… and have their sleep disturbed… to find out what happens… when CSX stops being polite… and starts getting real loud…The Rail World: Decatur.
Child of the 90s??
Perhaps…
It’s so cute that you think a little thing like advance notice and common sense will keep people from complaining. If only the people who bought condos in a controversial building downtown and then complained and sued when someone wanted to build a new condo building right next to them thought the same way!
That is going to be some high-density housing. I’m with Helvetia–can you post/link to a better resolution image of the development? Aside from the trains and the daily prison bus sirens, it has some nice restaurants within easy walking distance.
The density’s all a matter of perspective. On the one hand, it’s higher than the adjacent single family but, on the other, it’s only about 30% of what’s allowable under the zoning.
But it is clearly a step in the right direction. With continued progress, we will all live in one of these one day:
http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/01/05/would-you-live-in-a-4-foot-condo-some-japanese-do/
Quite dense in terms of land use and I am not sure how an alley with trees in the middle will work for people trying to access drive-under garages. The train noise can be buffered with soundproofing, but I lived two blocks from a train for years in a 120 year old house with original windows and got to where I rarely noticed it, even at night.
On a separate note, thanks for the AOL link. At least the Japanese HAVE somewhere for their homeless. I loved this bit:
“Meanwhile, a company called Minute Suites has unveiled its own version of a capsule hotel in Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport.”
Those probably sell out fast and often – and should be called 24-hour suites given ATL’s predilection for leaving passengers stranded overnight on the floor.
Anyone else notice a community garden on the site plan? Is this something that’s already there, or something the developer is adding into the plans? Either way, it’s very interesting that it would be used a selling point for the townhomes. And I think the site plan says a lot about what people are looking for when they move to Decatur; compact, urban spaces, with some unique amenities in proximity of downtown.
I think the site plan says more about fitting 24 townhouses on the parcel.
This is the old Milton McKinney property, a plumbing supply store that had, well everything with regards to plumbing. I remember the counter area well. This was an old timey store, one in which you walk in and see hundreds, maybe thousands (slight exaggeration) of plumbing products and think, “What the hell do you do with that?” The owners, Mr. Melton (didn’t see much) and McKinney (truely “Mr. Decatur” in terms of historical knowledge) would appear from nowhere to answer any question or provide products and/or advice needed to complete the job. When I started teaching physical science at DHS in 76, and had to demonstrate something about bi-metalics, the teaching text suggested visiting the local plumbing supply store for things to use in class. Mr. McKinney seemed puzzled about the request but said, “Let me see what I can find. Check back tomorrow”. Well I didn’t but several weeks later, a package appeared in my teacher mailbox that included a bimetallic product and a note, “Thought you could use this”. The last time I saw Mr. McKinney was around 1996, in the alleyway next to the Brick Store. I was with my young son and was trying to impart something about the historical significance of the alley. Suddenly Mr. McKinney appeared and began to explain that the alley was around during the Civil War. Both my son and I were impressed with his knowledge.
Mr. McKinney is buried in the high area of the new cemetery, next to the boy (Chambers?) whose death during a DHS football game in 1915 led to the suspension of Decatur High football for seven years. Mr. McKinney and Mr. Melton would have known all about this event and much, much more about life in old timey Decatur. Maybe the new development could include a monument to all their contributions.
Loved this. Thank you.
Now I want to know more about Civil War Alley…
Adding to the Milton McKinney lore, I think we were one of the last paying customers — in the early 1990s. I had an old coal fireplace that I wanted to convert to gas logs. A crew of three old guys worked the entire day running gas pipe under the house, drilling through the concrete hearth, adding valves and hook-ups. Total bill was $215.
Looking at the plans, I had to scratch my head about the two buildings on the plan labeled as “story shop.” Would these be gazebos for community story time? Dedicated spoken word venues? New quaint book store competition for Little Shop of Stories?
Then I realized that the label actually said “1 Story Shop.” I guess that makes more sense.
More retail for the Dequator!
three comments that are just my opinion, so read if you like:
1. I appreciate these individually owned units more than those planned apartments about to go up all over downtown because it seems like the dwellers would be mostly owners and be more invested in the community. The market for 2 bedroom and up condos in downtown decatur is pretty strong. Not sure I follow the need to build all the transient housing. What will the apartments be like in 20 or 30 years after the upscale novelty is worn off? I remember all those Post Property apartments that were the rage when I was fresh out of college. Would hate to have a used up one (or two or three) of those communities tying up the downtown area 20 years from now. And, while lots of apartments will feed the restaurant market, they will also make decatur more of a “party” town. Though I like a having variety of restaurants, I am concerned about the crime and late night scene that areas like Buckhead have attracted. I hope we are not going there…
2. Runoff???? Trees???? guessing that it is no worse than condos and the like, but just wondering…tiny shared garden does not compensate in my book. How much pavement can downtown handle in the storm drains?
3. That’s 24 units on a site the same size as my lot…..wow. maybe I should figure a way to get my lot zoning changed so we could one day retire. ha!
Re: runoff. The COD has some pretty strict rules about capturing and retaining runoff water, so I imagine there’s a detention basin somewhere in the plan.
Not clear from the plan is that there will be a roughly 6 ft high retaining wall along the North and West property lines that will essentially level the site. This is so they can drain the runoff to Howard rather than down through the R-60 properties as is currently the case. There is no storm water sewer line on Howard, so that will have to be dealt with. I don’t know if the developers will have to build that line or what their contribution will be if the city builds it.
Currently all the runoff on Howard turns the corner onto Barry after passing the old Spencer’s building and some of the houses at the bottom of the hill suffer basement floods during serious downpours.
Interestingly, (to me at least), this lot drains into the Gulf of Mexico (Chattahoochee) and the lot across Hillyer drains into the Atlantic (Ocmulgee).
Re renters and investment into the community- I first rented here, fell in love with the potential of Decatur, and came back to buy a house & became involved in the community. I think it is great to provide the opportunity to get hooked on Decatur for young people starting out or newcomers to the Metro area testing out location. There are also many long term renters who are wonderful assets to the community. It disappoints me to hear “must have dollars to live here” comments.
I’m also not too worried @ Buckhead party town here. If anything more like Virginia Highland scene- which will help support all our fabulous establishments (we residents alone aren’t enough).
Yes. What Macarolina said, and in a much nicer way than I would have. I, too was a (very) long-term renter who eventually bought in (albeit at a great price thanks to our awesome realtor and friend Conner Allred!). I certainly hope that we don’t effectively close our borders to all except those with the financial resources to buy our artificially inflated housing stock.