The City just sent out this press release…

Decatur,Ga. – ­Last night, the Decatur City Commission unanimously adopted a resolution outlining their full and active support for the purchase of the Historic Scottish Rite Hospital property in Oakhurst by the Decatur Downtown Development Authority (DDA).  The DDA will purchase the property from current owner Progressive Redevelopment, Inc (PRI). The City Commission originally approved an urban redevelopment plan for the property in 1999.

“The City Commission determined it was in the best interest of the City to promote the health, prosperity, safety and welfare of the community by supporting the continued viability of the Historic Scottish Rite Hospital,” said Decatur Mayor Jim Baskett. “Adopting the resolution shows our belief that this property is a unique local landmark and community resource that will continue to benefit the Oakhurst neighborhood and all of Decatur for years to come.”

“Due to the devastating effect of the recent economic recession on real estate values, PRI is no longer financially able to sustain the debt owed on the Historic Scottish Rite Hospital property,” said Lorri Mills of PRI. “DDA’s plans to purchase are really a best case scenario for everyone involved. We applaud the City Commission’s support of this plan.”

“This is exciting news for us,” said Scot Hollonbeck, board president of the Community Center of South Decatur. “We believe the purchase of this property by the DDA will secure this historic community resource and make it possible for us to continue to support community programming and activities at the Solarium .”

The Historic Scottish Rite Hospital property was the first Scottish Rite Hospital for children.  Built in 1920, it was designed by noted Atlanta architects Neel Reid and Hal Heinz and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

UPDATED: Here’s Decatur PD’s report.  It looks like another business in the area was also the victim of the same burglars earlier in the night…

On 10/07/14 at approximately 12:25 am, Decatur Police responded to a commercial burglar alarm in the 300 block of West Ponce de Leon Avenue.  Officers arrived and observed the glass side door was shattered.  Officers located a brick laying on the floor inside of the business.  The owner arrived and reported nothing missing from the business.

On 10/07/14 at approximately 5:54 am, Decatur Police responded to a commercial burglary in the 400 block of West Ponce de Leon Avenue.  Officers arrived and met with an employee who stated he arrived at work and observed the cash register on the floor behind the counter.  The business was last secured on 10/06/14 at approximately7:00 pm.  Officers observed the rear glass door was shattered and also located a brick laying on the floor inside of the business.  A desktop computer, printer and cash register were damaged.  The manager arrived and reported nothing missing from the business.

We’ve received a couple of reports this morning from readers of a break-in at Dancing Goats Coffee on West Ponce last night.

Siv wrote in with this account…

I drove by around 6:20 this morning, and there were three police cars out front and caution tape blocking the parking lot.  By the time I returned in the other direction around 7:45, all were gone.

I decided to stop by on my way to work around 9:30 this morning only to find that the store itself was closed.  However, two pleasant (especially considering the circumstances) employees were out front at a table handing out free coffee.

They explained to me that the back (glass) door was smashed sometime last night after all employees were gone.  Thieves tried to take a safe (I did not find out if they were successful), but they did not abscond with any espresso equipment.  They hope to be back up and running before long.

Stopped in for my morning coffee today to find out that Dancing Goats had been broken into last night (after hours, thankfully no one was hurt). They are closed today, but it sounded like they plan on re-opening tomorrow.

Some residents in the Clairmont Heights neighborhood (outlined in red above, west of the Medlock neighborhood outlined in yellow) are preparing an annexation petition to submit to the City of Decatur prior to the October 13th deadline set by the city.  From the Clairmont Heights Civic Association website…

From the CHCA board:  Neighborhood residents may be aware that there is an active petition effort underway seeking support for an annexation into  the City of Decatur for our neighborhood. (This is separate from the survey that Clairmont Heights Civic Association volunteers recently completed, and the petition effort is not an activity of the CHCA.) The petition is being pursued under a process described on the Decatur website at http://www.decaturga.com/index.aspx?page=660.

While it is unclear if the area in the petition will be the exact boundaries of CHCA, the organizers have consistently sought support in all parts of the neighborhood. While there are no guarantees, the organizers did receive indications that Decatur will consider petitions demonstrating strong support on each street included in the petition. This volunteer-driven process relies on neighbors participating on every street to reinforce the solidarity of the petition.

Decatur has set a deadline of October 13 for submitting petitions. Organizers in our neighborhood report that they may submit their petition even earlier than that. If you would like more information or are interested in signing the petition, contact Mark Knowles at [email protected]  or Mike Hall at [email protected] .

• Decatur commission approves compassion plan, defends police chief [Decaturish]
• Independent Distillery brings corn whiskey to Decatur [Atlanta Magazine]
• 1 killed, 1 injured in car/bike collision just south of Decatur [AJC]
• City of Atlanta in talks to turn Underground into above ground mixed-use [ABC]
• Atlanta ranks as a Top 10 city for pedestrians [ABC]

Photo courtesy of rustytanton via Flickr

The City of Decatur sent out this announcement yesterday…

Tomorrow: UDO Open House
Tuesday, October 7 | 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
All-day Open House
Decatur City Hall, 509 N. McDonough St.

Drop by any time between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. to view the ordinance, ask questions and make comments. Come at 10 a.m.,Noon, 4 p.m. or 7 p.m. and you’ll also get an informal presentation about the current draft.

In mid July, after almost 9 months of increasingly focused public meetings, the UDO process finally arrived at an initial draft — a draft subsequently subjected to 22 hours of open house discussion with residents and 4 exploratory topics for online consideration via Open City Hall. From that, together with additional comments that came in, a second, work-in-progress draft was released and presented for review by the city commission in two September work sessions.

Based on direction provided in those sessions, we now have, for final public review, a largely comprehensive third draft. We say largely because we want to leave room for the various nips and tucks common to a document of this size; anything that might still be undergoing legal review; or anything that might come up during this final period of city and public review.

CONSIDERATION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART

Tuesday, October 14 | 7pm
The Planning Commission reviews completed articles in their monthly public hearing. Community comment welcome.

Monday, October 20 | 7:30pm
Completed articles, comprising all applicable comments and considerations, presented to City Commission for consideration of adoption. Community comment welcome.