I’ve been meaning to post this ever since the Decatur City Commission meeting in late May when Commissioner Fred Boykin asked Planning Director Amanda Thompson about the status of the project.  Looks like Ralph beat me to it!

Tonight, the Decatur Planning Commission will consider rezoning the south parking lot at Avondale MARTA station as Mixed Use, under the 2009 changes to the zoning ordinance.  (Meeting materials HERE!)  We mentioned this revised plan back in March, in case you missed it.

MARTA and Decatur have done this dance before, resulting in the confusingly named Avondale LCI Master Plan.  According to sources a few years back, the plan was never executed because MARTA backed out, but now there’s a new MARTA-stration (MARTA + adminstration – get it?) and they have already publicly stated that they’re more aggressively pursuing transit-friendly development around existing stations.

The Patch article linked to above quotes Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne saying that there’s no current developer for the site, and that this rezoning just defines what the city “wants to see happen at the site.”

Rendering from the 2005 Avondale LCI Master Plan courtesy of the City’s Website

As the Decatur City Commission annual retreat starts today, here’s an item from last week’s meeting that is worth passing along.

The Monday before last, the Decatur City Commission unanimously tabled the YMCA’s request to rezone two residential lots on Maediris Drive, covered HERE, citing varying levels of and reasons for discomfort about the plan that would expand the institutional zoning into the residential neighborhood. This followed almost two hours of discussion and presentations from the applicant and residents, along with a lengthy discussion by the commission.

Mayor Baskett first suggested tabling the item “indefinitely”, but then amended his motion to say that it would be tabled until the applicant again requests to come before the commission.  The mayor stated that he’d like to see any revised plan exclude any rezoning of the two residential lots on Maediris Drive.

You can view the full video of the item on the city’s website.

From the Staff Report for tonight’s Decatur City Commission Meeting…

YMCA, Inc. wishes to modify the existing master site plan to build a roughly 3,500 square foot addition onto the building and expand the current parking lot to add 56 new parking spaces. The new building will have approximately 51,000 square feet of gross floor area. They propose to rezone two lots [on Maediris Drive] developed with single family houses that are adjacent to the site so that they may demolish the houses to build parking, an expanded detention facility and play area.

As part of the project they will install landscaping and new sidewalks on Maediris Drive. The existing parking lot will be reconfigured to provide additional handicapped parking near the entrance.

In approving this land use change and rezoning, there are many questions that the commission must consider, most or all of which are listed out in the meeting materials.

The Planning Commission already approved these changes in their meeting earlier this month.

I’m a bit late to this game, but Patch reported yesterday that after a 5 hour meeting on Monday, the Zoning Board of Appeals rejected all complaints filed from residents living around 315 West Ponce that procedures were not properly followed during neighborhood discussions surrounding the mixed-use development of that property.

Patch editor Ralph Ellis reports that “Unless residents take the next step and file a lawsuit, the decision clears the way for the developer, Carter, to build 235 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail space and a seven-story parking garage in the asphalt parking lot behind the office tower at West Ponce and Ponce de Leon Place.”

Selig has secured all permits to build the Walmart at Suburban Plaza according to the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association website, ad they are scheduled to begin construction early next year.

In related news, the long-time Suburban Plaza tenant, Decatur Estate and Wayback Antiques, reports they have found a new spot for their store at 2272 Lawrenceville Highway, which is the location of the old Jake’s Roadhouse, next to O’Reilly Auto Parts and across from Home Depot, according to MANA site.  They plan to reopen in the Spring of 2013.