Do these homes frighten you? Does their lack of pretension offend your sensibilities? Do their modest proportions fill you with an unsettling sense of dread and leave you counting down the days until an old couch or broken refrigerator winds up on the porch?

Do you fear the criminal element surely lurking inside?

My gut says no. In fact, if anything, I’d guess that most folks would consider these homes a fairly representative sample of the charm we Decaturites like to boast about. And that’s ironic, given that every one of them–along with hundreds of others not shown–would be illegal to build under our current zoning code.

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Decatur’s Zoning Board of Appeals tabled the 315 West Ponce de Leon Avenue developer’s parking variance request last night so they could “meet with neighbors”, according to the city’s Planning Director Amanda Thompson.

The developer will also withdraw their commercial building approval from tonight’s Planning Commission meeting.

Decatur Heights resident Dave Kell of InDecatur notes that tonight is the night when Decatur’s Zoning Board of Appeals will make its decision regarding the legality of the Peer Support and Wellness Center at 444 Sycamore Drive.  The meeting begins at 7:30pm.

According to tonight’s ZBA agenda (pdf), there’s only one front-yard zoning variance request prior to the 444 Sycamore agenda item.  The board will discuss the issue and then announce their decision.

No comments will be taken.

After a very long meeting yesterday evening, Decatur’s Zoning Board of Appeals tabled its decision on whether to allow the Peer Support and Wellness Center to continue operating in the Decatur Heights residential neighborhood.

Here’s a round-up of reports from the scene…

• AJC: Challenge to Decatur Mental Health Center ongoing
• InDecatur: Decatur ZBA hears 444 Sycamore arguments
• DNO: 444 Sycamore Gets Late Night Zoning Board Hearing

Good luck board members.  Either way, people are going to yell at you.

At first glance, it may seem that there are few local topics up for discussion as insanely boring as parking.  But just try discussing it with your neighbor and you’ll quickly discover that “parking” is a volatile closet issue for many.  Open that door and you may suddenly find yourself knee-deep in a personal struggle for “what is right” and “what is annoying.”

Here in Decatur, a walkable ‘burb fighting the influence of surrounding speedable sprawl, the issue takes on added weight and dimension.

For decades now, Decatur has bucked almost any developmental trend taken up by the rest of greater Atlanta.  Back in the 1970s, when many of those same suburbs shunned MARTA, Decatur asked that the line be moved so it would cut straight through the center of the city.  And while the Atlanta suburbs continued to crawl across the Georgia piedmont and into the mountains and swamps (circa 2008), Decatur looked towards greater density, shunning wider artery roads with highway-like speed limits in favor of street-narrowing.

But there’s one area where Decatur has a harder time ignoring the car-tendencies of greater Atlanta. Parking.

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