Above is a rendering of the proposed renovation/redevelopment of Beacon Hill complex, designed by Rutledge Alcock Architects and Lord Cultural Resources, after months of public meetings and community feedback.

Dave has a report from last night’s presentation on InDecatur, with a few more pictures of the renderings and good, detailed descriptions of the proposed changes.

In a nutshell, the eastern side keeps the old facade of the historic Beacon Hill building, but rotates the gym inside.  The western side features an entirely new police department, and the central courtyard – which features a movie screen on the southern wall – would “serve as a meeting center for the active living, arts, and police components.”, according to Dave.

Dave reports that the cost would be between $15-$20 million.  There currently is no planned funding for this project.

Over at InDecatur, Dave announces a meeting this evening at The Church of Decatur Heights at 7pm for residents to discuss potential traffic calming measures along Sycamore Drive between “Hilcrest and the south entrance to the parking deck at DeKalb Medical.”

Dave states that “the objective is to discourage through traffic (which can take Arcadia and Winn Way) and slow traffic to improve the safety of residents.”

And over on the Decatur Heights blog, he has posted all the different road-widths along that stretch of Sycamore and gives a specific example of what could potentially be done to slow cars down.

According to Dave, both City Manager Peggy Merriss and Asst. City Manager David Junger will be in attendance at the meeting.

UPDATE: LivingSocial will issue automatic refunds to everyone who purchased “Taste of Decatur” tickets. Thank you DM commenter lumpintheroad for posting the refund notice in the comments below.

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Wendy gives us a full report of what went down at the “Taste of Decatur” non-event yesterday.  Very similar to Dave’s report on InDecatur…

As I noted on Twitter, I’m not sure the problems stemmed from the rain causing problems or if somehow the event was a scam but certainly -something- went wrong! I mean, I can’t -prove- either way, although my gut tells me scam. Some careful questioning of other ticket buyers, participating businesses and LivingSocial might reveal the answer.

I heard about the event for the first time through LivingSocial on Thursday and bought a ticket, thinking, wow, $5 (half off the $10 full price) for a tasting event at a couple dozen restaurants! Printed out the voucher Friday and went into Decatur today around noon. The fact I hadn’t heard about this event in advance didn’t bug me because there’s a lot going on in Decatur and it’s festival time in town, so lots of things I could easily have missed on calendars and media and Twitter communications.

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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.

UPDATE: The Zoning Board of Approvals won’t address this issue until March.  Not on the docket for next Monday.

While the AJC’s recent follow-up story on the Peer Support and Wellness Center controversy details the arguments of those making zoning-related arguments about the Center….

“How can you be a resident if you only stay at most seven days? And 25 people who come every day, they are not just visitors,” said Soren Christensen, who has lived in the neighborhood for eight years.

…Dave Kell’s InDecatur and Decatur Heights blogs continue to focus on potential criminal elements.

Publishing an “Incident Address Report” requested from Decatur PD, Dave shows that there were 20 “incidents” called into the center and documented in the past 20 months.  Five of these incidents are tagged “EMS”, while six are labeled “disturbance”, two “location checks”, one “theft”, one “meet a person”, one “suicide threat”, one “criminal trespass”, one “suspicious person”, one “person down” and one “hang up”.

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Regator and InDecatur and are celebrating their respective 1st and 2nd birthdays tonight with a blowout at The Grange from 6p-9p.

As Dave has stated on InDecatur, there’s no sponsor, so there’s no open bar.  BUT if you come equipped with lots of InDecatur knowledge you might get yourself a free drink.   Personally, I’m banking on “goal weight” being one of the questions.

Happy birthday virtual Decatur brethren and sistren!

DHS teacher Chris Billingsley notifies us that he’s been using DM and InDecatur this week to teach a unit on local government!

Just to let you know that DHS students in the 9th grade have been looking at your Decatur Metro blog this week as part of a unit on local government. Many of my students complain that the only thing more boring than local government is yard work. Not true but it can be hard to get students excited about Decatur unless you mention zombies. The students were very interested in the information posted on Indecatur and Decatur Metro blog sites concerning the movies being filmed this week in Decatur. One of my students later told me, “Your class was not too boring today.” Thanks Decatur Bloggers!

What is the world coming to!

But seriously.  Wow.  I’m flattered!  As I’ve discovered for myself over the past year and a half, local activity is just as interesting, if not more so, than anything at the monolith, national level any day.  You just need to know where to look.

Thanks for stopping by DHS students!  Come back tomorrow (and the next day) and amidst the seemingly ENDLESS talk about development, I promise to incorporate more talk of zombies even when its completely unnecessary and inappropriate.

One more photo after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »