The Loring Heights neighborhood wants a unified voice as the city of Atlanta develops around it.
Ron Grunwald, with the neighborhood association, said residents are spending thousands to develop a master plan to protect their community’s interests as the city eyes the community’s industrial space and a path for its BeltLine project. The current corridor would take the BeltLine through the northern part of the neighborhood.
The master plan, if approved by the city, would serve as a guide for Loring Heights’ priorities and preferences.
As a neighborhood, Loring Heights shares interests with both West Midtown and south Buckhead. District 8 Atlanta City Councilwoman Yolanda Adrean represents the neighborhood and introduced the legislation for the master plan. The neighborhood is zoned for E. Rivers Elementary but it’s also influenced by the development of Atlantic Station in West Midtown.
Its status as a Buckhead neighborhood isn’t firm in the eyes of some residents.
When Loring Heights joined the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods in 2011, some members objected.
“I always say we’re at the butt-end of Buckhead,” Grunwald joked. “Nobody wants us.”
Jim King, chairman of the BCN, said he has encouraged council to include neighborhoods that share space with other communities. He noted the north side neighborhoods represented on BCN, such as Mount Paran and Chastain Park share borders with the City of Sandy Springs.
“I encourage our board to be more inclusive than exclusive,” King said. “That way, I feel like we’re more represented.”
Grunwald said the neighborhood association paid $37,000 for the plan, using money it received from a settlement with the Atlantic Station development. The neighborhood received the settlement because Atlantic Station couldn’t make a proposed pedestrian bridge connecting to the neighborhood compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Loring Heights’ consultant Caleb Racicot, a senior principal with planning firm Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh and Associates, said the master plan will give the neighborhood some control over its future.
“It defines what the neighborhood’s aspirations are for growth and redevelopment,” Racicot said. “As you know, with the BeltLine coming and with the invariable rezoning pressure and the ensuing negotiations that happen, this will … make the process easier for developers and gives the neighborhood more of a legal basis to turn down rezoning.”
Racicot and Grunwald said the plan also will establish priorities for the neighborhood, giving residents more of a say in how Atlanta spends money on capital projects, such as road improvements.
While the master plan doesn’t directly impact Buckhead, Grunwald said everything in Atlanta is interconnected. One of the neighborhood’s goals is to implement traffic calming measures and a streetscape on Deering Road, which is in walking distance of south Buckhead neighborhoods.
“Every small piece fits together somehow,” Grunwald said. “You don’t live in a vacuum.”
