Two high-profile and controversial redevelopment projects did not move forward at Monday’s Atlanta City Council committee meeting.
The zoning committee voted to postpone a vote on Portman Holdings’ plans to redevelop Amsterdam Walk. The committee also voted to refer the Galloway School’s redevelopment plans back to the neighborhood’s advisory council and also to the city’s Zoning Review Board.
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The Atlanta City Council’s zoning committee is expected to take up two controversial redevelopment projects at its Monday meeting. The committee is typically the last stop for developers before their plans go to the full council for a final vote.
Portman Holdings’ proposal to transform Amsterdam Walk from a small-scale shopping center to a large mixed-use development is on the agenda. Also on the agenda is the Galloway School request for a special zoning designation to move forward with the redevelopment of its Buckhead campus.
Both projects have faced significant pushback in their communities. The city’s Zoning Review Board, an advisory board, agreed with those opposing the projects and recommended denial of both earlier this month.
The Amsterdam Walk’s site is on prime real estate wedged in a junction where Virginia-Highland and Morningside neighborhoods meet. The roughly 10-acre site is also adjacent to a future segment of the Atlanta BeltLine between Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Some residents living near Amsterdam Walk have loudly criticized Portman’s plans Walk because it includes hundreds of apartments in an area surrounded by single-family homes. They also complain traffic on Monroe Drive would become even worse.
Portman’s opposition to light rail on the Beltline — specifically the extension of the streetcar to the Eastside Trail — was also a sticking point for some neighborhood residents. Some ZRB members also raised light rail on the Beltline as an issue. They said they believed Portman could reduce its parking significantly because of the planned project’s proximity to the Beltline.
Galloway’s plans include an update and renovation of its nearly 9-acre campus in the Chastain Park area. The plan includes razing the school’s 112-year-old Gresham Building to build a new structure for students.
The building was originally built as the Fulton County Almshouse in 1911 until it became part of the Galloway School when the school opened in 1969.
The school administration argues it cannot renovate the old building to be safe for students. But some neighborhood residents, Galloway alumni and historic preservationists argue tearing down the building would erase a major part of Buckhead and Atlanta history.
The school is asking the city to designate its property as a special public interest district, or SPI, to allow it to move forward with the campus construction. Officials say because the school is surrounded by city-owned Chastain Park, the only way to rebuild and renovate the campus is for the new zoning designation to regulate an area with significant public interest.
SPI districts, though, are intended to be designations for areas that have “substantial public interest,” like Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead, and not a private school, according to opponents.