Playing chicken with drive-throughs
May 14 — It’s Cathy from Rough Draft with my weekly newsletter on Dunwoody. I woke up today to a world washed clean by the rain. How lovely that it’s May 14 and high temperatures are still hovering around 80.
♵This week’s newsletter discusses ongoing discussions about not one, but two, chicken-forward restaurants making an effort to bring their drive-through concepts to Dunwoody, and a it’s-about-to-get-real message from our new DeKalb County CEO.
There’s also news about the start of the Shallowford Path process, a sad but not unexpected announcement about reductions to the county’s residential recycling program and a May 18 event that I’m pretty jazzed about.
🪽Get ready to “wing it” this Wednesday,
Cathy
🌿 Reflections is Dunwoody’s newest public art installation at Two Bridges Park, 50 Perimeter Center East, created by Huelani Mei and designed by Andrea Perez. Visitors are encouraged to “take a photo, create a moment, and let Dunwoody be a part of your story.” Learn more! SPONSOR MESSAGE
No bones about it
🍗 On May 13, representatives came to the Dunwoody Planning Commission asked for zoning changes in order to build drive-through restaurants to the Perimeter area, but both got pushed until next month after a thorough vetting and lots of questions.
Raising Cane’s and Zaxby’s had asked the planning commission to consider allowing a drive-through window at a proposed Raising Cane’s at a former Wells Fargo Bank building on Ashford Dunwoody Road, and Zaxby’s at the former PNC Bank location at 125 Perimeter Center West in the Ashford Lane complex.
The staff recommended approving a Special Use Land Use Permit to allow a drive-through restaurant at one location, but did not endorse another. After lengthy discussion, both applications were deferred for different reasons.
🤭 You can keep a-breast of what happened at the meeting here.
Panels Announced: What’s Really Shaping Perimeter’s Future?
SPONSORED BY PERIMETER COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS
📣 On May 20, hear what’s next — and who’s driving it — in the communities that power Perimeter. Two dynamic panels will feature leaders from Cushman & Wakefield, TriNet, MarketWake, Newell Brands, Dunwoody Nature Center, Perimeter Connects, and leaders from the cities of Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and Brookhaven. They’ll explore how companies are rethinking talent and workplace culture as a business advantage—and how local leaders are reshaping the district through bold investments in mobility, safety, placemaking, and partnerships that make Perimeter thrive around the clock.
🎟️ RoughDraft subscribers get tix at a 15% discount with code ROUGHDRAFT at checkout.
✨ Don’t miss the district’s biggest conversation for those with a stake in its future. Register today.
Not good news for #3-#7
♻️ DeKalb County has reduced the kinds of materials that it accepts in its single-stream residential recycling program, eliminating plastics #3-#7 and shredded paper.
A May 14 statement from DeKalb County said since Pratt Industries Inc. “no longer accepts plastics #3 through #7, the Sanitation Division is required to eliminate these plastics from its residential and commercial single-stream recycling programs to avoid recycling contamination and potential contamination fines.” The statement, however, did not address the shredded paper situation.
🗓️ Apparently this policy has been in place for about a month, but cities like Dunwoody are just hearing about it. P.S. For those who care about this change, there’s always CHaRM.
🌿 Reflections is Dunwoody’s newest public art installation at Two Bridges Park, 50 Perimeter Center East, created by Huelani Mei and designed by Andrea Perez. Visitors are encouraged to “take a photo, create a moment, and let Dunwoody be a part of your story.” Learn more! SPONSOR MESSAGE
The elephant in the room is water
🌊 DeKalb CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson unveiled the theme of her first state-of-the-county address with a video presentation titled “Mission: Possible – DeKalb Reimagined.”
Highlighting the change in leadership, the CEO said she “accepted the baton” from former DeKalb CEO Michael L. Thurmond and is focusing on investing in infrastructure, housing, economic development, and public safety.
Fixing the county’s long-neglected water infrastructure, one of her top priorities, will see water bills increasing an additional 10 percent a year for the next 10 years.
🐘 Here is the story recapping her address.
Seems like a rhetorical question
👣 A new journey begins as the city is contemplating huge changes on Shallowford Road and asking for public input.
The concept involves the installation of “two 11-foot travel lanes, a dedicated 12-foot center turn lane and right turn/deceleration lanes. maintaining the existing four-foot sidewalk and four-foot bike lane on the northeast side of North Shallowford Road, adding a 12-foot shared use path on the southwest side of North Shallowford Road, and adding landscaping and pedestrian lighting.” Oh, is that all?
The city held a community workshop on May 13, but citizens will have plenty of time to weigh in.
From the looks of the concept drawings, it involves a lot of amenities included in the recently completed Georgetown Gateway project on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, which took years to complete. Since I use Shallowford a lot to avoid the inevitable morning and afternoon congestion from Peachtree Middle and Chesnut Elementary, it’s kind of triggering to think of navigating through the construction chaos yet again.
The good news: With the slow pace of planning, right-of-way acquisition, and other time-consuming activities, I could be dead before the project starts. Fingers crossed.
🚧 Here are more details about the project and an opportunity to provide feedback.
🔋Dunwoody’s electronics recycling event, which had to be postponed because of weather, will be held on Sunday, May 18, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the back parking lot at Saint Luke’s Presbyterian Church, at 1978 Mt. Vernon Road.
For those who pre-register, the list of acceptable items for recycling include monitors, desktops, laptops, smart phones, household batteries, tablets, keyboards, mice, servers, networking gear, circuit boards, RAM & CPU, wires & cables, hard drives & memory cards (HDD, SSD, SD), CRT and LCD TVs, digital cameras, GPS units, speakers, copiers, ink & toner, scanners, projectors, game consoles, phone systems, lab & medical equipment, point-of-sale systems, microwaves, DVD players, and barcode scanners.
Unfortunately, all the slots for this event have filled. Perhaps this is a sign of aging, but I’m super excited to recycle a bunch of power cords and used batteries that have been languishing at my house for years.
☢️ Check here for what is and is not being accepted. Hint: Keep that supply of thorium locked up.
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