A rezoning request to build an apartment building for homeless senior citizens in Kirkwood received approval from the Atlanta City Council’s Zoning Committee on May 11, but with a series of added conditions not shared with the neighborhood before the vote.
The 0.66-acre property, located at the corner of Howard and Hallman streets, is owned by Turner Monumental AME, which proposed the project, and is currently zoned for a single-family home. If granted, the request would change the zoning to PDH – planned development housing.
The rezoning request was expected to go before the full city council on Monday, May 18, but an agenda for the meeting had not been released on Friday afternoon at the time of this story’s publication.
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The project was originally pitched to the neighborhood by the church and its development partner, Stryant Investments, as permanent supportive housing (PSH) for homeless seniors aged 62 or older with social services on-site. By the time the zoning request reached the city’s Zoning Review Board on April 30, the project was summarized as “multi-family residential units.”
The conditions added to the rezoning approval were not made public at the time of the May 11 committee approval, but were obtained by Rough Draft in a request to the city.
Notably, the number of units shrank from 47 to 42 between the Zoning Review Board’s approval of the project on April 30 and the May 11 committee meeting.
Another condition added to the rezoning includes no on-street parking, with Turner Monument AME agreeing to provide a minimum of 10 dedicated parking spaces in its existing lot for the apartment complex.
Short-term rentals would also be prohibited at the property, while a full-time employee would be required to be on-site during normal weekday business hours. The full list of conditions is below.
Rough Draft reached out to Stryant Development partner Stan Sugarman via email for comment on the conditions added to the rezoning, but received no reply.
Dist. 5 City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari acknowledged the frustration from community members about how the process unfolded. She said the conditions added to the rezoning would make the project “a home, not a revolving door” for seniors to live with dignity.
“These are real concessions, in my opinion, reflecting real negotiations and a genuine effort to balance the needs of people without an address with the people who have one,” Bakhtiari said.
Notably, Bakhtiari continued to refer to the project as “supportive housing” during her remarks, despite language in the rezoning request pointedly stating the apartment building would not be supportive housing.
Residents said the rezoning conditions not being shared with the neighborhood was another instance of what they call a lack of transparency surrounding the project from the church, developer, and city officials.
Kirkwood resident Zach Hodgins, who lives next door to the project, said the conditions and true nature of the project remained ambiguous. “It feels like they’re telling us one thing and planning on doing something else,” Hodgins said.
Nicole Basler, current Kirkwood Neighbors Organization (KNO) zoning chair, said the primary disconnect about the project is the fact that permanent supportive housing and the counseling and health services it offers are a commercial element not permitted by the rezoning the church and developer are seeking.
Basler said she supported more affordable housing in the city, but this project, as listed in the rezoning request, does not guarantee that.
Resident Ben Kaplan said the community spent a year “negotiating enforceable standards to protect the very seniors this project claims to serve.”
Kaplan said that Turner Monumental AME walked away from negotiations with its neighbors the “moment accountability language appeared.”
