A year-long effort to have Peachtree Circle in Ansley Park designated as a city historic district was put on hold by the Atlanta City Council Zoning Committee at its Aug. 24 meeting.
Atlanta City Council member Alex Wan moved to shelve the legislation due to ongoing friction in Ansley Park over the proposed historic designation. Neighborhood Planning Unit-E and city staff have already approved the designation.
Opponents are concerned that a historic district will affect their property value, taxes, and future renovations. The entire Ansley Park neighborhood in Midtown has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, but a local historic district is required to preserve the homes there.
Wan said he would reintroduce the legislation to the Atlanta City Council if proponents of the historic district for Peachtree Circle gained “a supermajority of support” by Sept. 8.
Wan said he wants to see two-thirds support from Peachtree Circle residents to “honor the pact that I’ve been making for decades with my community in terms of historic preservation.”
He told Rough Draft a supermajority is “not a legislative requirement. Just a standard that I have been using with my neighborhoods.” Wan said the fight over historic designation has a “highly litigious history with this particular topic in this neighborhood.”
Wan said since he took office in 2010, at least three attempts have been made to create a historic designation in Ansley Park. Those efforts would have affected the entire neighborhood, whereas a designation on Peachtree Circle would affect only one street.
As of today, 40 tax-paying Peachtree Circle residents are in favor of the historic district, which would aim to preserve 60 homes built between 1888 and 1934 or those that illustrate the same character.
“There are a significant number of properties that are still in their historic configuration,” Atlanta’s Historic Preservation Studio Assistant Director Robert Reed said.
Each unique parcel, per the county tax records, gets one vote – whether it’s a single family home or within a multi-family unit.
Council member Mary Norwood requested a list of properties and how they’d vote on Peachtree Circle. If other properties wish to weigh in, they should be on a separate list, Norwood said, referencing opposition from homeowners who live in Ansley Park but not on Peachtree Circle.
“We are dangerously close to losing something that can never be replaced,” Atlanta Preservation Center Executive Director David Y. Mitchell said. “The process of achieving a landmark, either district or individual listing, is arduous but the most rewarding outcome for the city. We have two weeks and a day to achieve that for Peachtree Circle or that neighborhood is subject to transaction with no protection whatsoever moving forward. And Atlanta loses far more than a significant street. It loses itself.”
Council member Wayne Martin said historic designation can serve to preserve the city’s heritage and history, “but I also respect the will and the process that our colleagues set forth to ensure that neighborhoods remain harmonious before, during, and after these kinds of proposals.”
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