ATLANTA 1971-PRESENT: To create walkable, pedestrian friendly sidewalks and building facades (originating around Marta stations to make these areas walkable), Atlanta has the following Special Public Interest Zones (SPI’s), each with their own DRC. DRC is an acronym for Development Review Committee, Design Review Committee and in FWW it’s called the Downtown Redevelopment Committee (who knows!). SPI Zones override traditional zoning categories seen in other parts of the City. The City appointed DRC’s review requested variations to the SPI Zone guidelines VS the regular zoning variations seen in Neighborhood Level Land-Use Committees.
OTHER OVERLAYS: The Beltline Overlay and Historic Districts have additional visual and sidewalk guidelines.
Here are the Special Public Interest Zones of Atlanta each with their own DRC’s:
SPI-1 : Central Core (DRC: 2007, includes western areas of FWW along and around Piedmont Ave.) SPI-1 MAP: https://www.atlantadowntown.com/_files/docs/spi-1-zoning-map-z-07-38-small.pdf
SPI-5 : Inman Park
SPI-6 : Poncey-Highland
SPI-7 : Candler Park
SPI-8 : Home Park
SPI-9 : Buckhead Commercial Core (2010)
SPI-11 : Vine City and Ashby Station
SPI-12 : Buckhead/Lenox Station (2012)
SPI-14 : Berkeley Park
SPI-15 : Lindbergh Transit Station Area (2001)
SPI-16 : Midtown (2001)
SPI-17 : Piedmont Avenue (2001)
SPI-18 : Mechanicsville
SPI-19 : Buckhead Peachtree Corridor
SPI-20 : Greenbriar
SPI-21 : Historic West End/Adair Park
SPI-22 : Memorial Drive/Oakland Cemetery
Belltline Overlay: Basically 1/2 mile on each side of the Beltline (borders FWW but FWW does not fall in the Beltline Overlay)
75+ Historic Districts in and around the Atlanta Metro: Including the MLK National Park (borders FWW but FWW does not fall in the MLK Historic District).
SPI-1 Variation Reviews: DRC (Downtown Redevelopment Committee) From 2016-present FWW Rep. is Frances Hamilton.
1- FWW has a representative on the Downtown Redevelopment Committee -SPI Zone -1 (mostly because of the Civic Center DEV).
2- Called “Special Administrative Permits” (SAP’s) and linked below, these are variations reviewed by the DRC to align as closely as possible to the SPI-1 Zoning/Downtown Liveability Code . The full DRC scope encompasses the whole of Downtown. The projects shown below are filtered to be of interest to FWW.
2020 Downtown Redevelopment Committee Variation Reviews
PEACHTREE STREETSCAPE: PROJECT-LEGO_DRC-PRESENTATION_updated 02.27.20
IMAGE AT LEFT: On 02/27/2020 (live at CAP) the DRC reviewed a new streetscape by architecture firm HOK .The GA Pacific building 133-139 Peachtree is re-envisioning their Peachtree streetscape. The first plan shown encroached on the sidewalk.
The DRC committee asked for a wider sidewalk space where circled (called the “knuckle” by HOK).
On 03/27/2020 (GoToMeeting virtual) the firm HOK revised the area blocking the sidewalk, extended pavers over to the underground Marta station entrance on their property and other issues to help make the Peachtree Streetscape more cohesive for future denizens.
Links to SPI-1 Variations in FWW or Nearby
111 JOHN WESLEY DOBBS – 247 private student housing multifamily units : 111 John Wesley Dobbs Ave – DRC presentation
WINSHIP CANCER CENTER: 20190627 – UPDATED_ WAM DRC Presentation
328 NEW APARTMENTS: SAP-18-TBD_126_RennaissanceApartments328
281 NEW APARTMENTS: 505 Courtland Street SAP Packet
Architecture firm designing it (Dwell) is excellent and right now there are some street amenities like an outdoor meeting area on Courtland. They claim they will be more affordable than surrounding rental units and look to the new Emory Medical Campus for potential renters. They are highly aware of planned bicycle path on Courtland and are planning 32 bicycle spaces instead of the required 5.
281 apartment homes are planned as follows:
35 Studios
131 1 Bedrooms
103 2 Bedrooms
12 3Bedrooms
POOR CALVINS: SAP-19-tbd 510 Piedmont Ave Poor Calvins
NEW RESTAURANT(That never happened}: SAP-18-TBD_342 Peachtree_Chicken n Waffles
BANK OF AMERICA PLAZA RENOVATION: Next to the new Winship Cancer Institute the landscape is being completely refreshed.