Chairman of Planning Committee Suggests 8-story Apartments in Dunwoody Would be Okay?

Our city council members live here among us and have always had the best interest of the homeowners.  Since inception of the City of Dunwoody ten years ago, no new multi-family units have been approved, and no zoning changes have been made to allow new multi-family units.  But elections have consequences and there's a new leadership in the city.  We will soon know if this new council will keep Dunwoody as is, or change zoning for 165 acres in the heart of Dunwoody, paving the way for condos. apartments, and subsidized rent-controlled affordable housing.

Two years ago four council members, all of who are still on council, voted to create a task force on 'affordable' housing.  You can read about it HERE.  You'll also see in the article comments from Dunwoody's Planning Commission chairman.   Expect this task force to be soon created.  The former mayor of Dunwoody failed to actually appoint members of this newly proposed task force, and the current planning commission members were all appointed/retained by this same former mayor.

In Brookhaven: Workforce (Affordable) housing. For-sale or rental housing units that are affordable to those households earning no more than 80 percent of the median household income for the Atlanta MSA, as determined by the current fiscal year HUD income limit table. 

Last night local residents were entertained by the monthly Planning Commission meeting.  I didn't stay for the entire meeting but did review much of the footage this morning.  I encourage you to watch it HERE. Last night's soup at Vintage Pizza was ham and potato, thus the early egress from said meeting.  Vintage has nightly soup specials and they are always tasty.  Don't bother posting about Vintage on the Dunwoody Restaurant Group Facebook page as that page is for bashing and attempting to ruin every food place in Dunwoody.  Vintage is great.  And so is Novo, NFA, VB, and Marlow's.

So back to that meeting.  Fast forward to the 1:30 mark.  A committee member asks to city staff, "why are we going this route?".  He was basically asking why all of a sudden is it necessary to rezone the Village for apartments?

Side Note: There are three things going on with the Village.  One is allowing an open-container entertainment district and another is allowing breweries in Dunwoody. See HERE.  I fully support both of these items. These are two things that will make the Village a nicer spot to visit for current homeowners.  These items do not include changing the zoning to allow for new housing in the Village area. These items, if approved, will create new opportunities for property owners and will, for some people, add to the quality of life in Dunwoody.  These items will not directly put more kids in our schools and will not significantly affect rush-hour(s) traffic.  Full steam ahead on these items.  Council and staff have done a good job here. The third item is huge - it involves changing the zoning classification for the entire Village. It's this third item that should be of major concern to all homeowners in Dunwoody.  At last week's DHA meeting, the DHA voted to oppose all new residential zoning for the Village.  Opposed. All.

So back to that question from the committee guy to the city's Community Development Director, a proud resident of .... Woodstock. The CDD replied, "A lot of people came to me and said 'we want to make it better' " "you have the zoning code, then you have the master plan.  But the zoning code rules."  "I felt like we should examine the Master Plan, and add to it."

I seriously doubt any homeowner said "go build some apartments and condos in the Village".  But here we are.  City staff telling a room full of homeowners from The Branches and Dunwoody West that some people came to him with something so he's moving ahead.  Homeowner be damned.  Most likely anyone who went to him asking for new zoning was a developer. Go watch the exchange on video. We also heard this gem from city staff - "before we met with the public, we met with Regency (largest landowner in Village) and other property owners".  In case you are still wondering where you stand, in the eyes of city staffers, it's right behind local businesses.  What started out as a zoning code writing task resulted in city staff and the consultants overstepping their role and added Master Plan items including five-story apartment buildings.

Will the planning commission and council side with the majority of homeowners or commercial interests?

Now head to the 2:06  mark in the video.  The PC chairman suggests that 8-story apartments are okay!  Go look at some, he tells you.  He then compliments Chamblee and Brookhaven on all their stick built apartments.  "Do we want the school tail wag the dog of good development?" he continued.  He doesn't believe that new multi-family will result in more trailers and even more overcrowded schools.  He blames one small single-family neighborhood on Vermack.  Perhaps he should look at the huge increases of school-aged children living in the apartments across Dunwoody.  Although new apartments have not been built, the number of kids living in these properties HAS increased, a lot.  Now image when 75% of Dunwoody Village (yes, the details of the plan clearly allow for this, despite anything else you read or hear) has new apartments.  Are we attracting young singles to move here to enjoy the pleasures of a couple of farmhouses (sans actual farm animals) and the ultra-cool late nights at the Dunwoody Tavern?  No.  These units will be filled with families with kids, more kids, and more cars.

For the best public comment of the night, go to wonderful lady at the 2:11 mark.

winner

Ariel and The DES 4th 5th Grade Academy, Take 2

Careful what you ask for.  DES wanted relief from overcrowding, and that's what they got.  Parents are freaking out over this Academy plan.  This same thing happened 11 years ago.  No need for too  much of a backstory, but when DES opened in 2009, nearly everyone argued over the new attendance zones for each school.  The unwanted compromise was the DES 4th and 5th Grade Academy.  No one wanted to leave Austin or Vanderlyn.  So, 4th and 5th graders from Chesnut, Austin, and Vanderlyn (yes, even 11 years ago Kingsley was being ignored by DCSD) went to DES Academy, home of the Tigers!  Parents screamed, then screamed even more.  Many families had kids at Vanderlyn, DES, and PCMS at the same time.  These same kids spent a lot of time in trailers, from 1-12th grade. The 4th 5th grade academy lasted only two years.  Crawford Lewis was superintendent and Jim Redovian was the school board rep for this region. Nancy Jester became the region's school board rep in 2011, about the same time Ramona Tyson replaced Lewis.

Fast forward to Dunwoody High graduation in 2018 - the graduating class of the 4th 5th grade academy.  About a dozen of the kids were at DunwoodyTalk HQ, so one of our cub reporters asked the kids about their favorite years in DeKalb.  Most of these kids were K-12 Dunwoody schools.  Some were home-schooled or private for a couple of years - but for the most part, these kids went to a Dunwoody elementary school K-3, the Academy 4 and 5, then PCMS 6-8, then DHS 9-12.  Every one of the kids who went to the 4/5 said it was awesome.  It got them away from kindergarten kids (moms and dads, your 5th grade could care less about going to DES with his 1st grade sibling, so don't use that as a reason to not have the 4/5 school) and into a school filled with kids nearly all the same age.  Granted, the original 4/5 was different as it pulled from three schools, allowing for middle school friend groups to form early.  And yes, the Kingsley kids were left out, but they found their friend groups once at PCMS.

Off the record, a DHS school employee told me that the 2018 graduating class was one of the top years for students getting accepted into UGA and  GA Tech.  Kids from the Academy era are now freshman and sophomores in college and trade schools.  UGA, Ga Tech, Duke, Vanderbuilt, UVA, SMU, Ivy schools.....  In summary, the Academy hurt only the parents' feelings, not the kids.

And move over Ryan S. - the newest star from a Dunwoody school is Halle Bailey, also known as Ariel!  Halle was a 5th grader at DES.

DES Fall 2010

Halle Bailey on right

Dunwoody's Deceptive Tactics Against Its Own Residents

The Dunwoody City Council is considering major changes to the Dunwoody Village area.  These changes, if approved, will forever change the small-town feel of Dunwoody.

Below is the map our council and staff want you to see.  It is extremely misleading - so much so that all those involved should be questioned about their true intent.  At quick glance, the drive-by media and average resident see DV-3 as potential area for rental multi family.  But the truth is that this NEW Master Plan (yes, this is the consultant's way, via staff input, to change the Master Plan without proper input from actual taxpayers) allows for rental units in the entire Dunwoody Village area.

The large property (Walgreens area) in the Village is owned by Regency.  Regency is a REIT.  It makes its money on rents, not buying and flipping property.  All residential here will be rental, not owner-occupied.

See the proposed plan HERE

Council members will defend this plan and tell you about the requirement to get a SLUP for residential and the 55+ restrictions.  That's all crap and they know it.  The SLUP is not a problem for developers and Dunwoody's legal department will give away the farm at every turn.  The legal team is more concerned about banning the Menorah and a nativity scene than protecting the quality of life in Dunwoody. The 55+ issue is not some magic tool either.  Go see what HUD has to say about this designation. Only one person needs to be 55+ in the unit, and the entire community (tower) needs only 80% to have this 55+ person on the rental lease.

What's misleading about the DV district labels is only DV-3 is named residential, but ALL four districts allow residential rental or otherwise. The mixed use requirement in the slides allow up to 75% residential in DV-1 (despite its name "commercial"), DV-2 allows residential everywhere but ground floor (despite its name "office"), DV-3 has no residential limitations.  DV-4 has no residential limitations. All four districts can have density up to 12 units per acre. All four districts can be at least 3 stories with DV-1 up to 4 stories and DV-4 up to 5 stories.  This is not a suburban homeowners services destination. Traffic will be substantially increased without change in main roads. Lastly are two roundabouts proposed on main roads, including one at Mt Vernon and Chamblee-Dunwoody where 3-5 lanes converge from all congested directions. We see nothing but gridlock when the traffic backs up and doesn't move in any direction. This plan appears to be a red herring to put in massive multi-family housing in the Village.

People moved to Dunwoody for the quiet neighborhoods, proximity (not to be in the middle of) to the urban Perimeter setting, and for schools.  One of these three things is not really a selling point currently, and this radical change to the Village takes away at least one of the remaining two.  People moved here to live and have basic businesses nearby.  We have our dry cleaners, a few car repair places, a cobbler, etc.  And yes, we have banks.  Those who bash the number of banks in Dunwoody fail to recognize the benefits of such institutions.  They maintain their properties, don't litter the area with illegal signs, and reinvest in the community.  The small-thinker simply says, "we want rooftop bars, chef-driven white tablecloth eateries, and no more bank." Then they go eat burgers from the Chevron gas station (yes, the DT2 staff loves NFA burgers like nearly everyone else).  The roof-top bar crowd is not who you want making long-term decisions that affect our entire community. Sure, let's allow a rooftop bar in the Village (me and HW buying the first round!), but there is no need to create a new Master Plan to allow this type of business to open.

Contact your council and ask them to toss away this plan and keep the Village properties not currently zoned for residential as they are today.