Debate About Development Plan At Corner Of Piedmont Park Continues
Renderings and plans have been submitted for the preliminary proposed development at 10th Street and Monroe Drive in Atlanta. They were submitted to Invest Atlanta by Fuqua Acquisitions II LLC.
Fuqua Acquisitions II LLC
A new development is in the works at the southeast corner of Piedmont Park. Community members who oppose it are meeting Thursday night.
The first development design included an 11-story hotel, a grocery store and 745 parking spots. Jim Kegley is one of the project’s leaders. It is a joint venture between Kegley’s 10th & Monroe LLC and Fuqua Development.
Kegley stressed it’s just a first draft.
“Outside of the commitment to affordability that we’ve made to the city, literally, we are still a blank canvas,” he said.
The property is comprised of individual properties Kegley has been purchasing since 2005 and a piece of land along the BeltLine that the city owns. When the group won the request for proposal from Invest Atlanta in December, it promised to dedicate 30 percent of its residential units to affordable housing.
He said the plan would offer more affordable housing apartment options to people who want to live on the BeltLine without a car.
Jenifer Keenan, with the Virginia-Highland Civic Association, says the location is already congested enough.
“That intersection serves so many different constituencies, and the thought of trying to cram a high-density development in there is really unimaginable,” she said.
Kegley said the developers are familiar with the intersection and its issues and hope to be the “catalyst” for a more serious conversation about alleviating them.
In order to move forward with the nearly 1.5-acre site plan, City Council will have to approve the developers’ rezoning application. Kegley said the developers hope to have a final proposal ready sometime this summer. They have organized a series of community meetings this spring, and he said there will be more after a final proposal is released.
Keenan said a past development to rezone the same area failed after strong community resistance. She also highlighted that the BeltLine Redevelopment Plan prioritized preserving single-family housing units and said there are other sites along the trail in the neighborhood that are already appropriate for this kind of development.
The civic association meets Thursday night at the Virginia-Highland Church to offer updates on its opposition strategy.
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