ARC kicks fate of controversial Lindbergh 'big box' development plan back to city…with suggestions

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The Atlanta RegionalCommission kicked the fate of the proposed 21-acre development near theLindbergh MARTA station squarely back into the hands of the city of Atlanta,stating the project isn’t big enough to qualify as a “development of regionalimpact” and therefore does not fall within its purview.

But that did not stopthe ARC from offering some suggestions for changes in the retail/residentialproject proposed by the Sembler Co. and Fuqua Development in its recent letter toMayor Kasim Reed.

This the proposed site plan for the Lindbergh area development with the
big box store in brown top left, parking lot and residential bottom right.

The main ARC suggestionwas not to build a retail center.
ARC’sanalysis that was sent to the mayor Aug. 28 stated: “While there are many goodaspects of this project, it does not appear to support the city of Atlanta’s2011 Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) or MARTA (Transit Oriented Development)guidelines.”
TheARC’s letter said, “The CDP provides guidance for TODs including ‘support acomplementary, well- integrated mix of land uses’ and ‘provide a range ofrelatively high intensity uses that are transit supportive.’”
TheARC further recommended: “The ideal development on this site would includeadditional residential and office uses. If the developer is not able to orinterested in providing additional density on this site at this time, thedevelopment proposal should be structured in a way as to allow incrementalincreases in density in the future.”

Aerial photo of Lindbergh City Center, with Piedmont Road at far right.  

The development site,which stretches between Morosgo Drive and Lindbergh Drive, is located acrossPiedmont Road the Lindbergh City Center project, which is a transit-orienteddevelopment at MARTA’s Lindbergh Station. Another reference point is that it isimmediately south of the Home Depot and Target section of Lindbergh Plaza,which Sembler demolished, rebuilt and reopened in 2006.
The proposed developmentwould provide 216,399 square feet of residential space and 183,600 square feetof retail space, including a 150,000-square-foot “big box” store which isrumored to be a Walmart. There also would be a three-acre park, which wasendorsed by the Livable Buckhead organization according to the package the ARCsent to the mayor’s office.

Photo shows The Home Depot store at adjacent Lindbergh
Plaza shopping center with the two office towers at
Lindbergh City Center in background across Piedmont Road.

The Atlanta City Councilhas been poised for a few months to vote on a rezoning application and arelated land-use change in the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan. Thematter was originally scheduled to come up for a vote at the council’s Sept. 4meeting, but it was deferred.
The project has beenmoving through the various review processes in the city for more than a year.Neighborhood Planning Unit B, which represents the neighborhoods in the areainvolved, has consistently voted on several occasions over the past 18 monthsto deny both the Sembler/Fuqua requests for land-use changes to the city’sComprehensive Development Plan (CDP) and zoning changes.
But the city’s ZoningReview Board narrowly approved the requested zoning changes a couple of monthsago, despite the NPU objections and votes of denial.

Map shows location of present Target store at Lindbergh
Plaza development. The proposed Walmart store would be
located at the corner of Morosgo Drive and Adina  Drive. 

All of the surroundingneighborhoods to the development have opposed it and NPU-B has been joined inits opposition by other NPUs, both neighboring and across the city, because offears it will set a precedent of ignoring the city’s officially adopteddevelopment guidelines and the wishes of neighborhoods as stated through thecity system of NPUs.
Representatives of NPU-Bcontinue to vigorously fight to have the Atlanta City Council deny theapplications for both the changes in land use from residential to commercial designation for the acreage and the also requested changes in zoning, claimingthat the development plans do not conform to the Transit Oriented Developmentrequired under the CDP.  

(For the latestNPU-B positions on the development issue, click here.)

Tuesday, the City Council's Land-Use Committee heard arguments on the change to the CDP and voted a 3-3 tie, sending the land-use request to the full council with "no recommendation." Today, the Zoning Committee met and decided it could not vote on the requested zoning changes because the land-use changes to the CDP had not yet been approved. So, it too sent the zoning changes to the full council with "no recommendation," placing both issues squarely in the hand of the full council to decide without any fallback to committee positions. 

It is not immediately known whether or not the full council will vote on any aspects of the plan at its next regular meeting on Monday. 

MARTA has raisedconcerns that range from a potential loss of riders to the prospect of shoppingcarts being taken from the shopping center to the transit station andabandoned.
The Atlanta chapter ofthe Congress for the New Urbanism has written a letter opposing the project,citing Atlanta’s 40-year effort to foster walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods andstating this project defies that effort: "We believe the 

The MARTA rail station at Lindbergh City Center 

Lindbergh proposal would represent a step backwards if approved. While theproposed site plan is clearly not consistent with any recognized principles ofgood urban design or transit oriented development (including those establishedby the Congress for the New Urbanism), we recognize that design specifics arealways subject to change as projects move forward. What concerns us more is theprecedent that this disregard for the sound planning would represent.”
While there has beensome sentiment objecting to a Walmart store in that location, adjacent to bothTarget and Home Depot stores, NPU-B has made it clear that its objection is notto Walmart but to any “big box” store, especially one with a 7-acre surfaceparking lot in front of it—typical of a suburban shopping center, but not anurban transit-oriented development.
On the other hand, themayor has been supportive of Walmart with his remarks about the company’s  investment in Atlanta. At a groundbreakingceremony this year for a store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in HistoricWestside Village, Reed noted that Walmart is strengthening the communitythrough its investment in a shopping center that Publix left.
More than one BuckheadView source, who have been close to the negotiations of theproposed development at Lindbergh, claim that Mayor Reed promised Walmart hewould help the company establish other locations in the city when it agreed totake over the former Publix site at Historic Westside Village. 

Editor's Note

The Walmart store for Long Beach, CA development

Denise Starling, executive director of Livable Buckhead, sent out an email this afternoon with a photo (at right) of a Walmart store for Long Beach, CA, which she said is an example of the "urban" development style that the Buckhead neighborhoods have been lobbying for at the proposed Lindbergh area. Starling likes the 3-acre park that is part of the Lindbergh project's site plan, which would tie into the GA 400 trail she is working on, but has not endorsed the design for the entire development. 

One of the two urban Walmart stores planned for Washington, D.C. projects

After Starling sent out her email,  
Andrea Bennett, the chair of the Neighborhood Planning Unit-B Development and Transportation Committee, responded with an email of her own containing three photos of urban-style Walmart stores being designed--two in Washington D.C. (one of which is shown at right) and one in Denver, CO. 

The Denver, CO, urban-style Walmart development planned by Jeff Fuqua
is touted by the developer for having underground parking for the store.

The Denver development (shown at right) is proposed by Jeff Fuqua of Fuqua Development, the firm which is proposing the development on Morosgo Drive in the Lindbergh area of south Buckhead. On the developer's web site, Bennett says Fuqua touts the urban design characteristics of proposed Denver development, citing specifically the placement of parking under the store as a key element of that urban design. 

Bennett, along with other opponents of the Sembler/Fuqua plan for the Lindbergh project have vehemently objected to the 7 acres of surface parking lot planned for in front of that Walmart store as being a suburban shopping center design and not an urban design.