Atlanta council approves multiple rezonings, refers Midtown density-bonus substitute to ZRB

The Atlanta City Council took a series of zoning and land-use actions during its meeting, approving multiple rezoning and special-use items, filing two school-buffer tobacco ordinances, adopting a substitute to revise the Midtown voluntary density-bonus program and referring it to the Zoning Review Board (ZRB), and holding several items for later consideration.

The matters matter because they change land-use allowances across parts of the city, affect where hospitality and processing uses may operate, and advance a revised voluntary density-bonus program that the council substituted and then referred to ZRB for review.

Council members unanimously adopted the meeting agenda and approved the minutes of the prior meeting. During the public-hearing portion the council opened and closed the hearing on a Metropolitan River Protection Act (MRPA) certificate application for 2342 Bernard Road NW, a 0.229-acre property. With no speakers present, the council voted 6–0 to approve a certificate to allow construction of an addition, deck and rain garden for the property owned by Adam and Sheree McGill; the applicant is Mission Builders, LLC. The council then moved through a series of zoning items with limited floor debate, taking blocks of related ordinances and special-use permit requests together.

Key procedural and land-use actions included: the council held a special-use permit request for a processing operations facility at 3799 Browns Mill Road; it added conditions to and then approved, as amended, a group of items (listed below) dealing with outdoor amusements, a hotel, expanded nonresidential uses selling alcohol, and a corrected legal description and site plan for a place-of-worship item. Two ordinances proposing 2,000-foot school buffers for hookah bars and for retail vapor- and tobacco-product stores were filed (removed from active consideration) by council action. The council substituted and adopted an amendment to the 1982 Atlanta zoning ordinance to revise the voluntary density-bonus program in the Midtown Zoning District and then referred that substitute to the Zoning Review Board. A separate substitute to modify voluntary density-bonus provisions in mixed residential-commercial districts was also substituted and referred along with several related rezoning and special-use items. Two rezoning items on the held agenda were approved; several other substituted items were reheld for later consideration.

Votes at a glance: the meeting record shows consistent unanimous or near-unanimous outcomes on the zoning matters taken up.

- Agenda adoption: motion passed (second by Dozier); roll call reported 6 yeas, 0 nays. - Minutes approval: motion passed (second by Dozier); Overstreet announced affirmative; recorded 6 ayes, 0 nays. - MRPA certificate, 2342 Bernard Road NW (Item 1): motion to approve passed 6–0; owner Adam and Sheree McGill; applicant Mission Builders, LLC; property described in the packet as 0.229 acres in the Seventeenth District; no public comments were received on the item. - Special-use permit, 3799 Browns Mill Road (Item 3): motion to hold passed 6–0. - Items 4–7 (special-use permits for outdoor amusement/entertainment at 3161 Maple Drive NE; a hotel at 88 Elliott St SW; a large nonresidential alcohol-selling establishment at 874 Joseph E. Lowery Blvd NW; and an amended legal description/site plan for a place of worship at 3612 Pace’s Ferry Road NW): council moved to add conditions, the motion passed (6–0), and the items were approved as amended (6–0). - Ordinances to prohibit hookah bars and to restrict retail vapor- and tobacco-product stores within 2,000 feet of any public or private elementary or secondary school (Items 8 and 9): motion to file passed 6–0 (items were filed and removed from active consideration in this meeting). - Midtown voluntary density-bonus substitute (Item 10): council substituted the ordinance, adopted the substitute (vote 6–0), and then referred the substitute to the Zoning Review Board (vote 6–0). - Substitute to modify voluntary density-bonus provisions in mixed residential-commercial districts (Item 11) and items 12–18 (various rezonings and special-use permit requests including workforce housing and definitions for vape shops): substitution and subsequent referral of Items 11–18 to the Zoning Review Board passed (recorded roll call showing unanimous support where noted; one roll call recorded 7–0 when an additional member participated). - Item 19 (rezoning/substitute for the Amsterdam Avenue/adjacent parcels): substitute adopted then the item was held (reheld) by motion (recorded 7–0 on the hold). - Items 26 and 27 (rezonings for properties on North Camp Creek Parkway SW and multiple addresses on Avon/Brady/Higgins street corridors): motion to approve passed (recorded 7–0 for these two items).

Discussion and next steps: most items were handled with limited floor debate and no substantive public testimony recorded on the items taken up; several items were referred to the Zoning Review Board for technical review of the substituted documents, legal descriptions and site plans, or further committee action. Items the council held or reheld will return to a future agenda with revised materials, updated site plans or conditions as appropriate.

The meeting concluded after the legislative agenda. No further general remarks were recorded and the body adjourned.