PECS committee accepts $200,000 ARC Livable Centers Initiative grant for Kensington; DeKalb to provide $50,000 match

The PECS Committee accepted a $200,000 Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) for a full update of the Kensington LCI, with a required local match of $50,000 from DeKalb County.

Planning staff member April King told commissioners the ARC program has invested more than $312 million across more than 130 communities and that DeKalb was one of six awarded a planning study. King described the Kensington LCI boundary and noted the grant contract arrived after the Committee of the Whole materials were posted; the substitute contract was before the committee.

King said the boundary covers areas that intersect Districts 3 through 7 and provided the boundary description: I‑285 on the east, Kensington Road to Porter Road on the southeast, Covington Highway to Kensington Road on the southwest, Clarendon Avenue on the east and Old Rockbridge Road on the north.

Commissioner Ted Terry asked if the recently acquired 4380 Memorial Drive property would prompt a reevaluation of land use and whether a master plan for that site would be done before or after the LCI update. King said the planning team is coordinating with Jacob Fallow on a mixed‑use approach and that the LCI update and the 4380 master planning can be done in tandem; the 4380 master plan would be a separate contract.

An ARC representative, Lauren Blazic, attended in support of the request. The committee voted to accept the grant; motion, second and voice vote all carried.