Zoning committee substitutes and refers ordinance to ban warehousing in Beltline overlay

The Atlanta Zoning Committee on a unanimous voice vote substituted an amendment to the city zoning code that would prohibit warehousing, self‑storage facilities and distribution centers in the Beltline Overlay District and then referred the substituted ordinance to the Zoning Review Board (ZRB) for review.

Director of Zoning and Development Hietta Holmes read the substitute language, saying the purpose “is to remove warehousing and distribution centers.” Committee members moved to adopt the substitute and the motion passed with a roll-call announcement recorded in the transcript as “5 yeas and 0 nays.” The committee then voted to send the item to the ZRB; the vote was announced as “5 yays, 0 nays.”

The substitution amends Part 3 of the land development code, chapter 36 (the Beltline overlay and district regulations), to prohibit the listed uses. Holmes presented the change as a code amendment proposed by a group of councilmembers, naming Jason Dozier, Antonio Lewis, Michael Junior Bond, Wayne Martin, Byron Amos, Thomas Worthy, Andrea Boone, Liliana (transcript variants) Bakhtiari, Dustin Hillis, Kelsey Bond, Alex Juan, Jason H. Winston, Isha Collins and Matt Westmoreland as sponsors of the ordinance.

Because the committee substituted the item and referred it to the ZRB, no final policy decision was made at the committee meeting; the ZRB will consider the substituted ordinance in its review process. The committee’s action preserves a record of the proposed prohibition and advances the item to the next step in the review and public‑hearing process.

Next steps: the substituted ordinance will go before the Zoning Review Board for public hearings and recommendation before returning to the committee or full Council for additional readings and a final vote.