By CPNO Staff
The CPNO Zoning Committee of the Neighborhood Planning Unit representing Candler Park (NPU-N) has voted unanimously not to support a request by the owner of a multifamily home at 1221 Euclid Avenue to rezone the property.
The application also failed to gain a majority of votes during the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization Members’ Meeting on January 15. At the meeting, residents had an opportunity to comment on the proposal to rezone — and to vote on the measure. Click or tap here to see the application.
In an application to the City of Atlanta’s Office of Zoning and Development, owner James Ford-Hutchinson, has requested the zoning be changed from R4 (single-family residence) to M2 (multi-family residence).
Ford-Hutchinson explained in a letter with the application that many of the surrounding properties along this stretch of Euclid, on the Candler Park side of Little Five Points, are also multi-family homes, though they are zoned R4 by the City. In fact, according to the map Hutchinson provided with his application, eight of the 12 houses from 1189 (the old Charis bookstore) to 1241 on the south side of Euclid across from the Montessori International Academy are marked as multi-family.
The home at 1221, Hutchinson pointed out, has been used as a multi-family residence for the last 50 years, and he wants the zoning to be consistent with current use. In the Nov. 12 letter, he wrote the rezoning for 1221, “will not impact the character of the neighborhood as the surrounding properties include a church, commercial lots, and eight additional multifamily units within the vicinity.”
Jason Key, CPNO’s zoning officer, wrote that the request falls into the category of “spot zoning.” In his committee report on the zoning meeting of January 3, Key wrote that committee members had expressed concern over a number of issues, including that spot-rezoning “would contradict with six different sections of the Candler Park Master Plan,” and that such a move would, “set a negative precedent for the neighborhood and other non-conforming properties, and could result in more spot-rezoning and a mishmash of zoning ordinances specific to individual properties.”
Key explained that the City’s zoning regulations dictate that following the the vote at the January CPNO Members’ Meeting, Ford-Hutchinson will go before the NPU-N where another vote will take place.
The application now goes to the City Zoning Review Board (ZRB) for a vote. After this, the Atlanta City Council Zoning Committee and the full Atlanta City Council would vote on the measure. Members of the public will have additional opportunities to speak during this process. This zoning change, he explained, will follow a similar process as a zoning variance outlined on the zoning section of the CPNO’s website.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.