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MARCH 2021 • VOL. 15 — NO. 3
Buckhead Reporter COMMENTARY
Lessons learned as pandemic anniversary arrives
SUMMER CAMPS P25 through 28 1
EVENTS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS IN MARCH P7
Beautiful Chaos
City housing plan draws local criticism and concerns BY JOHN RUCH
al and a Blue Heron board member. Another is a well-known aide to an Atlanta City Council member who is offering independent advice on the park expansion possibilities. The dual roles and sticky situation at 1 Emma Lane have led to accusations of misleading information from all sides and triggered official statements of
A new package of city housing policy proposals aimed at increasing density and affordability is being greeted in Buckhead with fear, skepticism, confusion -- and even a few ideas at least as radical as those of planning officials. The “Atlanta City Design Housing” document, released in December, “calls for bold zoning reform to allow more affordable housing types and stronger neighborhoods to address issues of inequality exacerbated by the city’s zoning code,” according to its introduction. Among roughly a dozen policy proposals, the plan calls for allowing small apartment buildings in neighborhoods near transit stations, and additional or accessory dwelling units -- like basement apartments or rear-yard houses -- in all single-family zones. Those ideas -- which could become formally proposed zoning ordinances within a couple of months -- have drawn formal criticisms from local Neighborhood Planning Units and the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods. At the January meeting of Buckhead’s NPU B, the reactions ranged from thoughtful to visceral. Nancy Bliwise, the NPU’s chair, said she had read “The Color of Law,” a 2017 history of how racist zoning helped to create segregation in American cities, a book that informed the city’s plan. She said she understands “historical issues of injustice and how that’s led to income inequality issues.” But, she added, the city has not taken into account how increased density would affect streets, schools and trees, and she questioned whether the proposals real-
See SUBDIVISION on page 30
See CITY on page 29
P16
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Inside an authentic Cuban sandwich shop P8
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Hear DIY songs named for local towns
ISADORA PENNINGTON
Buckhead artist Anderson Smith blends art and advertising imagery in collages that have gained the attention of local galleries. Read more about his life and work in our story, p. 21.
Subdivision plan ignites debate over density, Blue Heron expansion
P10
BY JOHN RUCH
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A proposal to redevelop an estate on a Buckhead cul-de-sac into a 10-house subdivision is, depending on who you ask, a threat to the neighborhood’s character or an opportunity to expand the adjacent Blue Heron Nature Preserve. The tricky thing is, one of the people to ask is both the leading critic of the propos-
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