Buckhead Reporter
Inside
Perimeter Business
Basement bargains Donated books sorted for students MAKING A DIFFERENCE 14
Going old school
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Two coaches talk tradition HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL 16
AUG. 21 — SEPT. 3, 2015 • VOL. 9 — NO. 17
Whack those weeds
PAGES 7-11
New Moores Mill shopping center ready to move forward BY COLLIN KELLEY
Rausey Mason, a junior at North Atlanta High School, cuts ivy from a tree trunk during a cleanup event hosted by Park Pride at Mountain Way Common on Aug. 8. Volunteers helped with projects such as trail construction and maintenance, invasive plant removal and removing trash. See additional photos on page 2.
PHIL MOSIER
Demolition of the abandoned shopping center on Moores Mill Road could begin after the first of the year to make way for a new, $40-million center anchored by a Publix grocery store, City Councilwoman Felicia Moore said this month. It’s been a big song and dance,” Moore told members of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods on Aug. 13, “but the project is going to happen.” Moore, who has been working on the project for about a decade, said she believed that demolition of the center at the corner of Moores Mill and Bolton roads would be scheduled during the first quarter of 2016. Edens, a South Carolina-based development company, is ready to move forward with the project, which would include a 45,000-square-foot Publix supermarket, retail shops and apartments, Moore said. Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, committed $500,000 for a road extension that would create a signalized entrance to the mixed-use project. Moore said an additional $800,000 is needed to build the road extension that would connect Moores Mill to Marietta SEE MOORE, PAGE 3
Margaret Mitchell didn’t live here, but this neighborhood keeps her name on the map BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
The famed author of “Gone With the Wind” never lived in the Buckhead neighborhood that now bears her name. As the local Margaret Mitchell Civic Association puts it, “Peggy never lived this ‘far out.’” But residents love the unusually named neighborhood for its greenery, family-oriented environment and outstanding schools. “People are desperate to get into our neighborhood,” says Kate Burke, who knows the Margaret Mitchell neighborhood as both a local real estate agent and as a resident of leafy Sequoyah Drive. She lives there with husband, Wells, son Owen, daughter Margaret, and dogs Foxy and Eena. The civic association defines the neighborhood as running along West Wesley Road to the west of I-75, roughly between Moores Mill Road and Nancy Creek. The neigh-
borhood took its name, the homeowners group says in its website, from a local elementary school named for the Atlanta writer whose friends called her “Peggy.” The local school now is named for Atlanta busiWhere nessman Morris Brandon, whose sons contribYou uted the land. Live Burke said schools help define the neighborhood. “We are sandwiched between the best public elementary school and the triad of the three best private schools,” she said, referring to the Lovett School, Trinity School and The Westminster Schools. The schools have helped spark a “complete transformative turnover” in demographics, she said. “It used to be empty-nesters. Now it’s strollers,” she said. SEE MARGARET, PAGE 4
PHIL MOSIER
Resident Kate Burke said the Margaret Mitchell neighborhood is defined by large homes on large lots.