“The Garden City... is not a suburb but the antithesis of a suburb: not a rural
retreat, but a more integrated foundation for an effective urban life."
-- Lewis Mumford
On Wednesday, July 14, our Board of Mayor and Commissioners (BOMC) will vote in person on completely revised Zoning Ordinances for the city of Avondale Estates. This vote is the culmination of a long process with lots of back and forth, and it is very likely that the ordinance will pass at the meeting. However, changes are still possible, so this is the time for citizens to make any concerns heard.
This is a big moment for our city. Zoning is a key tool for maintaining our community’s values and commitments as reflected in our Master Plan, “Parks, Arts, + Opportunity.” It can help us realize our vision of a walkable downtown with beautiful, livable, tree-filled public spaces as we pursue our urban development goals. This zoning revision is the product of years of work by staff, citizens, and BOMC members. It aims to address the findings of the 2017 zoning audit (commissioned by the BOMC) that found zoning regulations for the Central Business District (CBD) to be out of synch with the goals of our Master Plan. The audit recommended an overhaul of the “one size fits all” type of zoning regulation in the commercial area and very minimal changes to the residential areas.
The most controversial provision in the new code is the inclusion of the category of PUD (Planned Unit Development) zoning for both the commercial and residential areas. But under the new code, the process of community notification and review that is currently required in Avondale Estates beginning in early phases of project development will also be replaced by a bureaucratic process overseen by city staff, as will the function of the Architectural Review Board. The elimination of community and architectural review at public meetings is particularly significant for the sort of big projects PUD zoning enables because, in a nutshell, PUDs allow developers to make agreements directly with the BOMC that override other zoning ordinances.
Commissioners can still make amendments to the ordinance before they vote to adopt or reject it. At the last regular BOMC meeting, on June 23rd, minor changes were made in response to concerns about notification processes. A vote to eliminate PUDs from the residential zoning was also put forward but did not pass—details may be found below. This post aims to provide information and to encourage citizens to reach out to our representatives.
What is a Planned Unit Development (PUD)?
Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning permits the assembly of larger, contiguous acreage to develop projects through a regulatory process that suspends the regular zoning requirements for the parcel(s) and replaces them with a development agreement between the BOMC and the developer. Ideally, PUDs are created to meet community goals (for instance for parks, housing, or arts and entertainment development) that can’t be achieved without combining multiple parcels and adapting zoning regulations. PUD zoning is often used in undeveloped or formerly industrial areas to help cities attract developers who will improve “blighted” areas in return for special zoning and design provisions that give them financial and other advantages.
PUDs have accommodated diverse projects including single-family homes, townhouses, condos, and commercial property like retail stores and restaurants, but under current market conditions, they are usually used to construct condos and apartment complexes with zoning that varies from their surroundings. And as we know all too well from changes to the Atlanta metro over since the late 1990s, many of these projects take the form of insular, self-contained, often gated or privatized complexes that actively exclude or at best offer little to the previous area residents.
Key Provisions in Proposed Avondale Estates PUD Zoning
The finalized draft of the Zoning Ordinance will allow PUDs in both the residential and commercial districts. This form of zoning will:
• require “a minimum contiguous area of two (2) acres”;
• “provide for development concepts not otherwise allowed within non-PUD zoning districts”;
• “supersede the regulations included in the Zoning Ordinance where indicated by said development plans.” (AEZoning Drft 5_2021.pdf p. 36)
By definition, a PUD located in the city’s historically residential areas would introduce higher density dwellings and/or commercial developments since these are the “development concepts not otherwise allowed” in those parts of the city.
Zoning Audit Warned BOMC About PUDs
In 2017, the city-commissioned zoning audit flagged PUDs, noting that using them “can result in disjointed development patterns or ‘islands’ that fail to relate or integrate with other development patterns in the City” (Caffee Zoning Ordinance Diagnostic.pdf p.28). From an urban design perspective, the proliferation of PUDs results in unplanned and fragmentary urban landscapes and creates what are known as “patchwork cities.” While PUD zoning may be useful if pursued carefully within the context of an overall planning vision, such isolated developments are especially jarring in historically developed areas, where they create “islands” and “patchworks” that fragment established neighborhoods and connections.
PUDs and Historic Neighborhoods
As a historic garden city, Avondale Estates should be committed to holistic planning as well as to building and preserving functioning neighborhoods. A look at our current zoning map shows a number of PUDs at the edges of our city: traditional, residential PUDs at the southern and eastern boundaries and, in the commercial district, the next-generation PUDs, the Willis and Alexan (better known known as Trammell Crow) at the Western Gateway, which are the largest projects to date. The new Zoning Ordinance will accommodate many such large-scale complexes in our new downtown.
The historic district overlay prevents the use of PUD zoning in the part of the city under National Historic Landmark protection, but the other historic residential areas, Majestic Acres and Avonwood, enjoy no such protection. If there are no restrictions for PUDs in the residential area, they might be created piecemeal on any street where a developer assembles enough acreage to create one—and without community review. The creation of PUDs in Majestic Acres and Avonwood would potentially destroy the historic character of the mid-century areas of our city, where homes are now old enough that these neighborhoods could also qualify as historic districts.
The best course for a city on the National Register of Historic Places would be to avoid PUDs altogether, but at minimum PUD zoning should not be permitted in the historic residential areas.
Lack of Community Review
The proposed Zoning Ordinance also lacks a community review process to create public dialogue about major projects in the planning phase. Eliminating that review will exacerbate the potential negative impact of PUD zoning in our city. For Avondale Estates, an engaged community full of people with relevant professional expertise, it is particularly detrimental if citizens do not have time to learn about and consider a project's potential and respond to its strengths and weaknesses. Staff and developers would conceive and execute large projects without the benefit of community insights before projects are completely sketched out---even though transparency and community feedback are known to make projects better in the long run.
Voting on PUDs and Community Review
At the last BOMC meeting, a vote to eliminate PUDs from the residential zoning was put forward but did not pass (Commissioners Laratte and Merriam supported the change, but Commissioner Shortell, who said she was undecided, voted with Mayor Elmore to leave the provision in place in for the time being (Commissioner Fisher was not present for the vote, but the City Manager indicated that he supports the provision and would be upset if it was eliminated in his absence).
This issue will surely be taken up again, as will the issue of community input.
Your voice matters!
· Please write to the Mayor and Commissioners at the following addresses
· Please come to the meeting at 5:30 on July 14th at City Hall.
We all reap the fruits of the time and attention that has been devoted over the past hundred years to quality town planning, holistic development, and beautiful neighborhoods in Avondale Estates. Zoning matters for the long term, and the entire residential area can and should benefit from maintaining our long-standing commitment to the town planning principles on which the city was founded.
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