Posted by Mr. Ed (ATL) on April 17, 2000 at 22:24:23:
Ray is exactly right. If you have an opportunity, you should call the Atlanta Regional Commission. In a study called “Vision 2020”, that was published a few years ago, they stress that infill development will become a crucial part of Atlanta’s development over the next 20 years. If not, people will be living in Tennessee and commuting to Buckhead. Call the ARC; they’ll mail you the report free.
Perhaps you should attempt to get the property rezoned. If the City Council (I’m assuming the property is in the City of Atlanta) could be convinced that your re-development would have a positive impact on the surrounding community, then you may be able to get very favorable zoning. However, this process could be far more trouble than it’s worth.
I was able to find four “developed” lots for sale adjacent to the property. These were apparently not built on when the original subdivision was created.
If you buy all four, the price is $12K each and the agent says “bring all offers”. They have been on the market for a while.
These lots are located down in a “gulley”, so some amount of site work would be needed. The road and sewer is there, however, and the zoning is already taken care of.
I also found out that the 8 acres I am looking at is currently zoned at the “least dense” zoning designation in Atlanta, so getting it re-classified for cluster homes would be hard.
I am passing on this deal.
Hard to believe 8 undeveloped acres (14 lots), 10 minutes from downtown Atlanta, is not worth $117,000.
Posted by ray@lcorn on April 17, 2000 at 12:37:58:
Mark,
Did you check the Comprehensive Plan designation for the area? Eventhough it is presently zoned “least dense” that may not preclude the feasibility of at least getting “more dense”, but less than cluster.
I bring this up because many communities encourage “infill” development as one way to contain sprawl. Many Comp Plans have been revised lately to reflect the reality that it makes infinitely more sense to develop land already served by utilities and infrastructure than to continue to push development out into the far reaches of service areas, which also adds to traffic problems, another hot-button issue.
There is also a movement afoot among planners to develop “village” style development within city neighborhoods. This basically entails putting residential and neighborhood commercial uses together in a style reminiscent of turn of the century downtowns. Reduced setbacks, mixed uses, and higher densities are used to effect the development of infill parcels otherwise too expensive to build.
It may also be worth a call to someone on the Planning Commission or the Neighborhood Planning Unit you mentioned just to check the current thinking of the city on infill type projects.