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After two years of debate, the attempt to end the practice of converting office buildings to five-story apartment buildings without public input has been accomplished. The DeKalb County Board of Commission passed an ordinance last Tuesday requiring developers to obtain a Special Land Use Permit prior to the conversion of office properties into multi-family developments in zones designated unconditional office and institutional. The SLUP process requires a public hearing on the development, as well as passage by the full commission. Bob Lundsten, a Dunwoody Homeowners' Association board member who has battled for the passage of the ordinance, said he was pleased with the wording of the measure. "The first step in this process is to get a hearing, so apartments just don't show up one day," Lundsten said. "Commissioners (Elaine) Boyer and (Kathie) Gannon and Larry Danese of the (DeKalb County) planning commission did a great job of ushering through the concerns of the neighborhoods." Boyer said she believes the ordinance addresses development concerns for communities that welcome multifamily development as well as those who are being stressed by them. "This ordinance provides a public forum that will allow public input, but also allow other parts of the county where apartments are a desirable thing to still be part of that process," Boyer said. The issue, with 2,200 apartments under construction or planned for Perimeter Center, gave impetus to the drive for incorporation of Dunwoody. Around Perimeter Center, older office buildings have been razed for the five-story apartment buildings, adding to overcrowding at Austin and Vanderlyn elementary schools, two of the state's top 10 in most rankings. Near I-285, apartment construction has forced the addition of trailers at Chesnut Elementary. Prior to its passage, the ordinance was amended to reflect the definition of a high-rise apartment development to mean "a building or buildings with a minimum of three stories containing multifamily dwelling units." The ordinance, however, cannot block the construction of any multi-family developments that have already "submitted a complete application and otherwise lawfullly applied for or have been issued a land disturbance permit or building permit for the construction or redevelopment of a high-rise apartment development" on or before the effective date of the ordinance. In addition, if an existing multifamily development has been damaged by fire or by other forces of nature, it can be rebuilt without being subject ot stipulations of the new ordinance. The ordinance also dictates height requirements for developments that have property lines abutting single-family detached or attached residences. For developments next to single-family detached properties, the maximum height can't exceed 35 feet, while developments next to attached properties cannot exceed 40 feet. "It's a major step for the board to give protection to single-family properties whose properties adjoin these districts," Lundsten said. "Specifically for the Dunwoody area, what I'm glad is being addressed locally is that any development regarding buildings on Dunwoody Village Parkway would be no taller that what they are right now." Lundsten said he only had one concern, that of the density of the new multi-family developments. "My only concern and something that was not addressed that I had asked for, was that there was no mention at all about restrictions in density," he said. "I hope that it would be addressed int he SLUP process." |
