Atlanta City Council votes in favor of Amsterdam Walk redevelopment

Amsterdam Walk rendering courtesy Portman Holdings After two years of society engagement and advocacy the Atlanta City Council voted Monday in favor of the proposed redevelopment of Amsterdam Walk with an ordinance regarding the zoning of the site Following nearly two hours of constituents comment much of which concerned the proposed redevelopment of Amsterdam Walk the city council voted April in favor of rezoning Amsterdam Avenue from single family residential Beltline overlay and society business district Beltline overlay to planned rise Beltline overlay by a vote of eight to six Portman Holdings the developer behind the project revealed the rezoning allows for a more expansive advancement The proposed project at present includes rental units and parking spaces on an almost -acre site off Monroe Drive Prior to the vote group members gave society comments regarding the ordinance with those in favor arguing that stake and advance are crucial to bettering their neighborhood Those opposed argued the project would worsen already bad traffic on Monroe Drive and urging the council to heed the percent opposing vote from NPU-F The Morningside Lenox Park Association Board unanimously approved a message last week calling on the council to reject the proposed plan What are we going to do about keeping the intersection safe with more cars and kids like me walking to Midtown High School to prevent people from getting hurt or dying at the intersection or anywhere else on Monroe Henry Kirkpatrick required the council Every time I watch families transiting to go to the park families from our neighborhood families from other neighborhoods it frightens me because everyone I know has a story of somebody almost getting hit Henry s mother Erin continued On February my mother was hit by a car as she was traveling Monroe and Amsterdam safely at the crosswalk I have a lot of stress and anxiety about possible new developments more cars on the street more cars speeding through the neighborhoods Charlie Kaften one of the leading area members against the rise recounted Rough Draft that the outcome of the vote is disheartening and regrettable It s a shameful decision the city will live to regret this decision we believe because it goes way beyond Amsterdam Walk he explained What is the message that this vote sends The message that this vote sends is that the NPU system is dead it doesn t matter Master plans are irrelevant Population sentiment society organizing petitions emailing campaigns don t matter Wan the council member representing the district in which Amsterdam Walk is located commended the organizing efforts of the neighborhood prior to the vote In the years I ve served on the council I m not sure that I ve seen this level of activism discussion and advocacy Wan declared I want to first of all acknowledge and thank everyone for that Kaften argued however that the outcome of the vote will discourage other people from organizing in their communities If you were in another district and you see what happened here knowing that we have been organizing for a year-and-a-half on this thing you would just say doing the same is pointless he reported The implications are just unbelievable Why would anybody bother to become an NPU member or attend an NPU meeting What s the point Mike Greene the Senior Vice President of Portman Holdings described Rough Draft that he believes the society organizers concerns were heard by the council and raised by council members during conversations about the project with Portman Holdings Obviously we re happy the vote went our way Greene noted I felt like the Better Amsterdam folks did a really remarkable job organizing and showing up and letting people know their voice was there The council was in a tough spot Our ask when you consider what s buildable the present day was pretty reasonable Even if they had voted no it maybe would ve ended up as just another step in the process Greene declared he looks forward to getting to work on the project and working with the designers to make the property a valuable addition to the neighborhood The post Atlanta City Council votes in favor of Amsterdam Walk redevelopment appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta