Fitting into intown:
Incompatible infills anger neighborhoods
By DAVID PENDEREDThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 06/20/05
The din of demolition continues to reverberate across Atlanta's intown neighborhoods as crews tear down older houses to make way for mini-mansions for residents who want lots of space.
An analysis of demolition permits by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows an ongoing trend of tear-downs in established neighborhoods in Atlanta and in the unincorporated areas of DeKalb and Fulton counties — mostly inside the Perimeter.
Atlanta is among just six metropolitan regions in the 1990s that had an increase in infill construction within a five-mile radius of the central business district. That is according to a report last week by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The study used census figures to compare the 1990s with the 1980s. The other regions are Buffalo, N.Y., Charleston, S.C., Houston, Knoxville and Seattle.
Traffic congestion apparently plays a huge role in Atlanta's rising demand for urban living. Some workers are willing to give up the amenities of the suburbs to avoid a long commute to intown jobs. Some who work in the suburbs are finding that a reverse commute is quicker, because they are heading to the suburbs on clear roads at a time inbound lanes are clogged.
The Patterson family made just such a decision before moving last week into a new 5,500-square-foot home in DeKalb's Oak Grove neighborhood, near Lakeside High School. The Pattersons had lived in Lawrenceville and then Atlanta's Virginia-Highland community before relocating for 18 months to a suburb of Washington. Atlanta's suburbs held no allure when it was time to come home with their two children, Mia, 5, and Max, 3.
"We knew we wanted to live inside the Perimeter and live in a real neighborhood if we could," Scott Patterson says, defining a real neighborhood as a place not packed with new houses that look alike.
"Virginia-Highland was out because the houses don't have a yard for the kids. I'd had enough of commuting to Norcross when we lived in Lawrenceville. Oak Grove is a perfect compromise. My wife, Miriam, is returning to work at Egleston [part of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, near Emory University], and we're close to it. And I have good access to I-85 to get to my company in Norcross."
Demand by buyers such as the Pattersons have DeKalb on pace to exceed the number of demolitions permitted last year to make way for new housing. DeKalb has issued 196 residential demolition permits this year. That compares with 319 last year; 152 in 2003, the year the trend emerged in DeKalb; 20 in 2002, eight in 2001; and nine in 2000.
The trend line in Atlanta is sketchy because of a lack of record-keeping, but this year promises to be the highest for infill since Sherman created a huge demand in the winter of 1865.
The phenomenon occurs throughout the city — from Buckhead ranches being torn down to make way for mansions, to decrepit bungalows in blighted northwest and southwest Atlanta neighborhoods being razed and replaced with duplexes designed for the rental market.
Even though residents are flocking back to the urban core, many don't want to give up the amenities of a suburban-style house. They want a new place that's big enough to accommodate their comforts — playrooms for the kids, a study for the parents, showcase entertainment areas, plenty of bathrooms and an attached garage for the mandatory stable of cars.
The preference continues a 30-year trend of bigger houses in the United States. The median size of a house today is 2,162 square feet, up more than 600 square feet since 1975, according to a recent Harvard report, "The State of the Nation's Housing: 2005."
Many of Atlanta's new infill houses are three times the new median size. They typically replace ranch-style houses, which range from 1,600 to 1,800 square feet.
Tension is rising in some neighborhoods because of the size of new houses. Oak Grove is the hotbed of discontent. Two years ago, when the infill tear-down trend burst into their community, residents posted pointed fliers in front of the big houses. One read:
"Please don't buy this house. If you buy this house, you will be helping to destroy this neighborhood, drive up our property taxes and make it nearly impossible for retirees to continue to live here.
"If you buy this house, you will not be welcome in this neighborhood."
Residents formed the DeKalb Infill Task Force. The group drafted a packet of proposed changes to the countywide zoning code and hopes to have some measures adopted late this summer by the DeKalb County Commission. Local interest in the effort is so high that nearly 300 people attended a meeting this month to hear proposals and make their own suggestions.
Recommendations range from prohibiting construction late at night to controlling the location of trash bins at construction sites. But the heart of the matter is to set limits on the height of new houses built in existing neighborhoods. The art will be to devise a code that addresses size and does not crimp architectural freedom.
The group proposes to set a height limit of 32 feet for new houses in existing neighborhoods. Height would be measured from the highest peak on the roof to the lowest footing of the house that was torn down. The proposed limit would not apply to infill houses to be built between two existing big new houses.
The county's current code is so vague that it's difficult to enforce, the group contends. Consequently, some infill housing is more than 40 feet high, tall enough to tower over older adjacent houses and throw long shadows into their yards.
Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood formed a similar task force to consider new regulations in the city. Norwood's group focused on the apparent size of the new house, as viewed from the street. Neighborhoods could voluntarily ask to come under a planned special zoning district to apply the proposed rules to their community. City planners and lawyers are drafting a proposal and have not released their working papers. The Atlanta City Council is expected to vote on a proposal late this summer.
The goal is to create a broad plan that would accommodate Atlanta's very diverse neighborhoods, in terms of the size of both houses and lots. For instance, a two-story house on a 30-foot-wide lot in the Pittsburgh community, near Turner Field, can seem way too big for its surroundings, critics say. But a three-story house set back on a deep lot in Buckhead might seem to disappear.
Norwood says size is not the issue. The issue is whether a house seems proportional to its neighbors in both its size and placement on a lot. That same Buckhead house that seems appropriate when placed far from the street could cause an uproar if it were built close to the curb, where it would dominate the streetscape, she says.
Patterson, the new resident of a big house in Oak Grove, says he supports the idea of limiting size. Patterson is also in the business of enforcing limits — he's a Tech graduate who's president of LaserCraft, Inc., a Norcross-based company that makes and markets the laser cameras used to crack down on drivers who run red lights.
"Some of the new houses look like small schools," Patterson says. "The right thing would be to put some reasonable limits on things and not be completely unrestricted. I know that may sound self-serving now that I have the house I want. But there is some merit to limiting size and height.
"On the flip side, you have a lot of people who want to live inside the Perimeter who want a bigger house. You'd create the benefit of cutting down the commute, getting the tax revenues up, and we'd have more of a city feel."
Incompatible infills anger neighborhoods
By DAVID PENDEREDThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 06/20/05
The din of demolition continues to reverberate across Atlanta's intown neighborhoods as crews tear down older houses to make way for mini-mansions for residents who want lots of space.
An analysis of demolition permits by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows an ongoing trend of tear-downs in established neighborhoods in Atlanta and in the unincorporated areas of DeKalb and Fulton counties — mostly inside the Perimeter.
Atlanta is among just six metropolitan regions in the 1990s that had an increase in infill construction within a five-mile radius of the central business district. That is according to a report last week by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The study used census figures to compare the 1990s with the 1980s. The other regions are Buffalo, N.Y., Charleston, S.C., Houston, Knoxville and Seattle.
Traffic congestion apparently plays a huge role in Atlanta's rising demand for urban living. Some workers are willing to give up the amenities of the suburbs to avoid a long commute to intown jobs. Some who work in the suburbs are finding that a reverse commute is quicker, because they are heading to the suburbs on clear roads at a time inbound lanes are clogged.
The Patterson family made just such a decision before moving last week into a new 5,500-square-foot home in DeKalb's Oak Grove neighborhood, near Lakeside High School. The Pattersons had lived in Lawrenceville and then Atlanta's Virginia-Highland community before relocating for 18 months to a suburb of Washington. Atlanta's suburbs held no allure when it was time to come home with their two children, Mia, 5, and Max, 3.
"We knew we wanted to live inside the Perimeter and live in a real neighborhood if we could," Scott Patterson says, defining a real neighborhood as a place not packed with new houses that look alike.
"Virginia-Highland was out because the houses don't have a yard for the kids. I'd had enough of commuting to Norcross when we lived in Lawrenceville. Oak Grove is a perfect compromise. My wife, Miriam, is returning to work at Egleston [part of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, near Emory University], and we're close to it. And I have good access to I-85 to get to my company in Norcross."
Demand by buyers such as the Pattersons have DeKalb on pace to exceed the number of demolitions permitted last year to make way for new housing. DeKalb has issued 196 residential demolition permits this year. That compares with 319 last year; 152 in 2003, the year the trend emerged in DeKalb; 20 in 2002, eight in 2001; and nine in 2000.
The trend line in Atlanta is sketchy because of a lack of record-keeping, but this year promises to be the highest for infill since Sherman created a huge demand in the winter of 1865.
The phenomenon occurs throughout the city — from Buckhead ranches being torn down to make way for mansions, to decrepit bungalows in blighted northwest and southwest Atlanta neighborhoods being razed and replaced with duplexes designed for the rental market.
Even though residents are flocking back to the urban core, many don't want to give up the amenities of a suburban-style house. They want a new place that's big enough to accommodate their comforts — playrooms for the kids, a study for the parents, showcase entertainment areas, plenty of bathrooms and an attached garage for the mandatory stable of cars.
The preference continues a 30-year trend of bigger houses in the United States. The median size of a house today is 2,162 square feet, up more than 600 square feet since 1975, according to a recent Harvard report, "The State of the Nation's Housing: 2005."
Many of Atlanta's new infill houses are three times the new median size. They typically replace ranch-style houses, which range from 1,600 to 1,800 square feet.
Tension is rising in some neighborhoods because of the size of new houses. Oak Grove is the hotbed of discontent. Two years ago, when the infill tear-down trend burst into their community, residents posted pointed fliers in front of the big houses. One read:
"Please don't buy this house. If you buy this house, you will be helping to destroy this neighborhood, drive up our property taxes and make it nearly impossible for retirees to continue to live here.
"If you buy this house, you will not be welcome in this neighborhood."
Residents formed the DeKalb Infill Task Force. The group drafted a packet of proposed changes to the countywide zoning code and hopes to have some measures adopted late this summer by the DeKalb County Commission. Local interest in the effort is so high that nearly 300 people attended a meeting this month to hear proposals and make their own suggestions.
Recommendations range from prohibiting construction late at night to controlling the location of trash bins at construction sites. But the heart of the matter is to set limits on the height of new houses built in existing neighborhoods. The art will be to devise a code that addresses size and does not crimp architectural freedom.
The group proposes to set a height limit of 32 feet for new houses in existing neighborhoods. Height would be measured from the highest peak on the roof to the lowest footing of the house that was torn down. The proposed limit would not apply to infill houses to be built between two existing big new houses.
The county's current code is so vague that it's difficult to enforce, the group contends. Consequently, some infill housing is more than 40 feet high, tall enough to tower over older adjacent houses and throw long shadows into their yards.
Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood formed a similar task force to consider new regulations in the city. Norwood's group focused on the apparent size of the new house, as viewed from the street. Neighborhoods could voluntarily ask to come under a planned special zoning district to apply the proposed rules to their community. City planners and lawyers are drafting a proposal and have not released their working papers. The Atlanta City Council is expected to vote on a proposal late this summer.
The goal is to create a broad plan that would accommodate Atlanta's very diverse neighborhoods, in terms of the size of both houses and lots. For instance, a two-story house on a 30-foot-wide lot in the Pittsburgh community, near Turner Field, can seem way too big for its surroundings, critics say. But a three-story house set back on a deep lot in Buckhead might seem to disappear.
Norwood says size is not the issue. The issue is whether a house seems proportional to its neighbors in both its size and placement on a lot. That same Buckhead house that seems appropriate when placed far from the street could cause an uproar if it were built close to the curb, where it would dominate the streetscape, she says.
Patterson, the new resident of a big house in Oak Grove, says he supports the idea of limiting size. Patterson is also in the business of enforcing limits — he's a Tech graduate who's president of LaserCraft, Inc., a Norcross-based company that makes and markets the laser cameras used to crack down on drivers who run red lights.
"Some of the new houses look like small schools," Patterson says. "The right thing would be to put some reasonable limits on things and not be completely unrestricted. I know that may sound self-serving now that I have the house I want. But there is some merit to limiting size and height.
"On the flip side, you have a lot of people who want to live inside the Perimeter who want a bigger house. You'd create the benefit of cutting down the commute, getting the tax revenues up, and we'd have more of a city feel."
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