City gets new pitch: Developer has revised plan for student housing
By Mary Giunca
JOURNAL REPORTER

After withdrawing his request for a student-housing complex in the Gateway area in June, an Atlanta developer is back with a new plan that he said he hopes will be more acceptable to neighbors in the area….The city council would have to approve the new site design. Several years ago, the council approved an overall plan for the Gateway that included a small elementary school on part of the property. That is no longer part of the plan.

Molly Leight, the council member in the South Ward, had said she would likely vote against the last proposal, which would be built in her district….She is concerned, Leight said, about the impact of clear-cutting the hillside that backs up on West Salem for a parking lot. The hillside acts as a filter for the creek. Under the new plan, the water would run over the paved parking lot.

She has also heard from neighbors who objected to having a four-story building with vinyl materials in the middle of two National Register Historic Districts.

Steven Shafer, the president of the West Salem Neighborhood Association, said he is also concerned about the environmental impact on the site.

Like Leight, he said he is concerned about clear-cutting the hillside, and he is also worried that the parking lots are in the flood plane. He said he also is concerned about whether there are enough safeguards in place to manage runoff after major storms.

Neighborhood representatives plan to meet with Githens as soon as they can schedule a time, place and mediator, Shafer said.

“There’s nothing we can disagree with at this point except for environmental concerns,” he said, “and to hope that the development is of a caliber and quality that you would expect for historic neighborhoods.”

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