O & I meeting - 4671 N. Peachtree Rd 1

On June 26th, well over 100 red-shirted residents attended a meeting held by homeowner Elaine Bryan. The intent of the meeting was to satisfy the DeKalb County requirement of notification to the community of her intentions as to the use of the property located at 4671 North Peachtree Road. Several noted co-workers spoke highly as to the credentials of Ms. Bryan and to her idea of tutoring children from 2 to 6 daily in the home. Ms. Bryan has been the homeowner since 1992 but now uses the home as rental property and she herself no longer lives in the Dunwoody area. During the introduction period the meeting was interrupted with someone explaining that Ms. Bryans credentials and intent, the use of the home for teaching after school tutoring programs, was not the issue, only the fact that it was to be rezoned from residential to O & I (office and institution). Gerri Penn, Zoning Chairman of the Dunwoody North Civic Association spoke as did John Heneghan, President of the Dunwoody North Civic Association in opposition to what Ms. Bryan wants to do with the property. During Ms. Penns speech she asked for a show of hands of those in opposition of the proposal. Due to the number of people in opposition the request was changed to who was in favor of the proposal. Of the 100 plus community members in attendance, not one resident approved of the rezoning. Mr. Heneghan explained that once a corner house is zoned O & I then the house across the street is automatically up for rezoning which starts the domino effect of changing a residential street into commercial. Additionally, based on the O & I zoning she will have requirements for certain number of parking spaces, specific amount of square footage and buffers, none of which she has currently. The floor was open for questions and various residents spoke as to their concerns of the rezoning, i.e. should she sell the house later anyone could come in and put something undesirable there and the community would have no legal means of preventing it. Mr. Bill Grossman, Mr. Al Tiede, and Mr. Bob Lundsten, past president of DHA and currently works in zoning all spoke as to the specific reasons why this zoning must not be allowed and the lengths that they would be willing to go in order to see that it not happen. Mr. Lundsten explained to the group the timeframe for the county and the various meetings that would be held should Ms. Bryan decide to go forth with the rezoning application. He also gave background information as to the efforts that have gone into keeping Chamblee Dunwoody and Mt. Vernon residential streets and that North Peachtree would be given the same protection. And given the County Commissioners who represent this area, and their past support in protecting residential areas from going commercial, the likelihood of rezoning taking place were slim at best. Several residents tried to offer viable resolutions such as space in the church, using other rental space in the immediate area to which Ms. Bryan tried to again express her desire to help children and that because of certain grants she has been awarded towards that end, she has to use those grants while in property she owns and could not be used if she rented office space. The last question directed at Ms. Bryan (which is not on the 1-hour tape) was whether she was a real estate agent; she answered yes, she was a consultant. Her husband was asked the same question, was he a real estate agent but he denied being an agent. After being asked again as to whether she was a real estate agent Ms. Bryan spoke up that she was a consultant and then finally that she was an investor. The meeting disbanded after this last disclosure. It has come to light that in addition to her use of the property from 2 to 6 daily to instruct children, she had considered using the house for an office to conduct her real estate business.

Blip | August 17, 2007

Tags:. .whether. .lengths. .introduction. .institution. .efforts