Infill legislation not controversial after all
August 22, 2007 at 8:55 am by Scott Henry in NewsEighteen months ago, a mayoral moratorium on new home-building permits in several McMansion-plagued Atlanta neighborhoods caused quite a ruckus.
Yesterday, however, City Council’s approval of new zoning regs aimed at developers who shoehorn big new houses in between smaller, older ones didn’t even start an argument.
The new rules close loopholes that allowed the construction of ginormous houses that are out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood and of houses that tower above existing homes. (For more details, peep here at the previous CL story.)
In recent weeks, council members, neighborhood leaders and even home builders had been surprisingly — nay, sickeningly — in agreement on the proposed ordinance drafted by the city’s planning staff.
“There was a real effort to get buy-in from the development community and real-estate folks, and that made a big difference,” says Councilman Ivory Young, who chairs the council’s zoning committee.
It’s just a blessing that Andre the Giant didn’t live long enough to see this day.
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