DeKalb Avenue property update
March 4, 2008 at 4:15 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsUPDATE: I spoke with Adam Gaslowitz, the owner of the property, and he said that my previous post was inaccurate and omits the many costs involved in studying, developing and maintaining the land. I apologize for overlooking that aspect of the purchase and have updated the post.
Some updates about the lot at the corner of DeKalb and Gordon avenues that area residents are trying to purchase and convert into a public greenspace:
The “greenspace” lot is actually two separate parcels of land — 288 and 292 Gordon Avenue. (Click here for the map.) From the DeKalb County Tax Assessor, here’s the run-down on one half of the property. Here’s the information on the second lot, which according to records, was purchased on the same day and for the same price as the first.
Also, according to Adam Gaslowitz, the property’s owner, “Granmaw Gordon,” the majestic pecan tree that stands on the lot, is not more than 150 years old. He said the city arborist recently conducted tests on the tree and concluded its age is closer to 87 years old. Calls were made to confirm but no word back yet.
(Hat tip to the Oakhurst Yahoo Message Board for the DeKalb County Tax Assessor link.)
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March 4th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
>DeKalb Avenue property owner stands to make pretty profit
So?
Forgive me if I’m misinterpreting your headline, but you say this like it’s a bad thing. I don’t think it is. Profits are just fine with me, even when they’re reaped by lefty publications like Creative Loafing.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Eugene,
As someone who has run a business for the last 23 years ‘profits’ aren’t exactly a bad word to me either-but they should reflect the value delivered to payer.
According to Adams Realty the price on the lots is now 1.2 million
“double your money, double your funâ€
I’ll add also a few other words
From Trees Atlanta:
• 60% of Atlanta’s natural tree cover has been removed over the last 20 years.
• Metro Atlanta is loosing trees at the rate of 50 acres a day according to NASA.
• The “State of Our Urban Forests” study recommended that healthy cities aim for a 40% tree cover (equivalent of 20 large trees per acre) to ensure their ecological, economic, and social sustainability.
• Atlanta has an average tree cover of 27%, Boston has tree cover of 21.2, Austin 34%, Baltimore 31%, Milwaukee 18%, Chicago 11 percent, and New York City has 16.6 percent.
• A recent survey by University of Georgia and Valdosta State University researchers shows that 85% percent of Georgians said they would approve some limits on private property rights if they were necessary to protect the environment.
It is well that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your lifetime the nation’s need of trees will become serious. We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1907 Arbor Day Message
When asked what he would do, if he knew the next day he was going to die, Martin Luther replied, “I would plant a tree”.
The largest living thing on earth: a tree. The oldest living thing: a tree. The symbol of life, of family branchings, a graph of weather and time, and a sentinel to history. Source of food, fighter against wind and water erosion, the substance of building and the pages upon which we scribble. –David Krotz, Co-Founder, Trees Forever
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in their way. Some see nature as all ridicule and deformity…and some scarce see nature at all. But by the eyes of a man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. — William Blake
March 5th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
hmmm I wonder what expenses the developer has incurred to design the project and hold the property? Did anyone ask? Might not be “doubling his money”
March 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
And why, exactly, should anyone care if he does happen to double his money? If Creative Loafing has a banner year and doubles their income (or profits or whatever), would that be something to wring my hands about.
It’s called the free market, and while it’s not perfect, it ain’t so bad that we need to fret if somebody makes a good real estate investment. That’s perfectly legitimate.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Eugene, I agree with you wholeheartedly. It’s his property. He has every right to that. I don’t have any gripe with the idea of “profit,” either. I like finding quarters left in vending machines. That’s profit. I was trying to open up and shed some more light on the various elements of the story.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Eugene and Thomas,
I am not fretting over someone making a good real estate investment, I thought I made a good one 23 years ago when I bought this place next to the properties in question .One factor in my choice of this property was the fact that the adjoining properties were zoned such that the development of those properties would be limited by the size of the lots and the resulting setbacks ,making this a good place for a live/work combination.. Over the objections of the neighborhood and the NPU the city removed the setbacks between these properties. They now have given approval to a tree removal plan which violates the city’s ordinance in at least two ways
1)It does not show all the trees-specifically it omits the 10’ circumference Tulip Poplar which I put pictures of in the appeal. The Arborist stated that he had returned to the site and verified that this tree existed but that he did not know if it was alive as it had no leaves on it and was hollow. Many trees of this type are hollow as they grow above the canopy and have the tops blown out; the resulting hollow trees can live for many decades and provide essential shelter to wildlife .As to how a professional Arborist can be unable to tell if a tree is dead or alive I’m clueless. Why he would look for leaves on one in February is equally puzzling.
2)It covers two lots of two different zonings. The Arborist stated that the ‘computer’ would not let him do this(should that not be a red flag?)so he did it manually. The tree ordinance specifies that 10% of the tree cover must be left on C1 lots;40% of this 10% is provided by a 10â€DBH hardwood which the previous tree survey clearly shows is on the other lot! I pointed this out in the written appeal and at the hearing in person and asked that the line between the lots be surveyed to show the true location of this amazing ‘moving tree’.
I have been totally ignored-perhaps they think I and my family can also be moved away by such tricks but I am like the trees in that my roots run deep and wide here-My great grandmother (Mrs. High)gave her home to found the High Museum, I have wandered the world and come back here because this place is a part of me. I owe it to my ancestors and my children to prevent it’s degradation.
This ‘free-for –all market’ which is held in such high esteem here is a Ponzi scheme and an abomination. People who, like my parents, have endured “urban blight†,â€urban renewal â€and now†revitalization†pay more in annual taxes than they paid to purchase their homes initially. For this they are ‘serviced’ with government which panders to “development†in the name of “progress†,fights endlessly against compensating the citizens it has harmed and tolerates employees who subvert the very laws they are sworn to uphold. All good things do come to an end but the bad come to bad ends and more quickly than the good. Look to the “bursting housing bubble “if you doubt this.
I’ll bring this poor rant to an end with a line from a song which restates
Theodore Roosevelt’s Arbor Day feelings on waste
“take what you need and leave the rest but they should never have taken the very bestâ€-for in truth all things(air ,water ,sky and land)are part of the ‘commons’ of which Bill McGibben speaks so eloquently (see here http://motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/reversal_of_fortune.html
Or come hear him next Tuesday in Decatur)
-and this ‘free market’is an illusion which often tramples the rights of the many to pamper a select few.
If you think this is just the rantings of a NIMBY crying in/for the wilderness-when they come to cut the trees that shade YOUR house this case will be the legal precedent that the trees stand-or fall- on.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
[...] Gordon,” the majestic pecan tree that’s coy about her age, now has her own Web site. Set up by residents eager to save the tree from a planned 10-unit [...]