The Brookhaven Planning Commission voted Jan. 4 to recommend the City Council approve a controversial mixed-use development on Dresden Drive where the DeKalb County tag office is now located.
The vote was 4-2 to recommend the council approve rezoning nearly 3 acres of property between Dresden Drive and Caldwell Road to PC-2, pedestrian community, so developers can build a multi-family development on the site to include apartments, a parking deck, townhouses, and Dixie Moon, the new Scott Serpas restaurant.
Voting in favor or recommending approval were Conor Sen, John Funny, Shannon Cameron and Chair Stan Segal. Voting no were Bert Levy and Rob Francour. Mary Pike was not in attendance. A motion to deny recommending approval was made by Francour but failed.
“I’m supporting this because there has been a give and take,” Funny said. “This plan has changed dramatically from the first plan.
“We try to look at what can be changed, we cannot change city code,” Funny added. “Yes, we [on the commission] live in Brookhaven, too. And I live on Dresden Drive. In looking at this [project] … it could have been worse. We want to help mitigate as much as we can to not deteriorate the quality of life.”
Connolly Investment and Development, developers of the project named Dresden Village, lowered the number of residential units from 194 apartments to 169 apartments. The developers also added 10 for-sale townhouses with rooftop decks along Caldwell Road to serve as a buffer between the apartments and the single-family homes behind the project.
In the original plans, the developers were seeking to build 206 apartments with no for-sale component.
The project has gone through a long and winding road to get to where it is. The Planning Commission voted Aug. 3 to deny recommending approval of the project at its 206 apartments scale, or about 60 units per acre.
The City Council deferred, at the developer’s request, voting on the project at its Aug. 23 meeting to give residents and Connolly more time to try to come to some agreements. At its Nov. 3 meeting, the Planning Commission voted again to defer voting on the project, pushing the vote to Jan. 4.
The recommendation now goes to the City Council Jan. 24.