Dunwoody councilmembers put an end to a lengthy rezoning effort Monday, ending a legal challenge and giving residents a little more privacy.
The council rezoned two parcels within the 160-acre Dunwoody Village, aiming to spur development in the series of strip malls. City leaders want to transform the area into a downtown district akin to downtown Alpharetta or Roswell, but it took more than a year to rezone the last two parcels due to a lawsuit from the property owners, potentially missing county documents and pushback from neighboring residents.
City staff worked on a compromise between all involved parties and presented it to the City Council during their Monday meeting. The council unanimously passed the plan.
“I am extremely grateful for everyone who spent lots of time making this happen,” Mayor Lynn Deutsch said. “I’m pleased that we have concluded this process.”
In 2020, the city began to rezone all of the shopping centers in the area to fulfill the recently adopted Dunwoody Village Master Plan, which encourages development focused on walkability and urbanism. The owners of two parcels, which make up the Shops at Dunwoody strip mall, disagreed with the rezoning effort and sued.
Den Webb, an attorney who represents the commercial property owners, said earlier this year that he struck a deal with Dunwoody city staff that would allow for the rezoning and end the lawsuit. However, residents who live next to the Shops at Dunwoody weren’t pleased with the deal, which would allow the parcel owners to shrink the portion of undisturbed land that separates their homes from retail shops.
Dozens of residents spoke during city meetings to voice their opposition to the plan, which they said would jeopardize their privacy. More than 1,700 people signed a petition. The pushback prompted city leaders to delay voting on the rezoning to meet with neighbors.
The deal that passed Monday will preserve a 50-foot undisturbed tree buffer. The initial deal would have shrunk that undisturbed buffer to 35 feet.
An additional 100 feet will be protected from buildings, but the property owners could chop down trees to create greenspace. The only structures allowed in that area are restroom facilities and open-air structures like gazebos. A chain-link fence will also be built near neighbor’s homes when any development takes place.
Since the rezoning passed, the council also lifted a moratorium on development for those two parcels, which was enacted to stop things from being built before the rezoning took place.
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