Widespread Neighborhood Opposition to Atlanta's Comprehensive Development Plan

Atlanta's Comprehensive Development Plan is provoking neighborhood opposition across the city.

"150 of Atlanta’s 242 recognized neighborhoods in Black and white areas of Atlanta signed a letter to formally oppose the city’s proposed comprehensive development plan," reports David Pendered.

As Pendered reported earlier this month, the city is slowing the progress of the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) as opposition has emerged. The city's Department of Planning and Development has been working on the plan for a year, with support from Mayor Keisha Bottoms and a model provided by the Biden administration.

According to Pendered's recent coverage of the opposition, many opponents fault the CDP for its assumptions about population growth. The CDP cites a 2016 forecast that predicts the city's population will reach 1.3 million by 2050. The city's current population is just shy of 500,000, according to the 2020 Census.

"The letter doesn’t dispute Nelson’s forecast," writes Pedered. "The letter does contend the forecast has been embraced by the planning department as part of a 'densification strategy' that aims to provide housing but not the infrastructure needed to meet needs of current residents, 'much less those of the 700,000 people it wants to add.'"

A rezoning plan related to the CDP is causing point of contention, reports Pendered. "The rezoning proposal would allow houses to be replaced by small apartment buildings or other multifamily structures, provided that the properties are within a half-mile of a MARTA rail station. This proposal would enable a by-right rezoning of more than 2,000 single-family lots to a multifamily zoning category, according to the pending legislation."

Some of the opposition to the rezoning proposal is driving a political movement in the neighborhood of Buckhead to secede from the city of Atlanta.

The Atlanta City Council is scheduled to approve the CDP by October 31—a hearing on October 28 has yet to be called for this purpose. After adopting the DCP, the plan will be forwarded on to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.