Proposals to add more multifamily to Atlanta prompt drive for Buckhead to secede

Proposals to boost housing in Atlanta are fueling a drive in the Buckhead section to secede from the city.

“Changes now being proposed by the City of Atlanta would subdivide residential lot sizes, increase housing density, decimate the tree canopy, tangle traffic, and strain resources,” reads the web site of the Buckhead City Committee, the organization aiming to form a new city. “Such devastation, proposed ostensibly to increase ‘affordable housing’ will only enrich developers at the cost of Buckhead’s livability.”

The zoning changes have been proposed while city planners look to a future that could mean a doubling of the city’s population to 1.2 million by 2050. City leaders would like to convert more single-family homes into multifamily dwellings. Today, about 60% of the city’s residential zones restrict such arrangements.

City leaders propose rezoning areas within a half-mile radius of public transit stations to encourage construction of moderate-sized apartment buildings nearby. One to four units per building would be the standard, but a developer could build up to eight units if one of them is below-market rate, and as many as 12 if two or more are below-market.