Tuxedo Park opposes another luxury-home subdivision on ‘historic character’ precedent

Buckhead’s Tuxedo Park has very long drawn a line in the sand against subdivisions in the community of historic mansions. But a luxurious house developer is seeking again.

Benecki Homes is trying to get to subdivide 3655 Tuxedo Road, at the Woodhaven Road intersection, into two heaps. The existing great deal contains a mansion relationship to 1929, according to the Buckhead Heritage Culture. The new good deal would be drawn on what is now its swimming pool and tennis courts and front on Woodhaven.

The application was slammed at the Dec. 6 conference of Community Arranging Unit A (NPU-A) in a 58-1-1 vote. The reasoning was equivalent to former subdivisions shoot-downs: it’s out of spot with the neighborhood’s expansive homes and violates a earlier City dedication that this sort of slicing up violates historic character. As the Tuxedo Park Civic Association (TPCA) claimed in a letter to the Atlanta Section of Town Preparing (DCP), the proposal “does not conform to the identified ‘historic character’ of the Tuxedo Park community.”

DCP says it is nonetheless reviewing the application.

A plan of the proposed subdivision of 3655 Tuxedo Street as seen in an application submitted with the Town by Benecki Houses.

Benecki Households did not answer to a comment request. The developer has been occupied in the community in recent many years, marketing a deluxe mansion just down the block at 3627 Tuxedo and an additional in nearby Chastain Park at 4047 Tuxedo, at the Powers Ferry Street intersection.

After years of fending off identical subdivisions, a 2019 battle proved to be a precedent that the TCPA and NPU-A are now working with in this circumstance. That subdivision proposal, for 3460 Tuxedo, withered less than NPU-A questioning that observed planners could not reveal how Town zoning codes authorized it or even what they needed to construct.

Much more importantly for the TPCA, in 2020, DCP issued a perseverance that the subdivision violated a “historic character” rule that could be used to the neighborhood. The simple factor was regardless of whether the neighborhood could be eligible for listing on the National Sign up of Historic Sites underneath basic standards like becoming 50 a long time old or far more and with a “significant portion” of surviving attributes also dating back that significantly. Tuxedo Park, which dates back again to early 1900s summer time estates, very easily fulfilled the criteria. DCP approximated 53{30865861d187b3c2e200beb8a3ec9b8456840e314f1db0709bac7c430cb25d05} of its homes met the age requirements and that more recent buildings are “clustered” in this sort of a way that minimizes historic effects.

What this indicates in conditions of the City’s Land Subdivision Code is that developments have to adhere to existing large amount layouts and orientations. As TPCA noted, DCP explained that in Tuxedo Park, that usually means “mostly long rectangular lots” with the slender conclusion struggling with the avenue. “And in quite a few ways, it is the neighborhood’s defining feature….,” stated the TPCA letter, as the lots make for “deep setbacks” that “create the parklike environment that is Tuxedo Park’s hallmark.”

The TPCA reported that Benecki Homes’ system would produce a lot closer to squares, with the 1 on Woodhaven about half the “mean great deal length” of encompassing qualities. That violates the 2020 “historic character” willpower, suggests Gloria Cheatham, TPCA’s quick earlier president.

Although it remains to be noticed how this proposal will fare, NPU-A chair Brink Dickerson says it’s probably the neighborhood will keep its placement on this sort of plans.

“Longer-term, I count on the Tuxedo Park neighborhood to oppose any subdivision or other development that attempts to modify the common great deal size and positioning of homes on loads in just Tuxedo Park,” he explained.