north buckhead · · 2014-02-25march 2014 north buckhead newsletter page 1 ... fulton county...

North Buckhead Newsletter March 2014

C iv ic Assoc iat ion Newslet ter

NORTH BUCKHEAD www.nbca.org March 2014

Mai led four t imes each year to over 4 ,000 North Buckhead homes

NBCA’s newslet ter arch ive is on- l ine wi th co lor photos at www.nbca.org/newslet ters.htm

Inside this Newsletter

Join us! St. James United Methodist is at the intersection of Peachtree Dunwoody Road and Loridans Drive. We meet in Fellowship Hall. Elections will be held for NBCA board candidates — see their bios on page 10. Additional infor-mation about the meeting may be distributed to our email list and posted at www.nbca.org.

Annual Meeting March 25 Please join us on Tuesday, March 25 for North Buckhead Civic Association’s annual meeting. Our program starts at 7 PM and ends at 9 PM. We have a social from 6 PM until 7 PM, with food provided so you won’t need to eat dinner before you come. There is no charge for mem-ber households. Non-members may pay $5 each or come later, skipping the social.

Fulton County collects more of your tax dollars than Atlanta does. Fulton has a new third Coun-ty Commission district. Three candidates are vying to take that seat and you can listen to their plans at our annual meeting. They are: Lee Morris Cory Ruth Bernie Tokarz We will have a series of short briefings by public officials and neighborhood project leaders: Hunter Hill, Georgia Senate, District 6, Major Van Hobbs, Commander of Atlanta

Police Department Zone 2 Precinct, Ed Lindsey, Georgia House, District 54, Howard Shook, City Council, District 7, and Denise Starling, Executive Director, Livable

Buckhead, Inc. Denise will brief us on the start of construction on PATH400 (GA 400 Trail) in North Buckhead. See article below.

NBCA’s 42nd Annual Meeting March 25, 2014 - Social 6 PM, Program 7-9 PM

St. James United Methodist Church 4400 Peachtree Dunwoody Road (at Loridans) Want to run around at midnight in your PJs?

See Page 2. Read how Jack Joyce got his lost wedding ring back from a Cumming resident who found it in the snow on Peachtree Dunwoody Road. See “Why Join NBCA’s Email List?”, page 11. For information about new developments in/near North Buckhead, see ”Other News” in the NPU-B report on page 14: Hotel on Wieuca Road at Phipps Plaza, Office tower on Lenox Road at Phipps Blvd., 640 apartments on Roxboro Road at East

Paces Ferry Road.

Provided by Livable Buckhead, Inc. First Phase of Multi-Use Trail Runs Along Lenox Road,

Brings Pedestrian Improvements Just three years after the concept was first pro-posed, construction on a 5.2-mile, multi-use trail running parallel to GA 400 is set to begin. Work on the first phase of PATH400 starts Mon-day, February 17. [This start date was slipped two weeks due to the snow events. — ed.]

PATH400 Construction Begins in North Buckhead “The fact that we are beginning construction on-ly three years after this idea was initially pro-posed is a testament to the hard work of all our partners and to the collective desire to make PATH400 a reality,” said Denise Starling, execu-tive director of Livable Buckhead (LBI). “There have been hundreds of people from all sectors — state and city government, neighborhood

(Continued on page 4)

Midnight Pajama Jog ……………………………………. 2 $100K Grant for MWC! …………………………………. 3 PATH400 Construction Map ……….………………... 4 Land Use and Zoning ……………………………………. 5 Blue Heron and Bamboo ………………………………. 6 Little Nancy Creek Park Grant ……………………… 7 February Snow Pictures ………………………………… 8 Monarch Butterflies ……………………………………….. 9 NBCA Board Candidate Bios ………………………… 10 NBCA Bylaws Changes ………………………………… 11 Knitters (2 articles) ……………………………………… 12 2013 Financial Report …………………………………. 13 Report from NPU-B Chair ……………………………. 13 NBCA Business Supporters …………………………. 15


Mountain Way Common’s Midnight Pajama Jog chip-timed event starts and ends at Chastain Square on Roswell Road. Come run, walk, or jog with us. Each regis-trant will receive a special t-shirt and glow gear, plus free entrance to the after party at Tacos & Tequilas Mexican Grill where you can enjoy a taco bar and live music. This Georgia Grand Prix event is professionally managed by Pacesetters PR, which has been directing hundreds of run-ning events in Georgia annually for over 30 years. There will be plenty of porta-potties at Chastain Square, police assistance along the route, and an on-site ambulance in keeping with municipal code. For added fun, light-up your costume, dog, stroller, or carry a fun lantern. Sure you can wear your favorite running gear, but wearing pajamas is definitely encouraged. (The family-friendly ones, wise guy.) Participants are en-couraged to be creative and silly. Grab some friends and create a team costume. There will be prizes, including some awesome custom wear from Big Frog of Buckhead! Lantern Workshops Feel free to carry a lan-tern you concoct at home, or attend one of our terrific workshops to create an original work of art. Space is limited, so sign up early at www.mountainwaycommon.org for a chance to design a one-of-a-kind lantern with renowned artist Evereman at his studio or to enjoy the yummy delights offered at Pie Shop while you create something special. Of course, flashlights, glow sticks, battery-operated twinkly lights and standard-issue elec-tric lanterns are most welcome too. Awards will be given for top finishers, best cos-tumes, and best lanterns (individual and team categories).

By Jane Zoellick Friends of Mountain Way Common

Twinkly Fun—Food—Music—Prizes 5K Run/Walk—Jammies/Costumes

Saturday, June 7, 2014 Starts at 11 pm, Chastain Square

$20—$30 per person All proceeds will go towards Phase One of Atlanta’s

newest park, Mountain Way Common.

Register on Active.com or use the flyer at tinyurl.com/PJJog2014.

Sign up today for the coolest event of the summer: family-friendly fun at the inaugural Mountain Way Common Midnight Pajama Jog, a 5k run/walk event to benefit Mountain Way Common, presented by Tacos & Tequilas Mexi-can Grill. Race time is — you guessed it —Midnight! Wear your favorite pajamas and add some fun to the night with crazy light ups. The

Get glowing! Have some fun! Sign up today!


June 7 Pajama Jog — continued

Do you live on the route? We need your help to make this a magical night. Please consider putting out your holiday lights or luminaries on June 7th to add to the light-hearted atmosphere for this event. VIP Benefits Become a Midnight Pajama Jog Sponsor or a Friends and Family Donor to get special benefits.

Volunteers Wanted Be part of making this awesome event happen. Scouts, teens, service groups welcome. Send your email to [email protected] for information. Learn more about the event on the Mountain Way Common website at tinyurl.com/PJJog2014.

$100K Grant for MWC! The article above highlights the Midnight Pajama Jog which benefits ”Phase One” of Mountain Way Common. So what’s Phase One? Atlanta has a wonderful non-profit called Park Pride whose mission is to promote parks in At-lanta and DeKalb. Park Pride gave out a number of grants in December. One was a $100,000 matching grant to help turn the future site of Mountain Way Common into a real park. Because of the terrain and creek which divide the park into two pieces, a pedestrian bridge is needed. Not just any little bridge, it is one high enough to be above a 100-year flood plain. That means it needs to be about 200 feet long. Phase One includes the bridge along with walk-ing trails environmental improvements and mi-nor amenities to make it a park worth visiting. While the Park Pride grant helps immensely, we need to raise a lot of money to match the grant and fund the remainder. For more details, see tinyurl.com/Winter14UD.


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Resident of Loridans Drive since 1980

associations, local businesses, and nonprofit or-ganizations — who have provided input on PATH400 and helped move it from concept to implementation. Sometimes having that much involvement can slow a project, but in this case it has been energizing.” The first phase of PATH400 is a half-mile stretch running from Lenox Road at Tower Place to Old Ivy Road. Construction is expected to take ap-proximately nine months, wrapping up before Buckhead’s annual holiday traffic increase. Por-tions of the work will require lane closures at times on GA400, Lenox Road, Old Ivy Road and Ivy Road. However, the majority of these lane closures are expected to take place during the summer months to minimize the impact on traf-fic flow in the area. One major component of this phase is to make room for the trail to run along the north side of Lenox Road. To do that, each travel lane will be reduced by approximately a foot, and the medi-an will be narrowed as well. Another key objec-tive is to create a safe pedestrian connection where the trail crosses into Tower Place. The Tower Place intersection will be reconfigured to make it more pedestrian friendly, most noticea-bly by adding a crosswalk on its eastern side.

(Continued from page 1)

“The idea for a trail along the GA400 corridor has been in PATH Foundation’s long-range plans for many years, but it took strong local leader-ship from Councilman Howard Shook, Livable

PATH400 Construction Begins — continued

This NBCA map shows the initial phases of PATH400 (GA 400 Trail) construction. Phase 1 (west side of 400) should be underway this March. It is under-stood that Phase 2 to Wieuca Road will start before Phase 1 is done. Timing for other phases is not known. –NBCA


NBCA Standing Meetings (NBCA meetings are open to the public)

Board — 7:00 PM, 4th Monday of month ex-cept March, Nov., and Dec., Room S-103, Wieuca Road Baptist Church. The March meet-ing is replaced by the Annual Meeting. The joint Nov./Dec. meeting is December 8, 2014. Land Use/Zoning — 7:00 PM, 3rd Monday, Room S-103, Wieuca Road Baptist Church.

Buckhead, the Buckhead Community Improve-ment District and many others to make it hap-pen,” said Ed McBrayer, PATH Foundation exec-utive director. PATH Foundation is a major part-ner in PATH400, providing funding for the trail and overseeing its construction. “We are looking forward to getting construction underway so that the Buckhead community can soon begin to enjoy the many benefits that this trail has to offer.” This is the first of seven phases to complete PATH400. Roughly half of the project funding has been secured, thanks in large part to $5 million provided by the PATH Foundation and the Buckhead Community Improvement District. By mid-March, LBI anticipates that all design documents for the full length of the trail will be complete, clearing the way for additional phases of the project to be built as additional funds are raised. “PATH400 will be a tremendous asset for Buck-head, and we are proud to help fund the pro-ject,” said Jim Durrett, executive director of Buckhead CID. “Our community will enjoy new pedestrian access to schools and the local busi-ness district, opportunities for outdoor recrea-tion and a greater sense of connectedness. It’s a wise investment for Buckhead.”

PATH400 — continued Land Use and Zoning By Walda Lavroff

Chair, NBCA Land Use and Zoning Committee

Since our last report in the December NBCA Newsletter our committee has received few ap-plications. This may seem surprising because construction activity has picked up noticeably, but routine applications such as building per-mits do not require action by our committee.

In our November 2013 meeting we reviewed the following variance applications:

V-13-212 – 4264 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, in which the owner, who is rebuilding an existing home, sought to add a dormer and a rear deck.

We found that this dormer would be a sec-ond floor window designed to protrude slightly over the grandfathered footprint of the house on the Carmain Drive side. We did not see any detrimental effect to the neighborhood, and recommended approval.

V-13-240 – 4000 Arden Way was seeking to increase the allowed lot coverage (with impervious surface) from 40% to 48.5% to add a swimming pool to the existing home. We found this to be unacceptable. The ap-plicant made suggested design changes so that we were able to recommend approval.

V-13-239 – 336 Herrington Drive also sought to add a recreational pool to an ex-isting home. We found location and design appropriate to recommend approval.

In our February 2014 meeting we reviewed the following variance application:

V-14-003 — 4027 Statewood Road sought a variance to permit roof changes for architectural reasons which intruded 2+ feet into the required setback. Since the change might/might not be permitted by ordinance and no dimensioned drawings were provided, the committee voted to ab-stain from making a recommendation.


Blue Heron and Bamboo: An Unlikely Pair By Kevin McCauley

President, Blue Heron Nature Preserve Strange as it seems, there’s a project underway at Blue Heron Nature Preserve to promote growth of bamboo in the preserve. Normally thought of as an aggressive, invasive plant from Asia that rapidly takes over an area, bamboo would be the last thing you’d usually want in a nature preserve. But this bamboo is different. It’s a native bamboo called River Cane. River Cane is the only native bamboo found in North America. It grows slowly along waterways and helps to stabilize alluvial soil. It also pro-vides habitat for insects, birds and other ani-mals, some of which live exclusively in dense stands of River Cane called “cane brakes”. Sadly, over 98% of River Cane habitat has been lost. There are at least six different species of moths and butterflies that feed exclusively on River Cane. And there are birds that depend on the River Cane habitat. They include the Swainson's warbler, hooded warblers, and the possibly ex-tinct Bachman's warbler. In addition, White-eyed vireo, bobwhite, and wild turkeys inhabit the cover cane brake communities provide. As part of a National Fish and Wildlife Founda-tion 5-Star grant awarded to Blue Heron last fall, work has begun to restore the area sur-

rounding the front entrance to the Blue Heron offices on Roswell Road. The grant is funded in part by the EPA and Southern Company, with in-kind matching coming from our local partners and volunteers. As part of Hands On Atlanta’s MLK Day of Service, a group of volunteers came to work on the project. They planted 750 River Cane plants and built a walking trail along the creek. By re-establishing critical habitats in places like Blue Heron we hope to strengthen the web that binds all things together. Work continues on the restoration to reintroduce other natives here with more work days planned this spring includ-ing one on April 19. We’d love to have you join us. Go to www.bhnp.org for more information.

Photo of River Cane (a native type of bamboo) at Blue Heron Nature Preserve

Hands On Atlanta’s MLK Day of Service: Volunteers planted 750 River Cane plants at

North Buckhead’s Blue Heron Nature Preserve.


Little Nancy Creek Park – A Big Thank You to Park Pride! By Anne Wilkie

Friends of Little Nancy Creek Park As many of you know, Park Pride is a great or-ganization that is tirelessly devoted to support-ing parks all over Atlanta. Recently, Park Pride awarded 17 parks in the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County a total of $625,000 in matching grants for park improvements. Friends of Little Nancy Creek Park is proud to announce that we were selected as one of those parks and have been awarded a $100,000 Park Pride matching grant for 2014. We are excited over the possibilities this opens up and are looking forward to support from the community to help us raise the needed match-ing funds. If you’ve visited the park over the past year, you’ve probably noticed the many changes. Most recently, with support from Park Pride, we completed construction on a bridge in the back part of the park that now links the fit-ness trail in a continuous circuit with the rest of the jogging path. We’ve received many positive reviews, and multiple jogging strollers and tri-cycles now cross it on a daily basis (although we’ve observed some of our younger visitors still prefer the creek stepping stones). For those who haven’t visited since the bridge was com-pleted, we’ve included a view from the bridge of the recent snowfall. Our continued goal is to make Little Nancy Creek Park a place that offers something to everyone in the surrounding community. With that in mind, we will be using the recent Park Pride grant to build a pavilion so park visitors can rest and relax while still enjoying the out-doors. A pavilion was the most requested fea-ture in the community visioning session second only to the playground and fitness trail which have already been installed. We believe it will be a hallmark of the park and will underscore the park’s role as a place that welcomes people of all ages and abilities. Completion of the pa-vilion is targeted for winter 2014 or early spring 2015. On a final note, we continue to work with the City of Atlanta to make safety improvements. The new sidewalk and fence bordering Peachtree Dunwoody are great examples of the progress that has been made on this front, but

we will continue to work with the City to im-prove the safety of street crossings. As always, continued progress is only possible with generous support from our neighbors in the community. Please help us raise the $100,000 in matching funds so that we can re-alize the community’s goals and create a park

that will bring joy both now and for future generations. If you are interested in hearing how our plans are progressing, becoming a member of the park, or finding other ways to get involved, you can find all the information need-ed on our website. As always, we look forward to seeing you in the park! How to reach us: In addition to www.LittleNancyCreekPark.org, we can be found on Facebook and Twitter. We welcome you to “like” us on Facebook as well as to follow our tweets on “@LNCPFriends.” We really ap-preciate your support in helping us get the word out about all of the great things happening in this park. Snowy Little Nancy Creek Park


North Buckhead February Snow Pictures

Top (L-R): Dani and Marie Amalia Remmers (Mountain Drive) stand beside the “snow princess”; Man-dy Bauer (Wieuca Road) sent a photo of snowy Wieuca Road; Sledding down Land O Lakes Drive, Cait-lin, Eva, and Julia Russell; Julia and Eva Russell, and Eliza Gaskill, with “Bob” . Middle: Ryan Briley’s (Loridans Drive) dog Nova in snow; Bill Callahan (Wieuca Road) photo of bluebirds in tree; Nancy Riggs (Wieuca Road) with Valentine puppet photo for Piccadilly Puppets Facebook page. Bottom: Anne Stern (Carmain Drive) sent photo of her street; Gordon Certain (North Ivy Road) photo of squirrel on snow; Kevin McCauley (Chateaugay Lane) sent photo of entrance to Blue Heron Nature Preserve’s Community Garden. More snow photos at www.nbca.org/Winter2014.


na, purple coneflowers, bee balm, rudbeckia, zinnias, and of course milkweed. Consider add-ing some to your garden and join Blue Heron Nature Preserve in supporting butterfly conser-vation. If you are interested in helping plant and main-tain the BH Butterfly garden or donating native plants to the garden, contact BH volunteer Betsy Lane at 404-368-2155.

By Betsy Lane, Blue Heron Nature Preserve Tucked away behind the office of the Blue Heron Nature Preserve is a simple little garden that is making a big contribution to butterfly conserva-tion. As the natural habitat of butterflies is being altered and drastically reduced, gardens are needed to provide butterflies the resources they need throughout their annual cycle of reproduc-tion and migration. Blue Heron’s butterfly gar-den provides a selection of native plants that meets the needs and preferences of these beau-tiful insects. Recently Blue Heron’s butterfly garden was cer-tified as a “Monarch Waystation” by Monarch Watch, a conservation program of The Universi-ty of Kansas. Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarchs migrate from the United States and Canada to overwintering areas in Mexico and California. This monarch migration is considered one of the world's greatest natural wonders. Blue Heron is proud to help assure the continua-tion of the monarch migration in North America. As a Monarch Waystation the garden must pro-vide milkweed, other nectar plants, and shelter. For more information about this conservation effort visit www.MonarchWatch.org. There are many readily available plants which attract butterflies. Some of Blue Heron’s favor-ites include blanket flower, joe pye weed, verbe-

Waystation Garden Feeds Monarch Butterflies


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NBCA Board Candidate Bios borhoods in their interactions with the city. Andrea is currently the chair of NPU-B. Michelle Carver (Incumbent) Michelle wouldn’t live anywhere but beautiful Atlanta in the great state of Georgia. She lives on Beverly Lane with her husband Brad Carver, her son Bradley Carver, and she expects anoth-er son this July. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and English from Georgia State University, and a Master’s degree in Information Design and Communication from Southern Polytechnic State University. She worked in Marketing Communi-cations until 2011 when her first son was born. Fighting for a stronger community of interest in order to benefit North Buckhead, she rallied her Buckhead friends and neighbors, testified at public hearings, and met with elected officials on the bipartisan committee. These successful efforts resulted in North Buckhead being includ-ed in State Senate District 6 with Sandy Springs, Smyrna, and Vinings. Rita Christopher (Incumbent) Rita has lived on Loridans Circle with her hus-band Jerry since 1991. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, she graduated from the Univer-sity of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing. She is currently employed by Georgia Reproductive Specialists as an in-vitro fertilization nurse and previously worked at Reproductive Biology Associates for twenty-two years. Before relocating to Atlanta in 1988, she was an oncology research nurse at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Rita chairs the Beautification Committee, which maintains our beautiful park at Phipps Boule-vard and Wieuca Road. She also chairs the New Neighbor Committee which provides greeting packages for new residents. Robert Sarkissian (Incumbent) Robert has lived in North Buckhead for sixteen years, after relocating from Northern Califor-nia. A native of New Jersey, he and his wife Eri-ca, who grew up in the small southwest Georgia town of Sylvester, reside on Old Ivy Road with their daughter, Annabelle. Robert is a partner with a consulting organization that specializes in model-based systems engineering to help com-panies optimize designs and processes through advanced simulation techniques. He holds a degree in Physics from Florida Tech. Erica has worked at Delta Air Lines for the last 24 years and is General Manager for In-flight Training Operations. Robert has served as chair of the NBCA Traffic Committee for the last twelve years. He actively participates in initiatives intended to make our neighborhoods pedestrian and traffic friendly. In the span of his professional career, he helped


Roughly half of NBCA’s board stands for election each year. The following are declared candidates for the Board of the North Buckhead Civic Association to serve a two-year term. Candidates must be NBCA members and must reside within NBCA’s boundaries or be a Member Emeritus. (I) indicates incumbent. In voting for NBCA’s board, each North Buckhead member household/business gets one vote. Multiple votes are permitted, so if two votes are tallied for a member, each will be 1/2 vote. Each candidate may receive a yes or no vote from each membership.

Andrea Bennett (Incumbent) Andrea grew up in Atlanta and has lived on Old Ivy Road in North Buckhead since 1990. She attended the University of Georgia and is an at-torney in private practice. Over the years she has worked with many community organiza-tions, including Cub Scouts, the YMCA, the Buckhead West Village Association, and civic associations in Avondale and Lake Claire. Her children and grandchildren live in Poncey-Highland and Decatur. Andrea is a strong advo-cate for livable, walkable communities and for neighborhood-oriented planning. She joined NBCA's Land Use/Zoning Committee in 2004 and serves as North Buckhead's representative to NPU-B, which represents 13 Buckhead neigh-

Want to vote early or can’t attend the Annual Meeting on March 25?

V O T E O N—L I N E www.nbca.org/2014Vote.htm


pioneer the use of advanced statistical simula-tion methods to model and predict traffic behav-ior 20 years ago for the state of California. He is also actively investigating the impact of new technologies that will lead to autonomous and networked automobiles. He is an advocate for measures that influence and enforce adherence to reasonable speed limits in and around our neighborhood streets. Prior to arriving in Atlan-ta, Robert was vice president of the Antigua Homeowners Association in Foster City, Califor-nia for ten years.

(Continued from page 10)

Bios—cont. Why Join NBCA’s Email List? This newsletter is published just four times a year, but neighborhood news happens all the time. We are able to provide far more news in our emails than we can in this newsletter, useful as we hope it is. Solution? Join our free email list. Send your re-quest to [email protected]. Each household may list up to four addresses. The subject line on each email tells you what it’s about — open only emails which interest you. NBCA’s list currently has about 2,050 email ad-dresses, mostly from North Buckhead. Joining our email list is free to all, members or not. Plus we don’t share our email list, ever. And the price is right — it’s free. Many see NBCA email updates as indispensable for living in Buckhead. Recent example: Brendan Foley of Cumming, Georgia, stranded here in Buckhead for two frig-id days, found a wedding ring on snow-covered Peachtree Dunwoody Road. When he got home, his wife Rachel contacted NBCA seeking help in finding the ring’s owner. We promptly alerted our email list. Days later, WSB-TV ran a news report about local resident Jack Joyce get-ting his wedding ring back. Like Brendan, Jack had been stranded on slick Peachtree Dunwoody Road and helped others negotiate the icy road. The next day we got an email from Leeland Miklovic (North Stratford Road), who explained how it all had happened. “I know Jack Joyce — he is one of my son’s basketball coaches. I was talking to him before the basketball game last Saturday, joking about the winter storm ‘calamity’, when he happened to mention that he lost his wed-ding ring off Peachtree Dunwoody while helping others. Then, yesterday, while I was cleaning out my emails, I saw the NBCA email regarding the lost wedding ring and immediately forward-ed the note to him. He immediately called the Foleys and everything fell into place.”

Pay Dues by Credit Card To pay dues or make other donations, go to www.nbca.org/dues.htm. You will receive an email confirmation of your payment from NBCA.

If you lose a pet or find one, send an email to [email protected]. Please include your contact information and a description of the pet. Include a photo if possible.

Please do not use [email protected] for lost/found pet reports (or anything else) — that email account has been deactivated.

Lost Cats and Dogs

NBCA Bylaws Changes The NBCA Board made interim changes to our bylaws that needed to be enacted at the 2013 Annual Meeting. In shuffling the agenda around to meet for our guest speakers, we forgot to vote. See www.nbca.org/Bylaws2013.pdf. The Board will vote at the 2014 Annual Meeting.

Brendan Foley (with ring in focus).

Photo: wsbtv.com


By Susan Frierson (Ivy Road) Would you like to help teach knitting to the en-thusiastic 6-to-12-year-old girls and boys at the Brookhaven Boys and Girls Club? If you have just one hour a week, along with your knitting skills and your inspiration, you will find this to be most a most rewarding activity! We would also welcome school-age knitters who would like to be a part of this special volunteer experience and earn some community service hours. For more information, contact Susan Frierson at 404 261-0375, [email protected].

Attention Knitters!

By Nancy Jones Executive Director, Blue Heron Nature Preserve Come join new Atlanta Audubon Executive Di-rector Nikki Belmonte for a fun knitting day at AAS offices as we “knit for nature” on March 29 from 11 AM to 2 PM. Audubon and Blue Heron Nature Preserve have teamed up on a commu-nity art project to knit a springtime sweater for the dogwood tree at our building. We hope to bring awareness to the importance of trees in the environment and especially the

Before — The plain dogwood in front of

the Blue Heron Nature Preserve building.

After? Maybe our dogwood will look

something like this. — Photo: Orion Magazine

Knit for Nature significance of dogwood trees for birds. But you don’t have to wait until then! We have volunteer knitters working on pieces right now that we will start to piece together on the 29th. Can you knit 2-4 pieces in lengths of 8’-14” to donate? Don’t forget to use bright col-ors and please call Nancy at the Blue Heron of-fice 404-345-1008 to sign up. We will have baked goodies and AAS coffee to sample and purchase the day of the event. Meet us at Blue Heron Nature Preserve, 4055 Roswell Road. See you there!


NBCA Board Andrea Bennett [email protected] 404-231-4130 Carolyn Brown [email protected] 4/405-7603 Michelle Carver [email protected] 404-579-7127 Gordon Certain [email protected] 404-231-1192 Rita Christopher [email protected] 404-237-5878 David Dollar [email protected] 404-231-5137 Dieter Franz [email protected] 404-261-8697 Waldtraut Lavroff [email protected] 678-686-4575 Adam Pollock [email protected] 404-233-1706 Pete Rogers [email protected] 404-239-9004 Robert Sarkissian [email protected] 404-504-9444 Tessa Turner [email protected] 404-769-0418 Bob Young [email protected] 404-255-1315

Web Sites NBCA www.nbca.org NBCA Zoning www.northbuckheadzoning.com Facebook facebook.com/NorthBuckheadCivicAssociation

Land Use and Zoning Chair Walda Lavroff Vice Chair Andrea Bennett

Membership Liaison Gordon Certain Carolyn Brown

Neighborhood Markers Liaison Open

New Neighbor Greeting Liaison Rita Christopher

Newsletter Editor Gordon Certain Assoc. Ed. Sue Certain Ads Rep. Tessa Turner Proofreader Jackie Goodman

NPU-B Representative Andrea Bennett

NBCA Officers President Gordon Certain Vice Pres. Robert Sarkissian Secretary Bob Young Treasurer Dieter Franz

Beautification Liaison Rita Christopher Kevin McCauley Kim McCauley Christmas Tree Sale Liaison David Dollar

Code Enforcement Liaison Michelle Carver Greenspace & Environment Liaison Open

Pedestrian (Sidewalk) Issues Liaison Peter Rogers Social/Special Events Liaison Adam Pollock Sustainability & Recycling Liaison Open Traffic Liaison Robert Sarkissian

Volunteer Coordinator Liaison Open Web Sites NBCA Gordon Certain Zoning Andrea Bennett Facebook Tessa Turner

NBCA Officers, Board, Committee Chairs and Liaisons

By Dieter Franz, NBCA Treasurer The financial report for the last calendar year is very encouraging. Our revenue of $47,140 ex-ceeded our expenses of $40,315 by $6,825. This is the highest net revenue achieved since 2006. The Association now has cash assets of $25,182 as of December 31, 2013. As always, the quarterly newsletter is our big-gest expense but also is our most important tool to communicate with our members. The Christmas tree sale produced a net income of $2,139.

2013 Financial Report

NBCA Financial Report Calendar Year 2013

Rounded to nearest $ Amount

Beginning Cash $18,357

Ending Cash $25,182

Net Change $6,825

Expenses Revenues Net

Christmas Tree Sale $5,041 $7,180 $2,139

Park Maintenance $2,995 $1,163 ($1,832)

Legal $0 $869 $869

Insurance $2,665 $0 ($2,665)

Membership $3,802 $26,633 $22,831

Newsletter $14,807 $10,731 ($4,076)

Crosswalks $0 $96 $96

Greenspace $0 $428 $428

Social $4,738 $40 ($4,698)

Donations $2,250 $0 ($2,250)

General $4,017 $0 ($4,017)

Total $40,315 $47,140 $6,825

Report from NPU-B Chair By Andrea Bennett NPU-B Chair and

North Buckhead Representative to NPU-B

NPU-B heard from Fulton County Community Prosecutor Tiffany Harlow at its January meet-ing. Ms. Harlow stated that the prosecution of recidivist offenders is a top priority. Since most Zone 2 crime is not committed by Zone 2 resi-dents, recidivism statistics are difficult to com-pile. Ms. Harlow noted that while the law re-quires that repeat offenders to be given maxi-mum sentences, often the actual time served is much less. The NPU urged that the prosecutor’s office bring to bear all available resources to keep repeat offenders off the streets.

In February, landscape architect Bob Hughes and Sally Silver of Councilman Howard Shook’s office presented a master plan for $2.5 million in improvements to Charlie Loudermilk Park at the junction of Peachtree, Roswell and West Paces Ferry roads in the Buckhead Village. The redesigned park will provide an important public space in Buckhead and was endorsed by NPU-B.

As usual, the NPU’s Zoning Committee pro-cessed a number of zoning and variance re-quests. Approved applications included several in North Buckhead — see “Land Use and Zon-ing”, page 5.

The NPU also heard an appeal by the Miami Cir-cle Merchants Association from a Special Use Permit issued to The Painted Pin at 727 & 737 Miami Circle. The appeal contended that the Painted Pin constitutes a restaurant and not a bowling alley. However, NPU-B’s Zoning Com-mittee found that the project includes twenty



Report from NPU-B Chair—continued

bowling lanes, and that the bar and food service functions are ancillary and incidental to the main use. Hence The Painted Pin is a bowling alley and not a restaurant or bar within the meaning of the SPI-15 Regulations.

The NPU’s Public Safety Committee was busy and approved various alcohol license permits.

OTHER NEWS Although not within the ambit of the NPU sys-tem, we also learned in February of several ma-jor new projects proposed for our area. These were presented for comment to the Develop-ment Review Committee (DRC) for SPI-12.

SPI-12 is short for the “Buckhead/Lenox Sta-tions Special Public Interest District.” Special Pubic Interest Districts were first authorized back in 1977 and since then a number of them have been designated in Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead and other areas of the city. SPI-12 was created in 1996 and updated in 2012.

The DRC is a new form of input that did not ex-ist until the 2012 update. In the past, projects within SPIs were handled purely by administra-tive action through the city’s Department of Planning. There was no notice or opportunity for neighborhood input unless the application involved rezoning. Although the Department of Planning continues to administratively handle developments within the SPI, there is now no-tice and an avenue for public comment via the DRC. The DRC does not approve or deny pro-posed developments, but is an advisory body.

The following proposals were presented for com-ment at the February 5 meeting of the DRC:

AMLI apartment development. This will be entirely within the Buckhead Heights neighborhood, south of us across Peachtree Road. Buckhead Heights is sometimes re-ferred to as the “Lenox superblock” — it’s bounded by Peachtree, Roxboro, East Paces Ferry and Oak Valley.

The AMLI project includes 640 apartment units in several midrise (five story) buildings and one 19-story tower. The apartments will be upscale, with mostly one and two bedroom units in the low-rise buildings, and one, two and three bedroom units in the tower. AMLI plans to break ground on the apartments sometime later this year. A por-tion of this site has been set aside as a park of approximately two acres.

(Continued from page 13) Alliance Three office tower. This 560,000 square foot office tower is the third and final phase of a master planned project along the Buckhead Loop. The developer is Tishman Speyer. They said they hope to get under way this year but will not go forward unless they have an anchor tenant. The DRC had substantial discussion with the Tishman rep-resentatives about traffic handling, impact fees and walkability options in this area. The new MARTA north concourse bridge will open this spring and will provide access to this de-velopment.

Marriott AC hotel on the Phipps Plaza property at Wieuca and Peachtree. The developer plans to build an AC hotel on the Phipps Plaza property at the corner of Wieu-ca and Peachtree. I’d never heard of this brand so I looked them up on the web. They tout themselves as “geared towards the de-sign conscious travelers looking for a cosmo-politan hotel located within a great city loca-tion.” Until recently they have been entirely in Spain, Portugal and Italy, but they have been purchased by Marriott, which is ex-panding the brand in major US cities.

This would be a midrise six-story hotel with 164 guestrooms. A new parking deck would be built and it will connect with the Phipps Plaza deck.

We also had a lot of discussion about traffic at this already congested intersection. There will be a turnoff from Wieuca onto the hotel property, but no entrance from the hotel on-to Wieuca. The developer will also provide SPI compliant sidewalks along Wieuca Road in front of the hotel.

As always, let me know if I can assist you in any way involving NPU-B. All meetings are open to the public, and I hope you will attend and make your voice heard.

Andrea Bennett [email protected] (404) 231-4130 NPU-B Meetings: NPU-B Board: 7 PM, First Tuesday of month NPU-B Zoning Committee: 7 PM, Last Tuesday NPU-B Public Safety Committee: 6 PM, First

Tuesday All Meetings at Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30305

www.npu-b.com


NBCA is now on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NorthBuckheadCivicAssociation.

Keep up with our activities, alerts, and more. Go to your Facebook page and type in, “North Buckhead Civic Association” in the space marked, “Search for People, Places, and Things”. Like us! As we go to press, we have 184 likes.

Follow NBCA on Facebook

Area Businesses Support NBCA These businesses support your neighborhood association with their

NBCA business memberships. Please support them. at&t - Wireless Etc 770-605-7000 Atlanta Audubon Society www.atlantaaudubon.org Blue Heron Nature Preserve www.bhnp.org Buckhead Coalition 3340 Peachtree Rd#560 Buckhead-Midtown Vacuum 3872 Roswell Road Buckhead Realty-Jim Cosgrove, Broker 404-841-9000 Cannon, Mihill & Winkles, LLC 1355 Peachtree St. #1570

www.CastleHavenConstruction.com

Ed Castro Landscape www.edcastro.com DL Crawford, Assoc., Inc. 3445 Stratford Rd #3403 European School of Music & Chess 5187 Roswell Rd Georgia Shakespeare www.gashakespeare.org Jackie Goodman, Realtor 404-966-9220 Goodyear of Buckhead 3830 Roswell Road Jones & Kolb, CPAs 404-262-7920 Kings Home Furnishings www.kingsatlanta.com Nan T Moore Interiors [email protected] Park Avenue Condominium Ass’n 750 Park Ave

Piccadilly Puppets 404-636-0022 Pope and Land www.popeandland.com Private Bank of Buckhead 3565 Piedmont Rd#210 Realtors, *The Hinsons * 404-231-1113 Regent Partners www.regentpartners.com Remarkable Real Estate Services 404-233-MARC Scotland Wright Associates www.scotlandwright.com Selig Enterprises, Inc. seligenterprises.com Shirley Irek Piano Studio 404-467-9451 Jennifer Sherrouse, Realtor www.jennifersherrouse.com St. James United Methodist Church www.stjamesatlanta.org South Peak Construction 404-983-4807 Robbie Stinespring-HeritageBank Mtge 404-266-5117 Suzy Smith, Realtor 404-307-0347 Elsie & Holden Thompson, HN Realtors 404-814-5421

Trees Atlanta www.treesatlanta.org

William Word Antiques 707-709 Miami Circle

Area businesses, please join us! Can you think of another way to get visibility for your business for so little money? To be listed here and become a business member for a year, send your $75 check (non-profits, $35) along with the membership coupon on page 16. Or pay on-line at www.nbca.org/Dues.htm.

North Buckhead Area Map New Business Members We reserve this space in our newsletter for new NBCA business members. Joining us this issue is:

Kings Home Furnishings is a 30,000 square foot home furnishings showroom with furni-ture, lighting, accessories, oil paintings and prints. Complimentary interior design services are available. Kings is located at 1200 Menlo Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318. Their phone is (404) 355-8995. Their web site is www.kingsatlanta.com. Gregory King lives in our general area.

North Buckhead and surrounding areas.


North Buckhead Civic Association PO Box 420391 Atlanta, GA 30342

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NORTH BUCKHEAD CIVIC ASSOCIATION Mail to: NBCA, P.O. Box 420391, Atlanta, GA 30342-0391

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Annual membership dues — Household $35 / Non-profit $35 / Business $75 (12 months starting today or 12 months added to your existing membership)

Please enclose your check payable to NBCA, or pay on-line at www.nbca.org/dues.htm.

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NBCA is a 501(c)(4) Georgia non-profit corporation. Payments to NBCA are not tax-deductible charitable contributions.

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