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CITY OF ATLANTA
BOARD OF ALUVERMEN 2UNING CUMMITTER
REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION OF ZONING APPLICATION
OF T. M. ALEXANDER, JR. (SOUTHWEST CORNER
OF WHST LAX® AND SIMPSON, S. We)
T. M. Alexander, Jr. respectfully requests that .
the Zoning Committes recousider its action of August 24, 1967,
denying his application for rezoning for service station use
of the property on the southwest corner of West Lake aad
Simpson, S. ¥. The applicant understands that the denial was
based on Comsittoe dissatisfaction with the justification
offered by the staff who recommended the rezoning requested.
Applicant submits the following points as justification for
this request:
1) The application was recommended by the Zoning
staff and the Planning Board after applicant complied with
their requests, primarily to set off large buffer zones detween
the proposed service station and the property to the south and
to the west of the situs (which containing trees offer an
excellent insulation to any commercial activity -- see copy of
plat attached hereto as Gxhibit 12 and of picture attached as
Exhibit 1).
2) One of the staff personnel with most detailed
knowledge of the justification for the resoning (Mr. Shuttleworth)
was on vacation at the time of the August 24 hearing and
not available to advise the Committee.
3) The property in question is an integral part
of the commercial bustle of the intersection of West Lake
and Simpson, S. WN. and is not insulated or buffered from it
at all. It has infinitely more relation to that intersection
than to the areas south and west of it, as only a casual
inspection will show, Directly across West Lake in full
sight, sound and smell, is a shopping center of not overly
lovely appearance (see pictures attached as Exhibit 2; see
also Exhibits 3 and 4 for pictures of the other corners).
If a zoning line is to be drawn, it should be where trees and
earth banks can shield from sight and sound.
4) The property in question is greatly devalued
as residential property and can be maintained only at a loss,
so that if rezoning is denied applicant is deprived of the
reasonable use of his property, to which use he has a right
under due process and the privilege and immunities secured by
the Constitution and the laws. Applicant offers to show by
testimony and figures the difficulty he had attempting to
economically and sanitarily maintain the building that formerly
existed at the property and the problems that caused him to
tear it down.
5) There is not and has not been a true dividing
line at West Lake insulating Sispson Road west of West Lake
from commercial activities. True there ara some lovely homes
in the area. fut it is heavily infested with apartment
buildings. Moreover, only one-half milo west of West Lake
on Simpson is butch's Drive-In Restaurant with a very large
parking lot (see copy of map attached as Exhibit 13 and of
pictures attached as LUxhibits & and @). And twoetenths of a
mile beyond that is a commercial corner at Simpson and Anderson
consisting of two stores, a new diner and a service station
only several years old (see pictures attached hereto as Exhibits 7,
8, 9, 10 and 11). Just north of this corner a shert block is
&@ lounge and drive in.
6) Simpson Road is a main oastewest route (as is
West Lake a main aorth-south route). [t may ultimately and
inevitably be destined as a commercial artery such as Piedmont
Avenue and Peachtree Street have become. However, the
commercialization of the lot in question, insulated by buffer
zones and giving every appearance to casual observation of being
an integral part of the Simpson-West Lake intersection, can have
virtually ne significant effect on the further commercialization
of Simpson oad. Certainly the effect is minimal and conjectural
when compared with the very substantial and present damage
suffered by applicant frow inability te rezone his property.
7) Commercial enclaves can and do exist without
necessarily infecting surrounding residential property, of which
applicant can give examples to the committee by testimony.
8) The northeast corner ef the intersection at West
Lake and Simpson is occupied by a service station of a major oil
company that occupies a dominant competitive position in the
City of Atlanta. It would be in the best interest of free
enterprise, which all the members of this Committee are on
record as favoring, to allow another oil company to service
this heavily traveled intersection.
Applicant therefore respectfully requests that the
Committee reconsider his application and do the following:
a) Retone the property in question for commercial
use aS #3 a service station.
b) If such rezoning is denied, specify the reason
for the denial.
c) If such rezoning is denied, specify the standard
or standards used in making such a determination, and similar
determinations.
d) If such rezoning is denied, state what commercial
use, if any, applicant may make of the property.
e) If such rezoning is denied, state what other use,
if any, applicant may make of the property.
£) If such rezoning is denied, state what action
applicant may take, if any, in order to have the property
rezoned for a service station,
Applicant respectfully requests that any member
with a personal interest in this matter, if any, recuse himself
from considering the application.
This Ist day of September, 1967,
T. M. Alexander, Jr.