DORAVILLE, Ga. (ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE) -- City officials have made a key zoning change that should add momentum for the redevelopment of the former Doraville GM plant.
The city has replaced the previous zoning on the 165-acre site with new guidelines that allow for an urban mixed-use project.
It opens the door for any developer vying for the site to create a master plan with a mix of uses, including office and residential. The previous zoning would not have allowed mixed-use.
"This is a huge step," said Joe Cooley, director of community development with the city of Doraville. "It's not only going to allow for the redevelopment of the GM site but for the downtown as well into a much more urban, walkable area."
The new zoning — known as the Livable Community Code — will enable a developer the flexibility for a range of potential uses on the property. That could include a plan to convert the GM plant into a college or medical campus, or mixed-use redevelopment, linked by streets arranged in a grid-system.
It would give Peachtree Industrial Boulevard near Interstate 285 a more urban look and feel like the office and retail districts farther south on Peachtree including Buckhead and Midtown.
Earlier this year, Atlanta Business Chronicle reported developer Egbert Perry hopes to transform the idle General Motors Corp. plant into a thriving transit destination.
Perry, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based The Integral Group LLC, said his company could complete the acquisition of the 165-acre site by August. The site has been one of metro Atlanta's most intriguing, since GM closed its plant in 2008 as part of a major restructuring.
Its redevelopment has the potential to become one of the most important for the region's connectivity.
The GM site sits at the intersection of the Atlanta Perimeter, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and the northern terminus of MARTA in DeKalb County. It's also just three miles from DeKalb Peachtree Airport, or PDK.
Perry sees the chance to create a project unlike Atlanta has ever seen.
"This is not going to be another Atlantic Station," Perry told Atlanta Business Chronicle in May. "It will be a true transit-oriented development."
