Fuqua Phase II plan deferred by Board of Commissioners

Fuqua Development presented its plans for Phase II of the Decatur Crossings development at the May 26, 2015 Board of Commissioners meeting (meeting notes can be found here). Fuqua had submitted four requests: 

1. change the land use designationfrom SUB(Suburban) to TC (Town Center); 

2. rezone property from O‐I (Office‐Institutional) and R‐75 (Single‐Family Residential to OCR (Office‐Commercial‐Residential), for a mixed‐use development with 95,000 square feet of retail,restaurant, and office space and 450 multifamily residential units;

3. increase the height of multifamily residential buildings in a mixed use development from the allowed maximum of two stories to five stories;to allow two drive‐through lanes for two commercial buildings; and 

4. allow a drive‐through restaurant

View from Medlock Park / Scott Blvd side. Phase I of the development (approved in April 2014) entails the triangular section seen at the bottom right-hand corner of this illustration. See our earlier post for additional details and images of what Fuqua proposes for Phase II. 

The Board of Commissioners deferred the vote until June 23. MANA representatives spoke to support a deferral, as the Cross-Neighborhoods Committee continues to negotiate with Fuqua for improvements to pedestrian safety and access and alternatives that will help modulate cut-through traffic through our neighborhoods.

Fuqua presented its Phase II plans to the community on March 2, 2015. Notes from that meeting as well as previous Fuqua updates are available here.

Greenspace planning: Scott Circle

Remember to send your ideas for the Scott Circle vacant lots to scottlots2015@gmail.com by this Friday 5/29! A meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thur 6/18 to present the results and have further discussions on next steps. Thanks in advance for your help to improve our neighborhood greenspace!

For the last update on this greenspace project, see http://www.medlockpark.org/2015/04/
greenspace-planning-for-scott-circle.html

Behold: the dog stinkhorn

Ah, the mushrooms of Medlock. Often there are many in late summer and early fall.

But it's spring, and like puppies after a long winter, the dog stinkhorns have come out to play. Behold Mutinus elegans!

At first, the stinkhorn is pretty nondescript and button-like.

And then it's Martha, hide the children, for things are getting weird!

Another view, from pod to emerging stinkhorn to one that probably got kicked over, showing the hollow, spongy inner works. An engineering feat, without a doubt.

In a post titled "Nastiest. Mushroom. Ever." the Brooklyn Botanical Garden explains that "After sprouting from an egglike bulb, the orange or red stalks produce a slimy, carrion-scented spore coating near the tip. Flies are attracted to the scent, and after feeding on it, they fly off and dispense the spores wherever they land."

If these pictures are not enough, Cornell University has a time-lapse video of the full horror, from emergence to the inevitable keeling over. As a group, these stinkhorns seem to have very distinctive shapes...

Greenspace planning for Scott Circle lots

FEMA floodplain buy-outs by DeKalb County have created an opportunity to develop greenspace on Scott Circle, along the Medlock Park boundary. As many have noticed, a number of houses (seven, to be precise) have been demolished over the last few years. What should happen to these spaces? What are our options going forward? As discussed in our Spring 2015 newsletter, MANA and Druid Hills Youth Sports have contributed funds to gather neighborhood feedback. Casey Boudreau, MANA Parks and Greenspace chair, has some updates for us.

- - -

Dear Medlock Park neighbors and users:

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend the meeting Thursday night about the vacant lots on Scott Circle which will become part of Medlock Park.  Attached are the presentation done by representatives from Kaizen Collaborative (the landscape architecture firm hired by MANA and DHYS to help us with plans for the new space), feedback that was captured during the meeting, and a meeting summary.

Feedback offered during the meeting.

If you missed the meeting there is still opportunity for you to provide input to the process!  Please send an email to scottlots2015@gmail.com with your top 3 ideas of what to do with some or all of the spaces.  You can either pick from the list developed by the group or suggest new items as well as provide any additional comments.  Please note this email will not be monitored regularly, so you may not receive a response but please note we will include all input in the final analysis.  

The deadline to provide input is Fri May 22.  Another meeting to present the results and have further discussions on  next steps will be held in early June - announcements will be sent out in mid May with the date and time.

Thank you in advance for your help to improve our neighborhood greenspace!

Galling beauty

The wool sower gall grows on oak trees. A white pom pom with magenta spots, it's hard to miss, and harder to file under "parasitic wasp hatchery" because wait, it's kind of beautiful.

I'm just a little oak with my pom poms on. Let me root root root for the home team...

Wait. Now it's looking like a snowman murder mystery...

According to this source, these fluffy confections are nurseries for a parasitic wasp (Callirhytis seminator). The wasp lays her eggs on the host tree, the larvae hatch and secrete some wondrous stuff that creates a colorful cover that shelters their development. For more photos, go here.

There's always some neat surprise waiting to be discovered in the 'hood!

Hail, yes.

That was some scary weather this evening! Sheets of rain that made it look like mist outside, and such winds. We have some trees and power lines down.

Some parts of Medlock are still in the dark but others have power again. Our thanks to GA Power for working to get everyone powered up asap.

Fran Millar wastes everyone's time; Medlock appeals to House to rectify La Vista Hills boundary

MANA President Lynn Ganim sent the following letter to Representative  Rex Brockaway.

Dear Representative Brockway, 

Recently, Senator Fran Millar showed his contempt for the House by ignoring the agreed-upon northern border of LaVista Hills with Tucker.  Yesterday he showed his complete disregard for openly and fairly-agreed-upon changes in the southern border of LaVista Hills.  I was part of a group representing the Medlock and Mason Mill neighborhoods of DeKalb who met with a representative of LaVista Hills and staff for Senator Elena Parent and Representative May Margaret Oliver.  We were told that Senator Millar would incorporate our requests to have parts of our neighborhoods removed from the LVH map if the LVH representative agreed. These areas had never been on the LVH map before, and LVH does not even want them. As a result, we spent several hours with the map and amicably agreed on relatively minor changes which would have restored the wholeness of our neighborhoods and would, we thought, satisfy Senator Millar’s requirements. 

However, he changed his requirements and proceeded to run roughshod over our agreement for no understandable reason. This dishonorable behavior reinforces the public cynicism and distrust of government.  It’s as if he were a cat playing with a mouse, and we are outraged. There is no acceptable excuse for his actions.
Please defeat the Senate version of the LaVista Hills map, which reaches into Medlock and Mason Mill, and return to the original map agreed upon by your Governmental Affairs sub-committee or the map recently sent to you by Senator Parent. Doing so would be to take one small step towards restoring integrity to this process and the faith of citizens in their elected representatives. 

Thank you.

Lynn Ganim
President
Medlock Area Neighborhood Association (MANA)

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MEDIA RELEASE

Contacts:  
Mary Hinkel, President, Mason Mill Civic Association

maryhinkel at comcast

404-235-5117

Lynn Ganim, President, Medlock Area Neighborhood Association (MANA) lganim at bellsouth 404.735.2510

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 26, 2015

NEIGHBORHOODS SPLIT IN TWO CALL FOR CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

In spite of the fact that neighborhood leaders from Mason Mill and Medlock reached boundary agreements with LaVista Hills prior to the Senate's adoption of HB520 on March 25th, Senator Fran Millar (R-40th district) refused to delay action on the bill, thus splitting two neighborhoods in two for no apparent reason.

According to Mary Hinkel, President of the Mason Mill Civic Association: "We acted in good faith, following Senator Millar's instructions to Senator Parent on Monday, March 23rd, that he would make any changes LaVista Hills representative Steve Schultz agreed to.  We met the following morning and essentially agreed to the map that had already been approved in the House, with minor modifications.  The next step was to write the legal description of the boundary for inclusion in an amendment to be proposed by Senator Millar.  As it turns out, while we were meeting, Senator Millar was moving forward on his own.  I am shocked by his heavy-handed and cavalier approach."

While the Mason Mill and Medlock neighborhoods remained intact in the original House-drawn map, Senator Millar presented a new map to the Senate created by the Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office.  The office relies on census-block mapping techniques, rather than more up-to-date geographic information software.  As a result, in order to draw the commercial areas of Toco Hills and North DeKalb mall into the new LaVista Hills map, the office also had to include the residential properties in the same census blocks, thus splitting the neighborhoods.  

Legislative Counsel for the House and Senate assured Senator Parent's staff on Monday that a map could be used that included a boundary described by "metes and bounds" and not census-block mapping.

"We want to keep our neighborhoods unified.  To be thwarted by an antiquated mapping technique is outrageous in a time when every smart phone can create a highly detailed map." says Lynn Ganim, President, Medlock Area Neighborhood Association (MANA). "We ask the legislature to convene a conference committee to fix the southern borders as agreed, using metes and bounds."