Residential project hobbled by neighbor pushback is officially dead

A housing proposal that called for replacing a vacant home near a storied eastside golf course—and drew vocal opposition from some neighbors—has officially been scrapped, ending another saga involving a relatively dense, residential project in Atlanta.

Atlanta-based Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services had initially proposed building 12 townhomes on a .9-acre corner property at 2535 Glenwood Ave. in East Lake, with prices starting in the $500,000 range.

According to commercial real estate brokers who lead that firm, Michael Palazzone and Tim Head, the Glenwood Homes concept would have provided an injection of housing that Atlanta needs in a desirable location (East Lake Golf Club is directly across the street). But after encountering what they called unfair pushback from a small but vocal group of adjacent homeowners, the developers agreed last summer to shrink the number of homes they were proposing but with beefed-up floorplans: eight freestanding, three-bedroom houses with about 2,150 square feet each. Starting prices, according to the development team, had to be raised to the $750,000 to $800,000 range for the project to pencil out.

Still, those plans didn’t pass muster, and Lee & Associates were considering ways to make four large standalone houses work on the corner site when the project fell apart.

Developers have not responded to inquiries in recent weeks, but according to Rick Baldwin, president of East Lake Neighbors Community Association, the proposal is dead. Because numerous votes had been held regarding Glenwood Homes, City of Atlanta zoning and city council protocols dictated that a waiting period on the matter extend until June before rezoning could be considered again. The result: A pending $650,000 contract between the vacant home’s seller and the development group was terminated, according to Baldwin.

“The seller did not want to wait that long for the developer to get the rezoning done,” Baldwin wrote via email, “[and] the developer [wasn’t] able to make the money work for four single-family detached units.”

Beyond the lot’s size, its perks included views of the clubhouse and manicured greens of East Lake Golf Club, with a MARTA bus route running just outside of what, as Head and Palazzone envisioned it, would be the front doors of townhomes. Opposition came from a subset of homeowners in the adjacent Olmsted neighborhood, a master-planned enclave of 91 stately homes and townhomes that would have shared a city-street entrance with the Glenwood Homes site. Opponents generally felt the site was more appropriate for three to four standalone houses, according to the developers and meeting records.

Modified plans for 10 townhomes received about 85 percent approval during votes taken in 2022 during both ELNCA and NPU-O meetings. Developers then took plans to the city's Zoning Review Board, along with a letter of recommendation from city councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari. In that meeting, Olmsted neighborhood reps heard commentary that emboldened them to believe they had leverage to change plans again to a lower density, and they reneged on their approval, eventually leading the project to “purgatory,” as Palazzone told Urbanize Atlanta last year.  

Baldwin, the ELNCA president and a Keller Williams Realtor by day, said pressures for “smart density” are coming at properties along Glenwood Avenue in the area. Seeing them through will take a coordinated effort between sellers, developers, communities such as Olmsted, and governing boards from ELNCA and NPU-O up to the city council level, said Baldwin.

“Together we agreed on the previous plan over the course of over a year,” he said. “Going forward we will need more of the same.” 

The East Lake situation marked another instance of relatively dense intown housing being called into question by neighbors who fear aspects such as added noise and traffic.

Developers on Edgewood’s Whitefoord Avenue, as one example, were forced by neighborhood pushback to scrap plans in 2022 for up to 48 “missing middle” housing units in vintage-style buildings also near MARTA transit. The replacement for those plans—large modern duplex units initially priced at $950,000 and up—have seen substantial discounts in the face of sluggish sales.

After the Glenwood Homes site had been whittled to eight freestanding houses last year and received unanimous approval from the city’s zoning arbiters, Head told Urbanize in an interview the developers were feeling emboldened and confident the homes would be built. “We’re not going to get rich—it’s not like some money grab,” he said. “At this point, we’re making very little money. But we’ve been dealt with so poorly, it’s almost become a challenge.” 

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