Apparently the Mayor is going to disregard the attys letter from Steve Broadie because she will only rule based on information presented to the LRB. Regardless on any missing permits.
This is another article from the friends of Steve Broadie for City Council. In between the sarcasm, it's interesting that each side of the SPI Club is >10k feet and thus non-conforming...
BREAKING NEWS…TORNADO HITS MIDTOWN ATLANTA -- DESTROYS PORTION OF PROPOSED MEGA NIGHTCLUB STRUCTURES
By: Lois Lane, Staff Reporter
Clark Kent, Contributing Reporter
Thursday, October 29, 2009
If not for the request made by one concerned Midtown citizen, Steve Brodie, through an Open Records Request, Atlanta residents would have never known the truth about the unexplainable destruction of a portion of the structure for the proposed mega nightclub SPI Club / SPI Lounge. Apparently the tornado that tore through downtown Atlanta, Georgia in March 2008 mysteriously destroyed a portion of the buildings located at 1021 – 1029 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia to bring the size of the buildings into zoning compliance. This discovery was made only after receiving information from the City of Atlanta Bureau of Buildings that revealed discrepancies to Building Permit Applications filed in 2004 and 2009 on behalf of Club Velvet Room and the SPI Club / SPI Lounge, respectively.
In 2004, attorney DeWayne Martin applied for a Building Permit for 1021 Peachtree Street. Under oath, Mr. Martin swore that the total floor area of the building, which is the footprint of the building, was at that time 10,155 square feet. The City reviewed, confirmed, and approved the application, and a building permit was issued to Mr. Martin.
In 2006, Mr. Martin’s then and current client, Michael Gidewon, applied for a building permit to combine 1021 Peachtree Street and the adjacent space at 1029 Peachtree Street into a huge night club similar to his previously operated 27,000 square foot night club named “Vision.” A building permit was issued for that proposed use, but when City of Atlanta officials realized that the maximum size of a night club in SPI-16 was 10,000 square feet pursuant to a change in the law that went into effect in 2001, the permit for the mega-club was revoked, construction was halted, and Messrs. Martin and Gidewon were forced to come up with a new plan for putting a mega-club on Peachtree Street in the center of the Midtown Mile.
In 2008, a Mr. Tim Burson applied for a building permit for 1029 Peachtree Street and swore under oath in his application for the permit that the total floor area of 1029 Peachtree Street was 10,155 square feet. The City reviewed, confirmed, and approved the application, and a building permit was issued to Mr. Burson.
Then, earlier this year, Mr. Martin and his client, Mr. Gidewon, unveiled their new plan to operate a mega-club on the Midtown Mile, but still comply with the 10,000 square foot limit on night clubs in SPI-16. They proposed to open a night club named SPI Club in the space at 1021 Peachtree Street and a purportedly separate night club named SPI Lounge in the adjacent space at 1029 Peachtree Street. Even calling the mega-club two clubs, however, did not solve the problem completely, because each of the two buildings still had 10,155 square feet of space according to the previously sworn building permits, one of which was signed by Mr. Martin, himself.
That is when “the building shrinkage on Peachtree Street” apparently occurred. When Mr. Gidewon simultaneously applied for building permits for 1021 Peachtree and 1029 Peachtree on April 30, 2009, he swore under oath that 1021 Peachtree had somehow shrunk to 9,968 square feet, and 1029 Peachtree had somehow shrunk to 9,706 square feet conveniently satisfying the 10,000 square foot limit for night clubs at those locations. Even more amazingly, the ground floor area at 1021 Peachtree had shrunk by 912 square feet, but the total floor area had shrunk by only 187 square feet, so some area must have grown by 725 square feet. The ground floor area of 1029 Peachtree had shrunk by 177 square feet, but the total floor area had shrunk by 449 square feet, so some other area must have shrunk by 272 square feet.
Many bystanders say that the only plausible explanation of this sudden decrease in square footage is that the March 2008 tornado that ripped through downtown Atlanta must have destroyed part of the building. In any event, SPI Club and SPI Lounge have somehow now met the requirements under City of Atlanta Zoning Ordinance which limits the maximum amount of square footage for nightclubs in SPI-16 to 10,000 square feet. “It is truly amazing how Mother Nature has selective effects on mankind” says another Midtown Atlanta resident. “Tornados manage to serpentine their way through a city causing destruction to select buildings. By only hitting the proposed SPI Club buildings, the tornado managed to potentially destroy the lives of many Midtown residents by making sure that the buildings are now in compliance.”
In the spirit of Superman, Mr. Brodie has vowed to stop this surreptitious process by exercising his legal rights as a citizen of Atlanta. Most importantly, Mr. Brodie intends to bring to the City of Atlanta’s attention that there was actually no tornado that destroyed part of the building, and the fact that each of the two proposed adjacent, but purportedly separate, nightclubs is still larger than 10,000 square feet. Therefore the plans of the applicant are currently illegal under City Zoning Ordinances.
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