so i went to the midtown DRC meeting tonight and i've got news.
there were three projects being reviewed, the first was the apartment building between cypress and peachtree and fronting 5th. they seeked several variances, including fenestration requirements to cover the transformer at the east side of the building facing cypress, but the most controversial variations they sought were to have parking along 5th street in front of the building, and to have no active use on cypress street, along with a curb cut on the cypress street side for service vehicles.
believe it or not, they tried to pass off a leasing office and a closed off clubroom for residents only as an 'active use' for fronting peachtree— the DRC explained that that isn't an 'active' use. in addition, the proposal seemed unprepared. they only had a zoning map and didn't have floorplans showing specific variance requests, and they didn't satisfy the burden of proof for the variances— they were told that a variance for parking on 5th might have been acceptable had they given a reason for it, such as retail on the peachtree side. they were essentially sent back to the drawing board for the project as they had an incomplete plan and didn't have reasons for their variances.
the big project of the night was 1138 peachtree. man, this is a huge project. believe it or not, they are going to fit about 150,000 square feet of retail on a site the size of a postage stamp. the plan was very well presented and i'm sure it will find its way on here soon, but i'll give a summary.
the building is a 500+ foot tower with 10 apartments on each floor, and the podium is a 100 foot high glass enclosed complex on the front and a parking deck surrounding the back of the building. there will be retail on the cypress street level (which is the basement level of the building).
the building would front peachtree with THREE levels of retail— one at street level with two storefronts with a lobby in between. the lobby would be primarily for retail customers but would also serve residents. the lobby would have escalators going down to the basement level, which would be a grocery store— they confirmed that the store would not be whole foods, but would be a grocery store that had a history of locating within urban areas. around here, that would only be wal-mart and kroger, but this site is so unique it might be a new market entry for atlanta. they painted a picture of the smells of food wafting up into the lobby from the grocery store below— i can't stress how much of a non-lobby this is really, it's more like an urban mall, something you'd find in new york or tokyo.
they have two options for the ground level retail stores, one would be to have an extension of the grocery store on the ground level, perhaps a café or something, or have an entirely separate retailer. the location of the escalator would depend on the grocery store's decision to lease the ground level space or not.
one level above the ground floor, on the peachtree street side, would be more retail space. but the unique thing about the building is that it is glass enclosed on both the north and south sides of the building, giving retail on the sides of the building visibility from the street. so not only does it have 3 levels of retail on peachtree, it's got retail on the sides also.
they were seeking a variation for two curb cuts on peachtree. they were not happy about that at first, but after it was explained it became clear that the building could not have traffic entirely going in and out on cypress street— there's just too much density for one curb cut. their compromise was to have a 12' wide curb cut (single lane, one way) on either side of the building, and the entrance to the parking deck would be behind the tower, meaning you enter on peachtree and drive right next to the building and enter the podium about 150 feet back from street level. the building would have fronting retail on all three sides of the front, meaning sidewalks.
on the cypress street side, there is one curb cut for the parking deck, and there are two smaller retail spaces separated by a small lobby and elevator. the parking deck will occupy all the space between the retail on the cypress street side to the back of the tower, and it will be a 100' high parking deck, nearly 9 floors.
on the ninth floor, the parking deck will end, and on top of it will be the residents lobby— the elevators on the ground floor will only go up 9 floors, and to access the residential tower, you have to go through another lobby with security. on that floor, there will be a pool on top of the parking deck.
and get this. 9 floors up, facing the cypress street side, you've got another 10,000 square feet of retail, a restaurant space that will look out over cypress street 100 feet in the air, capping the top of the parking deck.
the DRC only had two concerns that stuck in their craw— first, the parking deck between the first and ninth floors (which look great), looks like shit, it's like a parking deck. they wanted a better design and tivoli agreed to it, the guy presenting it even admitted it looked like shit. the second concern was the number of electric vehicle charging stations in the parking deck— the parking deck will have over 600 spaces, so they wanted six charging spaces, tivoli only wanted to install 3 since they thought the technology might be outdated in a few years. they basically told them it was 3 more spaces out of 600 and to count themselves lucky.
they will resubmit the final two concerns online and if the changes are adequate, DRC will approve the proposal.
finally, the last thing on the agenda was a nice gentleman who presented a proposal to build the townhomes at 5th and piedmont (and to restore the historic home in front of them). the conflict there was that there is a 35' height limit in that neighbourhood, and they want to go 24 inches above that to create a rooftop patio— they just had a question concerning whether 35' was counting from the street level or from the ground level of the site. if it's from the sidewalk, they need a variance, if not, they're fine. he received a recommendation but was told that the city planning board had to define the height limit as they didn't have that authority.
anyway. tons of awesome shit going on. this is a big fucking deal guys
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The most recent article on the project reported that construction is scheduled to start early next year. 
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