2023.01.17 ABG Update
Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Proposal for Public Storage:
Virginia-Highland Civic Association was formed in 1972 as a response to the development of a 4-lane interstate through what is now Virginia-Highland. Our neighborhood has a special sensitivity to conversations about development. It is in our neighborhood DNA to know decisions about roads and buildings shape land use for generations. Virginia-Highland understands that the choices we make as a city today show us what we want Atlanta to be tomorrow.
The proposal from the Atlanta Botanical Garden to build a storage facility on
The Beltline leaves us asking how the Atlanta Botanical Garden
views the future of Atlanta.
Summary:
Our community has been faced with a proposed development since just before Thanksgiving. Some neighbors are deeply familiar and some may not be aware. Given the range of awareness, we, the VHCA board, would like to publicly update everyone equally and transparently on the current proposal of the Atlanta Botanical Garden to build a Public Storage chain facility, the history of Atlanta Botanical Garden expansion plans, details of the current conversation, VHCA’s asks of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, our community design guidelines, and our next steps as a community.
Neighbor feedback options:
We encourage neighbors to virtually attend the Beltline Design Meeting on January 18 at 5PM. All public comments must be submitted by 4pm on Tuesday the 17th via [email protected].
History of Atlanta Botanical Garden’s expansion:
To get up to speed, these articles provide context:
VHCA presentation to the community-12/1/22
Letter to the Community- 12/8/22
The Atlanta Botanical Garden has planned an expansion of the Gardens for several years. “The Atlanta Botanical Garden has orchestrated a deal to swap land that currently houses a storage unit facility along Westminster Drive near Piedmont Avenue with 1.67 acres of land at 1011 Monroe Dr. to build a replacement facility.
“Among the businesses along that Piedmont Avenue corridor is a large self-storage facility operated by California-based Public Storage. (Mary Pat) Matheson said the Garden has struck a deal with Public Storage to buy that site for demolition and erect a replacement storage facility in VaHi. The Garden earlier this year purchased a commercial property at Monroe Drive and Cooledge Avenue for that purpose, though it previously told SaportaReport that was just for an investment. Matheson said the deal had to remain quiet for negotiation reasons. The overall deal will cost about $40 million, according to Garden spokesperson Danny Flanders.
“They wouldn’t sell if they weren’t going to have a new facility,” said Matheson about Public Storage.”
“The recent announcement was topped by a $25 million contribution from the James M. Cox Foundation, a philanthropy of Cox Enterprises, owner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and recent purchaser of the news site Axios. Carol Tomé, CEO of shipping company UPS and a Garden Board of Trustees member, donated another $5 million. A Garden press release says another $5 million has already been received, leaving about $17 million to be raised.”
Timeline of the 1011 Monroe Dr. application:
The Virginia-Highland community was notified of plans for the new storage facility on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The deadline was tight - we had until Dec. 6 to respond. VHCA worked quickly to hold a community meeting and broker a meeting with the Gardens to discuss our concerns.
As of this publication, the Virginia-Highland Civic Association delegation has had 3 meetings with Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Public Storage, attended by representatives of the Gardens, Public Storage, Councilmember Wan, and a VHCA Delegation, made up of Board member volunteers and our VHCA planning consultant.
The consequences for Virginia-Highland:
The expansion of The Botanical Gardens into Piedmont Park has a controversial past. Unfortunately, much of the press regarding this expansion has centered on the expansion of the park and not the consequences of the expansion that Virginia-Highland will bear. Even the most recent SAP application filed by the Gardens touted the benefits of a Beltline entrance for The Botanical Gardens without acknowledging the effects this storage facility will have on the Beltline entrance in our section of Atlanta.
This summary is insightful: “Details you can’t see from sky-high matter, and none are currently bigger than how the plan itself calls for erecting a concrete warehouse elsewhere on the BeltLine. Crucial to the expansion and its BeltLine access is getting rid of that self-storage facility. The only way to do that, the Garden says, is a land swap — announced last month — that would build a new self-storage facility along the BeltLine in Virginia-Highland, just outside the park.
“The Garden calls that a low-impact trade-off, while neighbors call it inappropriate and are infuriated the plan was dropped, in a classic power move, when everyone was distracted by the Thanksgiving holiday.”
Our VHCA position:
The VHCA has been through development processes before, of all types and contentions. We have deep institutional experience, some of which we developed with this general property location. It’s with this knowledge that we arrive at our position.
- The VHCA are shocked that Atlanta Botanical Gardens is using their sizable donor funds to purchase a desirable piece of Beltline property to build a Public Storage facility.
- The Virginia-Highland community and VHCA remain frustrated that the “Cantoni property” is zoned I-1, “Light Industrial” (link here to Municode). This zoning allows this development as a storage facility to legally move forward, should the owner choose to do so.
- The VHCA feel strongly that a storage facility is a missed opportunity for the location, which is a highly trafficked and desirable corner of Atlanta, at the intersection of Virginia-Highland, Midtown, Piedmont Park, and The Beltline.
- The VHCA are concerned for the lasting effects on Virginia-Highland, The Beltline, and Atlanta.
But the VHCA are realists, and we understand that we cannot change the zoning category at this time. We committed to working within the bounds of the possible, and have engaged Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Public Storage to create the most palatable property for our neighborhood.
Previous renderings and plans:
Current renderings and plans
VHCA’s Response
Acknowledging the constraints and using community input, VHCA’s planning and urban design consultant Aaron Fortner has provided guidance to support the VHCA Planning Committee’s expertise. With this wealth of detailed knowledge and contextual experience, the VHCA determined key asks of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Public Storage for this development.
While the latest renderings and plans provided by Atlanta Botanical Gardens meet some of our expectations, they fall short in other essential areas.
VHCA ASK 1: Limit traffic on Cooledge Ave by eliminating the exit
We are concerned for the danger of increased traffic onto Cooledge as the facility’s proposed Cooledge exit will be diagonally from the Intown Jewish Preschool and down Cooledge Avenue from Virginia-Highland Elementary School. We are also concerned about damage to Cooledge Ave’s historic brick pavers
Public Storage has resisted the elimination of the Cooledge exit asserting that location will have very little truck traffic and minimal vehicular traffic, during the week. The traffic data provided from the Public Storage’s Westminster facility shows a range of 35-40 customer visits a day.
Public Storage assured our delegation that they plan to have "hooded" curbing and "no right turn" signage from the facility to discourage right turns onto Cooledge. As of the most recent renderings, no hooded curbing is evident in their plans.
The VHCA strongly believes their traffic data shows that an exit onto Cooledge Ave is entirely unnecessary and can only be justified as an emergency vehicle access point. This issue is easily resolved by substituting vehicular controls and a “hammerhead” turn to eliminate the proposed exit.
VHCA ASK 2: Activate the Public Storage building’s ground floor for a retail space
ABG and Public Storage have committed to retail space. We have asked for additional design changes to enhance the space and appeal to high-end retail clients.
Public Storage has asked for future neighborhood support to find a tenant. We communicated our commitment to help, but also commented on our belief that the retail space will be in a highly trafficked and desired location and shouldn't be an issue to fill.
We also discussed partnership opportunities with the City of Atlanta and The Beltline available to local small business owners that we could partner with to fill the desirable location.
VHCA ASK 3: Encourage an Atlanta Botanical Garden "thumbprint" on the building with a garden, living wall or green element, landscaping and mural.
ABG has provided us with a list of some of the plantings they are considering. The renderings will not show their landscaping plans. ABG has also committed to planting a garden in the front of the building.
We are still disappointed that ABG will not be using their property to showcase a living wall or rooftop garden. We think this is a missed opportunity for the community and for The Gardens to add a botanical element to their building. We think proximity to Midtown High School is a missed opportunity to create a partnership for community use.
VHCA ASK 4: Adopt an architectural treatment more representative of the historic neighborhood aesthetic
Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Public Storage have committed to wrapping the Cooledge and Monroe facades with brick (matching the color tone of the brick of the neighboring Bicycle Shop building).
In the latest renderings, Public Storage communicated that they made an effort to match their building brick coloring to the neighboring Intown Bicycle building on Monroe Drive, but we would prefer that the Atlanta Botanical Garden building be made of red brick, the color of the unpainted traditional red brick found commonly in our neighborhood.
Additionally, as indicated in our sketch response, a second brick color or painted brick will help to break the walls of the building down to a more human scale. We ask that brick corbels and cornices be utilized to break the facade to achieve shadow lines, depth, and dimension, and help separate brick colors.
We also ask that additional attention be paid to the retail floor to create more substantial awnings or canopy for pedestrian scale at the retail space and more dimension to the overall building. We feel that the addition of awnings not only adds architectural interest, but will also help identify the retail space to attract passing pedestrians and will help facilitate a successful retail space by providing functional needs.
We ask that additional interest be added to the Cooledge side of the building by implementing brick detailing, awnings, and dimension to the facade. A significant break in the brick facade every 40’ will also help avoid the monotony of the 202’ long wall.
We understand that a Public Storage branding component will be a part of the building. But we respectfully requested that the historic nature of this property location proves an exception to the traditional branding elements. We looked at other Public Storage facilities in established neighborhoods (such as the Alexandria, Virginia-Holland Lane and Seattle, Washington- Lake Union facilities) as a guide for how Public Storage has adjusted their branding in the past.
The VHCA Planning Committee outlined these concerns and created our own building renderings to provide a visual example of the elements we are looking for in a letter sent to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Public Storage and Councilmember Wan and presented at the 1/11/22 SAP.
Next Steps:
- We encourage neighbors to virtually attend the Beltline Design Meeting on January 18 at 5PM. All public comments must be submitted by 4pm on Tuesday via [email protected].
- Neighbors may also write to Councilmember Alex Wan, copying the VHCA Planning Committee.
- We await Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Public Storage’s response to the VHCA’s letter. We have included our letter below.
- Councilmember Alex Wan has plans to introduce legislation to prevent projects like this one in the future. We look forward to lending our neighborhood support to his efforts.
- We will continue to monitor the development’s progress and commit to keep you updated.
Yours in community,
The VHCA Board and Planning Committee