To date 601 Avondale Estates residents have signed a petition asking city commissioners to support “smart growth that is aligned with the City’s vision for downtown development.”
The petition’s primary focus of protest is a proposed development on North Avondale Road called Alexan Gateway that calls for 286 apartments and 5,000 square feet for a coffee shop and restaurant on 4.3 acres.
About 80 people attended a July 11 commission work session, and judging from public comment roughly 75 percent favored the petition.
The petition’s primary complaint is that Avondale’s zoning calls for a maximum building footprint of 30,000 square feet while developer Trammell Crow Residential is proposing a footprint of 105,000 square feet for Alexan. Trammell Crow is also proposing a residential density of 72 units per acre, while current zoning allows for 40 units per acre.
“It’s not that we don’t want development, we just want to control development,” said Lyda Steadman, one of the petition’s five authors. “We want a sense of community and green space and to create a desire to live here. We don’t want to just warehouse people. That’s what this feels like.
“We’re not looking to run Trammell Crow off,” she added. “We just want them to compromise.”
Avondale Estates Mayor Jonathan Elmore wouldn’t speculate where the commission currently stands on the Trammell Crow project.
“I’ll say this, the process is moving forward,” he said “My guess is we’ll vote on it around the end of August or beginning of September.”
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