Community meeting to introduce new development just east of Decatur

Property at the intersection of Ponce de Leon and Arcadia avenues is being considered for a mixed-use project. Google Earth

Property at the intersection of Ponce de Leon and Arcadia avenues is being considered for a mixed-use project. Google Earth

A community meeting, 7-8 p.m. Wednesday in the Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore Street, will introduce a proposed mix-used project for the corner at Ponce de Leon and Arcadia avenues.

Roughly one acre of the nine-acre site is in northeast Decatur.

The project is in the very early stages and won’t even come before the DeKalb County planning commission and county commission until March.

According to Kathy Zicket, a partner with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, which represents developers Alliance Realty, it’ll be five stories, roughly 250 apartments with several small shops all anchored by a “major grocery.”

Zickert wouldn’t confirm the grocery, but Deanne Thomas, president of the Decatur Heights Neighborhood Association, said that “all indications point to Publix.”

Zickert added the apartments currently have no three-bedrooms and only a few two-bedrooms. She said that Decatur could either de-annex its portion of the property or city and county could strike an intergovernmental agreement with DeKalb taking the school-age children.

The location is less than a quarter mile north — just across Sams Crossing — from the proposed South City Partners project in Avondale Estates. With a planned 196 apartments and 8,000 square feet of retail, that project is tentatively scheduled to break ground late this year.