Kate Champion, SAND President
Each month, after I receive my Porch Press, I open to the middle page to find the meeting minutes from South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development (SAND), East Atlanta Community Association (EACA) and Grant Park Neighborhood Association (GPNA) to see updates from our elected leaders, new zoning requests and information on events in our community. When I moved onto the leadership team for SAND, I realized there was much more going on behind the scenes each month. So, moving forward, SAND will provide an article that will not only outline key decisions and items from our meeting, but will also include a message on a key and long-term community project.
For most of the major projects prioritized for 2023, the central need is involvement from our community. First, we need your thoughts, ideas and input. We need your thoughts on which current undeveloped spaces would be great for the community to maintain, your ideas on community beautification projects, and input on streets and intersections that need to be reviewed for safety, just to name a few.
Our February focus will be on actions to increase the membership and participation with SAND. The first major action will be to start the transition of our monthly membership meetings to in-person, starting on Thursday, February 9 at 7:30pm at the Fellowship Hall of Ormewood Church on the corner of Woodland and Delaware Avenues. A concurrent Zoom meeting will be open to those not able to make the in-person meeting. We hope you will join us for the meeting and the social time with refreshments and snacks following the meeting.
We are very excited to share that both Council Members Liliana Bakhtiari and Jason Winston will be present at our meeting on February 9. They are ready to hear from the meeting attendees, answer your concerns and share what they are working on for our seven neighborhoods.
For all monthly meetings in the future, a special guest will be in attendance to provide our membership opportunities to speak with our elected and neighborhood leaders to ensure our thoughts and ideas are heard and met with action. Some of the special guests for 2023 will include Commissioner Natalie Hall, BeltLine Planning Director Lynette Reid, and other local leaders.
Another aspect to increasing neighborhood participation will be to improve the frequency and quality of communications with a focus on how and why you should be involved with SAND. Our website is also going to see a refresh in 2023, and activity on the neighborhood social media sites will be increased.
In the March Porch Press, we will be discussing transportation in our neighborhood including the BeltLine changes coming for 2023.
January 2023 SAND Meeting Highlights
Special Guest, Lynette Reid, BeltLine, Director of Planning shared the BeltLine Subarea 4 Master Plan update.
Neighborhood Sign Topper program is looking for volunteers. Please reach out to Brent Huff, Treasurer@SANDAtlanta.org for how to volunteer.
Land Use and Zoning (LUZ): **Please indicate what change was being requested for each location. V-22-176, 1102 Sanders Avenue; NPU-W LUZ recommended approval, SAND passed motion to approve. V-22-194, 1416 Fischer Road NPU-W LUZ recommended to deny, SAND passed motion in agreement with LUZ. Z-22-076 and CDP-22-43, 1721 Woodland Avenue; NPU-W LUZ recommended approval. SAND motion did not pass to approve that recommendation. Second motion passed to deny rezoning pending exploration for alternative development as public land for 60-days.
