Call to order/Start meeting recording 7:00pm.
May 14, 2024 meeting minutes approved without dissent. May 2024 treasurer report approved without dissent.
Public Safety Update
Zone 6 Update Lt. Robert Godwin – Past 28 days, vehicle thefts are the leading crime, at 13, with crime staying steady rather than going up or down. They have staged several details lately on suspect houses, and also one on street racing that led to arrests. The vehicle thefts are still mostly Hyundais and Kias. Club steering wheel locks are available free at the Zone 6 precinct. If you have video that can be valuable to police, please send it to police. Q: EAV bodega drug deals seem to have lessened, but there are several new players. A: He’s aware and they are being monitored.
East Atlanta Strut Street Closure Application – Michelle Rice: EACA approves the Strut permit without dissent. For pre-review: Application and Supporting Map. East Atlanta Parents Network – Carleen Hinesley-Sutton, Juneteenth Event: Wednesday, June 19 at 10:00am in Brownwood Park. Come and learn about Juneteenth with a storytime and make a craft to celebrate the day. Junior’s pizza event 5:30pm on June 26.
Parks Update – Matt Day and Alex Levy: Check out our new web page for the latest updates. eaca.net/parks
Brownwood Park Update: New playground equipment installation complete. Ribbon cutting scheduled for Tuesday, June 18 at 9:30am. The public is invited. Tennis Court Resurfacing/Mural to be complete by end of this week. There are seven sections of new sod in the park and each section needs an hour of water each day. If anyone can help make this happen, please contact Matt at parks@eaca.net.
Land Use and Zoning Update – Jenny Murray (Non-voting items (awareness only): 740 Moreland Avenue, Business license was issued for a tire shop; Appeal has been filed by neighbors. Hearing date July 11. 659 Stokeswood Avenue, Underbrush removed; no construction or tree removal permit has been issued. 1640 Flat Shoals Road, Rezoning R-4 to PDH. Additional details provided by applicant; questions around tree survey, environmental impact, development plan details, storm-water runoff, and more sent to attorney with no response, yet. Developers want to put five houses in an area where four would normally be allowed, so that’s why they want to change the zoning. Voting item in 6/24 LUZ meeting 7:00pm via Zoom. NC-16 Update – It continues to move through the city departments to get the needed approvals.
Upcoming City Training/Events: Do you want to participate in determining how East Atlanta develops over the next several years? Then please plan to attend the upcoming “Plan A” workshop at Maynard Jackson High School on June 17 at 6:30. Use this link to learn more about the process and register.
Elected Officials’ Reports – Council Member Liliana Bakhtiari: Thanks to Matt and Ryan for helping get the changes to the park going. Department of Watershed doesn’t usually work directly with parks, but it did in this case. She is looking for ways to add things to the north side of the park while keeping continuity with the more wild south side. She has been asked why Heritage hasn’t begun developing their land next to Ormewood Forest. It’s not a great time for real estate developers, so she is trying to find out if Heritage would like to sell the land to the city to be added to Ormewood Forest. There is grant money available for neighborhood greenspaces and parks, with some possible for Brownwood. The next round of budgeting for ATL DOT infrastructure projects is coming up, so if you have questions for DOT, please send them to Chase. Discussions are continuing on the BATL Trail plan. Water outage: Today a $5 million relief package was discussed. This grant money would go to small businesses that were hurt by the water outage. Her district was hit hardest. Q: Does she know if the EAV post office is going to be closed. Local employees say it will close by the end of the year, with everything based in Hapeville. If this is true, what will happen to the land. A: She doesn’t know, but is going to ask our U.S. Senators’ offices, because she hasn’t gotten a response from our U.S. Representative.
Announcements / Community Updates
Margaret Spaulding, South River Watershed Alliance – She would like folks to support a complaint about the decision to turn the old Atlanta Prison Farm into the police training facility. The complaint can be found at www.southriverga.org/blog. “The complaint has been submitted to the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and Georgia Department of Community Affairs outlining numerous and ongoing violations of the Comprehensive Development Planning process by the City of Atlanta. In short, the City failed to disclose or involve the public of its omission of the 300-acre former Prison Farm parcel (from the South River Forest/Park plan) in the Comprehensive Development Plan.”
Early Voting Now Open for runoff election, The runoff election is Tuesday, June 18 and registered voters should cast ballots at their designated voting precincts. Polls open at 7:00am and close at 7:00pm Advance voting for the runoff election is Monday, June 10 through Friday, June 14, 7:00am. Until 7:00pm at all designated advance voting locations.
The nearest Advance voting location for East Atlanta is: Bessie Branham Recreation Center, 2051 Delano Drive NE, Atlanta, GA 30317.
Yolanda Mack, candidate for DeKalb State Court Judge, came to the meeting to introduce herself. She is in a runoff with Dionne McGee.
The Dekalb County CEO race is headed to a runoff between Lorraine Cochran-Johnson and Larry Johnson. Given the importance of this role in shaping our community, we encourage all community members to show up and vote. Still on the fence about who to vote for? You can check out this video where both candidates talk about why they feel they’d be best to lead the CountMore information on Advance Voting can be found here.
EACA Call for Volunteers – We’re excited for our role in shaping East Atlanta to be the community we envision for the future. But we won’t get there without engaged members of the community to help make it happen. Please reach out to president@eaca.net or any member of the EACA Executive Committee to find out how and where you can support. You can also find a List of Open Positions here.
Ongoing Recruitment for Committee Involvement: Arts and Culture, Communication, Community Outreach, East Atlanta Parent Network, Education, Fundraising and Grants, Land Use and Zoning, Membership, Neighbor in Need, Parks and Greenspace, Public Safety, and Transportation.
Closing Remarks and Adjournment 8:19pm.
