Residents near Amsterdam Walk say they’re prepared to speak out against a large-scale redevelopment project during Monday’s Atlanta City Council meeting.
While public comment rules limit what they can say, they plan to make their concerns clear, warning that the proposed redevelopment plans by Portman Holdings are too large for the surrounding neighborhood and would set a harmful precedent for future projects across the city, residents said.
Atlanta City Council is scheduled to vote on rezoning for the project during a 1 p.m. meeting on Monday.
The Portman Holdings proposal calls for transforming the shopping center owned by Jack Halpern of Halpern Enterprises into a mixed-use development with 1,100 housing units and approximately 1,400 parking spaces.
But residents, organized under the group A Better Amsterdam Walk, say the project far exceeds what the often traffic-gridlocked area can accommodate. They are pushing for a scaled-down plan of 300 residential units, all of which they would support as affordable housing, resident Charles Kaften said, and about the same number of parking spaces.
“Something that fits in with the community is very doable and we think there is enough money to be made there for the developer and the owner of [Amsterdam Walk],” he said.
Resident Ben Terry said he and his wife moved to the Morningside neighborhood five years ago for the walkability to restaurants and its proximity to Piedmont Park.
Terry obtained a chart through an open records request to the Georgia Department of Transportation that shows the number of total injuries and fatalities from vehicle accidents on a portion of Monroe Drive. The chart shows an increase from 20 in 2020 to more than 70 in 2024.
Terry believes the increase in traffic during peak daytimes, festivals, and other events will increase that number significantly.
“This is all about how much money [the project] can make, and they are just trampling over the process,” Resident Hernan Bello said. “Initially we were all excited, but, when we saw the scale, we thought: ‘How is this going to work?'”
This week, in a letter to the Atlanta City Council, the Ansley Park Civic Association’s Zoning and Land Use Committee said they are recommending the denial of the project.
That follows the Morningside-Lenox Park Association’s letter to the council stating that the organization had engaged in negotiations with Portman Holdings over the course of a year and had reached an agreement on a previous plan, which was changed without notifying the association.
“The current proposal for Amsterdam Walk… is not the project we negotiated with Portman Holdings nor the plans that we approved,” said Marla Johnson, president of the association. “At this time, we believe any proposed redevelopment at Amsterdam Walk should comply with the land use recommendation as described in the Atlanta Beltline Subarea 6 Master Plan…”
Similar to Johnson, Kaften says the current design is not in accordance with the Atlanta BeltLine Master Plan, which recommends that buildings along the property’s edge range from one to four stories, and five to nine stories in the interior. Portman’s proposal includes nine-story buildings throughout the site.
An online petition started last year opposing Portman Holdings’ design at the time of 800 rental units and a 15-story high-rise tower has more than 2,000 signatures.
The Atlanta Zoning Review Board has voted against the project, echoing the community’s Neighborhood Planning Unit in which 77 percent of residents rejected it.
District 6 Councilman Alex Wan, who represents the area, has also come out in opposition to the Amsterdam Walk proposal.
Portman should abide by the Beltline Master Plan like everyone else does! Building 1,100 apartments on a single road while lobbying against mass transit on the Beltline is criminal. A development this dense should be located adjacent to a Marta station like what was supposed to happen at Murphy’s Crossing. You can’t build something this massive that is 100% reliant on cars! Not everyone that lives there will be walking or riding bikes either so don’t even play that card. It’s ridiculous.
This development was rejected by the NPU, the Zoning Review Board, Morningside Civic Association and the Ansley Park Neighborhood Association. What did I miss? Oh, and the two Council Members that live nearby want the Atlanta City Council to reject it as well. It’s already too crowded on the East side of the Beltline. You can barely ride a bike on the weekends without running over a walker or stroller. The Beltline can only absorb so much! How many more accidents on the Beltline or on Monroe Drive have to happen before someone stops letting developers do whatever they want? We had two fatalities at Piedmont and Monroe Drive on Monday. There were three car accidents on Monroe at Amsterdam Walk and Evelyn Street last weekend.
Portman not only refused to scale down this mega-development, they increased the size from 840 units to 1,100 units! Portman’s traffic study estimates that 3,800+ cars will be utilizing the Amsterdam Walk driveways. And those are the old traffic study numbers! Who knows what the number is for 1,100?! Accidents on Monroe are up 165% from pre-Covid according to GA DOT.
Bringing 3,800 “daily car trips” to this section of Monroe is ensuring it remains a death-trap for all of the residents of Morningside & VaHi. It’s already difficult to get emergency services on the weekends right now. Residents have had to drive to the hospital because the ambulances can’t get down Monroe Drive. What if there is a fire at Amsterdam Walk? The driveways will be packed solid with cars 24/7. Good luck getting there.
Make Portman adhere to the Beltline Master Plan and build 347 apartments and make at least 20% affordable housing. That’s more apartments than Ponce City Market and it has FOUR streets of access. 1,100 apartments with ONE road access? Criminal if it passes City Council.
Preserving middle housing is a key to affordable housing in Midtown. The Ansley Park Civic Association failed to poll its members about this Amsterdam Walk project, nor did it provide a public briefing to its members about this project.
The APCA does have a newly released “conservation plan” for the neighborhood, updated from the 1979, that, according to some, favors destruction of the 40% of the housing in Ansley Park that is condos and apartments. Bet you didn’t know that! Since the infrastructure in Ansley Park is crumbling, water and sewer systems can’t accommodate the current residents, much less hi-density development
Conserving these multi-family condos and apartments in Ansley Park is critical to solving Atlanta’s housing crisis and meeting Mayor Dicken’s goals for housing.
If this proposal is approved by the City Council over the objection of the local community and the zoning review board, then no neighborhood is safe from overdevelopment and no neighborhood should feel like they have a voice. At least three local city council members have said they will vote against the Portman plan. If the other City Council members disregard what their colleagues believe is best for their own constituents, then I would highly suspect there are some games happening “on the side” or “under the table”. Again, no neighborhood is safe if the council sides with developers over the local neighbors, ZRB, and local representatives.
Curious that the story doesn’t mention the property is already zoned for 300 apartments PLUS almost 750,000 sf of nonresidential buildings. Seems to me that this isn’t a choice of THIS development and NO development, but rather what kind of development. If the council votes for it, maybe its because they don’t want to buy a lawsuit.
Our City Council Representative, Alex Wan and Post 2 at Large City Council Representative, Matt Westmoreland (who grew up in this neighborhood) have publicly committed to their constituents to vote down the project (and honor the NPU’s overwhelming “No” vote). We expect the rest of the City Council (and any other elected officials) to support Mr. Wan & Mr. Westmoreland and do the same. If they want dense development in their own districts (because that is what their constituents want), than they can have Portman Holdings present a proposal for their area (and we will make sure Mr. Wan & Mr. Westmoreland support them). When the time comes for any of our elected officials to run for any future office, we (and our community) will remember how they voted on this Amsterdam Walk issue.
This is suppose to be 100% affordable housing for multi-family use. No more cars. No more citizens. No more money. No more businesses. Get on da train!