At the 2019 PHCA Annual meeting, Commissioner Tim Keane of Atlanta’s Department of City Planning announced that a “study” of the Armour/Ottley area would soon be undertaken. That study is finally getting underway and the area will become part of a new neighborhood (temporarily named “Lindbergh-Armour Neighborhood”), which will extend north to include the Lindbergh MARTA station and environs.

Piedmont Heights is not the only neighborhood impacted by this project. Brookwood Hills abuts the Armour/Ottley area on the north side. On the east, residents in the area around the Lindbergh MARTA station recently submitted an application to the City to be a new neighborhood and are proposing their western boundary be Peachtree Creek, also abutting Armour/Ottley.

This new Lindbergh-Armour neighborhood encompasses an area very diverse in land use and geographically complex. The Armour/Ottley portion has land uses that run the gamut from coffee shops to cement plants. Light industry, modern offices, entertainment venues, and retail mix with a lumber yard, service station, and multi-family residential, to name just a few. This area also suffers from serious infrastructure problems. The street network and utility systems are inadequate, old, and tired, and the area is crisscrossed by railroad and MARTA lines. Access is limited to a single street, from Piedmont Heights ironically, with elevated highways and dramatic grade changes further isolating it. It does have one outstanding natural asset, however—Atlanta’s famous Peachtree Creek, now totally ignored, but which could become a linear park and the centerpiece defining the character of the new neighborhood.

So, how does Piedmont Heights interface most effectively with this new project? We have our 2012 award-winning Greater Piedmont Heights Master Framework Plan, which includes the Armour/Ottley area, to guide us. But far more importantly is that City Planner Kevin Green, who worked closely with us in designing our master plan, is now the City’s team leader for this new project.

This will be the most important event impacting Piedmont Heights since the BeltLine. It is our chance to not only help create a more mutually beneficial relationship with Armour/Ottley but, equally important, to divert traffic away from our residential streets, particularly Monroe Drive.

-Bill Seay, Rock Springs Rd. resident