Atlanta zoning board urges denial of 2,250-space airport lot on Cleveland Avenue

Atlanta’s Zoning Review Board has joined city planners and Neighborhood Planning Unit Z in recommending denial of a 2,250-space airport-parking facility on Cleveland Avenue SW. The board’s Oct. 8 recommendation is not a final City Council rejection of the special-use permit.

Chavez Properties Acquisitions, LLC proposes operating the 21.28-acre facility as Fast Park & Relax, with parking and shuttles for passengers using Hartsfield-Jackson’s domestic terminal. It would run around the clock, every day of the year. The requested permit would have no fixed end date.

The staff report describes a corridor being improved for a different way of getting around. It cites $5 million in Atlanta Department of Transportation capital projects underway and a broader MARTA project costing $15 million–$20 million, intended to make the area more walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly. A proposed rapid-transit stop at Old Hapeville Road would connect through East Point station to the airport.

The parking operation would put clients, employees and emergency vehicles through one driveway on Cleveland Avenue. Although the applicant supplied a traffic study, planners say the submitted documents included no recommended pedestrian improvements or cycling analysis.

The applicant proposes landscaped buffers about 40–80 feet wide along the east and south sides, capped lights to limit light pollution, and an undeveloped, fenced rear parcel.

Those measures would screen the lot. They would not change its parking-only purpose—the use planners say conflicts with adopted goals for mixed-use, walkable commercial corridors and would prolong the area’s reliance on cars.