Atlanta's suburbs continue to become increasingly sophisticated (Roswell, Duluth: YMCA, wealthy)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Redevelopment of an empty strip mall? What is wrong with that?

When you start pulling buildings right up to the street, you are blocking businesses set on the other side of the parking lot.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by arjay57

When you start pulling buildings right up to the street, you are blocking businesses set on the other side of the parking lot.

That is not the case with this plan, the developers are seeking a variance to increase the seback

Lidl sought permission to reduce the required buffer from 40 feet to 10 feet, increase the maximum building setback from 75 to 125 feet and to allow the exterior to be comprised of glass, exterior insulation and finish system and split-face concrete block.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cqholt

That is not the case with this plan, the developers are seeking a variance to increase the seback

Okay. The article makes it sound like most of the opposition was coming from folks who will get blocked and don't want to be staring at the back of some other building.

[evannole]

arjay,

I can add a little perspective, as I live in the area and was at the city council meeting.

About 30 years ago, the developer who is now complaining about this Lidl project put up his own strip shopping center just to the west of the proposed Lidl site. They put their center on an extremely narrow but rather deep lot, so they had to run their stores from front to back (north-south) rather than actually fronting Whitlock Avenue (east-west). Thus, only one business actually fronts Whitlock, with the others all stacked behind it. The owners of the center claim that the fact that the old A&P to the east was set pretty far back on its own parking lot meant that the businesses in their center had good visibility from Whitlock for traffic coming in from the east. Having driven past this center a couple hundred times in the past 5 years, however, I can say that the only business in that strangely oriented center that I have ever noticed is the one closest to the street, Hoboken Café, which is mighty tasty, by the way.

The owners and tenants in this center perpendicular to Whitlock complained that the construction of the Lidl as proposed would block the view of 3/4 of the businesses in the center from Whitlock, and cause them to leave. I think this is a rather specious argument, considering that I have never noticed any of those businesses in the current configuration, but I can understand their concern.

Several council members noted, as did cq above, that Lidl was actually asking for a variance to move the store AWAY from Whitlock, and if they put it where it was actually "supposed" to go, according to code, it would block the view of even more of the stores in the oddly oriented center. Something is going to go on this old A&P site at some point, and whatever it is, the default is that it would be constructed in such a spot that it would block the view of those businesses anyways, so the Lidl proposal is actually better for those businesses than the default would be.

Finally, the mayor noted that when this center was built 30 years ago, due to its strange orientation (for which a variance was probably required), IT actually blocked off some other businesses that were then forced to relocate due to reduced sight lines.

One of the council members moved that Lidl commit to constructing an upgraded landscape barrier between the two parcels, so that the tenants on the oddly oriented center won't be left looking at a blank wall, and that the Lidl be placed as far to the east as possible. Lidl agreed to these stipulations, and the motion passed unanimously.

The vast bulk of us in Marietta are really looking forward to Lidl's arrival!

[ATLTJL]

List of confirmed tenants at Revel.

Of note, Superica is the second O4W establishment to locate in Duluth, behind O4W Pizza. That doesn't necessarily make me thrilled, I think a better Mexican restaurant could probably come... but, there you have it.

Painted Pin will be alright. I like shuffleboard.

https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/lo...093c1784c.html

[DJDeadParrot]

Elsewhere in Duluth [downtown, actually], an EAV Asian establishment will soon be opening its doors.

https://www.ajc.com/blog/atlanta-res...kxTRjLgUowgVN/

[ATLTJL]

Because if there's anything in this world Duluth needs more of... it's Asian restaurants.

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Because if there's anything in this world Duluth needs more of... it's Asian restaurants.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't disagree. But good Thai in Duluth is hard to come by.

[ATLTJL]

Fair enough. And I'm all for good restaurants of any kind coming to downtown Duluth. That will eventually push out the awful restaurants, like Pure

[jazzcat22]

Originally Posted by DJDeadParrot

Ordinarily, I wouldn't disagree. But good Thai in Duluth is hard to come by.

I'm not sure if this restaurant will be any better than any other Thai. I love Thai food, but every restaurant has almost exactly the same menu. The execution can be different, though--and some do better with spices than others. If you look at the menu of EAV (owned by the same person who will be doing that part of Sweet Octopus), it looks like any other and the Yelp reviews are fair to good.


I actually think Thai Diner is quite good, even though it's a mall restaurant! And I love Bai Tong in Johns Creek. haven't been to the Norcross Thai restaurants in forever---Thai Restaurant of Norcross used to be very authentic.