Public Hearing: YES ☒ NO ☐ Department: Planning & Sustainability
SUBJECT:
Title
Commission District(s): 4 and 7
Application of Lorraine Canada for a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) to allow a drive through for a restaurant in the C-1 (Local Commercial) zoning district and Tier 2 of the Hidden Hills Overlay District, at 4850 Redan Road.
Body
PETITION NO: N4-2026-1101 SLUP-26-1248176
PROPOSED USE: Restaurant drive through.
LOCATION: 4850 Redan Road, Stone Mountain, GA 30088
PARCEL NO. : 15 224 03 004
INFO. CONTACT: Lucas Carter, Planner
PHONE NUMBER: 404-371-2155
PURPOSE:
Application of Lorraine Canada for a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) to allow a drive through for a restaurant in the C-1 (Local Commercial) zoning district and Tier 2 of the Hidden Hills Overlay District.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommended Action
COMMUNITY COUNCIL: (August 2026) Approval.
PLANNING COMMISSION: (September 1, 2026) Pending.
PLANNING STAFF: (September 2026) Denial.
STAFF ANALYSIS: The applicant requests a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) for one drive-through serving a proposed 1,800-squarefoot Dunkin restaurant. The concept also includes approximately 2,500 square feet of attached retail space, for a total building area of approximately 4,300 square feet, and 27 off-street parking spaces. The underlying restaurant and retail uses are permitted in C-1; the drive-through requires a SLUP under Section 27-4.2.23 and Section 4.1.3 (Table 4.1) because the subject site is within an Activity Center. The approximately 1.16-acre property is vacant; the applicant states that the former building was demolished in 2017. The submitted concept plan depicts a new frontage sidewalk, enhanced landscaping, outdoor dining, a screened refuse enclosure, preservation of a mature oak, and satisfies the 50-foot (Type C) transitional buffer requirement (add section 5.4.5) adjoining MR-1 (Medium Density Residential-1). Previously, the subject site was SLUP-24-1247108 (Ordinance 2024-0891), a Wendy's drive-through request approved by the Board of Commissioners on November 21, 2024 with fourteen conditions. Those conditions required, among other measures, • no parking between the front facade and Redan Road, • direct internal sidewalk connections, and • drive-through circulation separated from parking and unsafe pedestrian crossings. The prior approval (with conditions) demonstrates extensive design safeguards were necessary in order to ensure minimal adverse impacts on the surrounding development pattern. Section 27-2.26.1(B) directs C-1 development inside Neighborhood, Town, and Regional Centers toward pedestrian-oriented development. The Greater Hidden Hills Overlay's stated purposes in Section 27-3.37.4 likewise emphasize safe and convenient pedestrian movement, reduced automobile dependence, mixed-use development, and implementation of the Comprehensive Plan. The adopted DeKalb 2050 Unified Plan describes a Neighborhood Center (NC) as small, walkable focal points where local-serving commercial and residential uses are clustered, easily accessible to pedestrians, and designed to reduce automobile travel and increase transit use (pg. 35). As submitted: • the concept depicts eight parking spaces between the building’s Redan Road facade and the frontage, even though published Section 27-3.37.32(D)-(E) places off-street parking in side or rear yards and prohibits parking between the street and building front. • The north-side drive-through queue also functions immediately beside the maneuvering area for five parking spaces. • The record contains no restaurant queue or circulation analysis demonstrating that peak queues will stay on site and avoid blocking the shared Redan Village drive, parking maneuvers, or pedestrian routes, as required by Section 27-4.2.23(1)(1). • The plan labels a frontage sidewalk but does not document the dimensions and planting zone required by Section 27-3.37.27, • nor does it document the multimodal connections and bicycle parking associated with Sections 27- 3.37.31 and 27-3.37.32. The submittal also does not: • state operating or delivery hours, • provide a photometric plan, • establish speaker orientation/volume and acoustic treatment, • supply a dimensioned restaurant-stacking analysis, • document the required school-separation distance, or • calculate the 15 percent commercial open space required by Section 27-5.5.1 and Table 5.4. Several of these details may ordinarily be refined at land-development review, but together they leave the current record insufficient to Sections 27-7.4.6 (B), (E), (F), (G), (H), and (M). While a restaurant and retail redevelopment may be appropriate for the subject site. Based on the criteria in Section 27-7.4.6, the drive-through supplemental regulations in Section 27-4.2.23, the published Greater Hidden Hills Overlay standards, and the Neighborhood Center policy of the DeKalb 2050 Unified Plan (p. 35), the Planning & Sustainability Department recommends “Denial” of SLUP-26-1248176 as submitted.
PLANNING COMMISSION VOTE: (September 1, 2026) Pending.
COMMUNITY COUNCIL VOTE/RECOMMENDATION: (August 2026) Approval 6-2-0. The Council did express concern that the Applicant was not present, and their representative was unable to answer certain questions from the community.