Public Hearing: YES ☒ NO ☐ Department: Planning & Sustainability
SUBJECT:
Title
COMMISSION DISTRICT(S): Commission District 02 Super District 06
Application of Swig c/o Gaskins & LeCraw for a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) to allow a drive-through facility in an Activity Center in the C-1 (Local Commercial) zoning district, at 2960 North Druid Hills Road.
Body
PETITION NO: N3-2026-0445 SLUP-26-1248014
PROPOSED USE: Drive through facility.
LOCATION: 2960 North Druid Hills Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30329
PARCEL NO. : 18 112 01 049
INFO. CONTACT: Lucas Carter, Planner
PHONE NUMBER: 404-371-2155
PURPOSE:
Application of Swig c/o Gaskins & LeCraw for a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) to allow a drive-through facility in an Activity Center in the C-1 (Local Commercial) zoning district.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommended Action
COMMUNITY COUNCIL: (April 2026) Denial.
PLANNING COMMISSION: (May 5, 2026) Pending.
PLANNING STAFF: (May 2026) Denial.
STAFF ANALYSIS: The applicant seeks to redevelop the subject property with a small, one-story drink shop featuring a walk-up window oriented towards North Druid Hills Road and a drive-through located behind the building. The submitted materials indicate a pedestrian-oriented frontage treatment featuring front seating area, bicycle parking, four on-site parking spaces located in the rear, retention of a single access point from North Druid Hills Road, a proposed screening fence, and a rear transitional buffer area. The applicant also states the building would operate through the drive-through and walk-up window only, with no public interior customer space. The property was rezoned in 1988 under Case No. CZ-88168 from O-I (Office Institutional) to C-1 (Local Commercial), subject to conditions associated with an oil change facility. Those conditions, as reflected in the record, included limiting development and use of the property to an oil change facility, maintaining one point of access, providing an eight-foot screening fence, and providing a 25-foot buffer. The current Major Modification request would remove those legacy conditions and replace them with conditions tailored to the proposed drink shop redevelopment. The applicant also states the most recent use of the property was a print shop, which may have not been in compliance with the original zoning conditions. Staff recognizes that the applicant has made an effort to improve the site design relative to a conventional suburban drive-through format. The building is oriented toward the street, the walk-up window faces North Druid Hills Road, and the vehicle service area is pushed behind the principal structure. Those design choices are more sensitive to the corridor than a typical front-loaded drive-through pattern and reflect an attempt to respond to more walkable development principles. The applicant also frames the proposal as supportive of the North Druid Hills / Toco Hills corridor planning vision. Staff finds the request is inconsistent with the future land use intent of the Town Center character area. The central purpose of the Town Center designation is to promote walkability, reduce automobile travel, and concentrate on more pedestrian-oriented activity center development. A drive-through use remains fundamentally automobile-oriented. Even when screened or located behind a building, the use still depends on vehicle stacking, curbside service, and auto-based circulation as a defining operational feature. That basic land use pattern conflicts with the adopted policy direction for this corridor. The parcel appears capable of accommodating a small commercial structure, required parking, access, buffering, and screening. The submitted concept plan indicates four parking spaces where a minimum of three are required, continued use of a single access point, and provision of a 50-foot buffer at the rear adjacent to residentially zoned property. Staff’s concern, therefore, is not primarily that the site cannot physically accommodate the proposed development. Rather, the concern is that the land use being requested is not the right fit for a Town Center location that is intended to move toward a more pedestrian-supportive development pattern over time. Staff also finds that the Major Modification request should be denied for the same underlying reason. While the original 1988 conditions are dated and tied to a former oil change facility, the present request is not simply a neutral cleanup of obsolete zoning language. Instead, it is a substantive request to authorize a new drive-through drink shop and to establish a new entitlement framework around an auto-oriented use. Because Staff finds the associated redevelopment inconsistent with the Town Center character area and the policy direction of the corridor, staff does not support removing the prior conditions in the manner requested. The fact that the prior print shop use was apparently not in conformance with the 1988 conditions does not, by itself, provide a basis for approving a new auto-oriented redevelopment pattern. In summary, the applicant requests a Special Land Use Permit to allow a drive-through facility within an Activity Center and a Major Modification to remove and replace legacy zoning conditions from 1988 in order to redevelop the site as a drink shop with a rear drive-through. Although the site plan includes several design elements intended to soften the auto-oriented nature of the proposal, staff finds that a new drive-through use remains inconsistent with the pedestrian-oriented intent of the Town Center future land use designation. Because the Special Land Use Permit request is directly tied to enabling that same redevelopment concept, staff likewise does not support the requested modification. Based on review of the applicable Special Land Use Permit Criteria (Section 27-7.4.6), Staff recommends “Denial”. Should the Board of Commissioners approve the request, Staff offers the attached conditions.
PLANNING COMMISSION VOTE: (May 5, 2026) Pending.
COMMUNITY COUNCIL VOTE/RECOMMENDATION: (April 2026) Denial 8-2-1.