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View the Mayor's Proposed Future Land Use Map below and provide your additional feedback in the Blue Box below.
Click to View Full Oct 2022 Presentation on Comprehensive Planning for Future Land Use
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Mayor Kobi declared 2025 as South Fulton’s Year of Planning. The year started with a 2-Day In Session training on Land Use & Zoning Law conducted by UGA’s Institute on Public Policy; attended by members of City Council, their Planning & Code Enforcement and staff. This followed with several, neighborhood Town Halls by the contracted consultants, Sizemore Group, to collect citizen feedback on their desires for future land use.
Mayor Kobi has identified two industries, aligned with state trends, for which Character Areas can de created to drive economic development: Agribuisness and Film/TV/Gaming Production. Agriculture is Georgia's top industry and the state's largest revenue generator. At nearly 100 square miles, with thousands of lush, undeveloped acres if land fed by the Chattahoochee Watershed, South Fulton is uniquely advantaged amongst cities in the metro area to create a vibrant agriculture industry — if it can protect these areas from ubran sprawl, warehousing and data centers. Mayor Kobi's plan to greatly expand Agricultural preservation also provides additional protection to rural municipalities like Chattahoochee Wills, with which South Fulton shares's significant boarders. |
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Film, television and gaming has been on Georgia's fastest growing industries for years. South Fulton's Fulton Industial Boulevard already has a dozen spaces dedicated to film production — including Metro Atlanta's largest prop house. Mayor Kobi proposes to identify part of Fulton Industrial Boulevard as South Fulton's Studio City. Mayor Kobi's map identifies possible Character Areas for these economic uses.
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Mayor Kobi has also proposed changes to Overlay Districts — which further define the character and "look" of neighborhoods such as Old National, Cliftondale, Sandtown, Cedar Grove and more.
Mayor Kobi has been an advocate for concentrating density along Old National, Camp Creek and Fulton Industrial to preserve the City's suburban neighborhoods, as well as the farming communities of Fife and Cedar Grove at the southern and western edges of the city. He has called for updating high density districts to mandate complete streets (with BRT and bike lanes), high-rises and zoning innovations like BrewPubs, municipal parking garages and indoor-outdoor third spaces. The retro-modern return to walkable neighborhoods with local shops and restaurants has become a popular (and profitable) trend in urban design. These innovations will require that the City's Zoning Classifications (Zoning Districts) and its Overlay Districts to be re-examined and amended; then have them re-applied to the Future Land Use Map. |
For several years, South Fulton Mayor Kobi has called for revisions to Old National's and other city Overlay District that would require commercial buildings to be built up to the sidewalk with side & read parking to create a more walkable streetscape.
Rollup windows that create an indoor-outdoor dining experience — like those at popular, Eastside BeltLine eatery, Brewdog — are not allowed under South Fulton's antiquated Zoning Ordinances.
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Additionally, Mayor Kobi's map considers places to concentrate development & density to protect the City's existing suburban and rural neighborhoods; and an Annexation Plan of proposed land swaps to:
- Further protect residents from encroaching development of neighboring cities like Union City
- Provide for more efficient delivery of city services
- Create more consistent boundaries and signage at the edges of our city.
View the Mayor's Proposed Future Land Use Map below and provide your additional feedback in the Blue Box below.
PUBLIC INPUT INTO
ZONING & DEVELOPMENT PROECTS
ZONING & DEVELOPMENT PROECTS
Community Information Zoning Meetings (CZIMs) are first place citizens may learn of developments coming to their community; where developers present their plans to build and receive feedback from residents on their ideas. Click the link above to watch their meetings.
After they have (hopefully) made adjustments to their site plans, and submitted their site plans to the City's Community Development & Regulatory Affairs (CDRA or Planning Department) for reviewl developers then present their plans to the City's Planning Commission — a group of citizens appointed by Mayor & Council. CDRA & the Planning Commission will make separate recommendations to City Council to:
- Approve the development
- Approve the development with conditions
- Deny the development
Residents may make Public Comments at these meetings, or email the Mayor & Planning Department their questions and concerns at the link above. Click the link above to watch their meetings.
City Council will vote to accept or reject these recommendations and approve or deny projects at City Council Meetings (usually on the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays.
Developers will make a presentation to Council at the 5PM session of one Council Meeting; and City Council will then vote at a the 7PM meeting on the following Tuesday, or some later date. Residents may only make Public Comment at the 5PM City Council Hearing. Currently, residents are not allowed to comment on Zoning Issues at the 7PM meeting except in the case the Mayor has vetoed a Zoning Decision made by City Council.
City Council will vote to accept or reject these recommendations and approve or deny projects at City Council Meetings (usually on the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays.
Developers will make a presentation to Council at the 5PM session of one Council Meeting; and City Council will then vote at a the 7PM meeting on the following Tuesday, or some later date. Residents may only make Public Comment at the 5PM City Council Hearing. Currently, residents are not allowed to comment on Zoning Issues at the 7PM meeting except in the case the Mayor has vetoed a Zoning Decision made by City Council.
Developers may appeal the Zoning Decisions of City Council to the Zoning Board of Appeals - another board of citizens appointed by Mayor & Council. Click the link above to watch their meetings.
Mayor khalid Calls to Restrict Like Uses in 2019
khalid shared the Zoning Amendment with Mayor & Council City Council, department directors and the City's Zoning Rewrite consultants in July 2019
Read Councilman khalid's original 2019. Distance-Based Like Uses Ban
In 2019, then-Councilman khalid worked with the Planning & Zoning Department (CDRA) to author the Moratorium Against Like Uses, which halted permits businesses already over-represented in our communities (beauty shops, dollar stores, tires shops, etc.) to come before City Council for a vote.
Councilman khalid's desire was to make these restrictions permanent, based on distance. However, the Planning & Zoning Department (CDRA) incorporated them into the city's new Zoning Code as Special Use Permits, meaning that these businesses can still apply for and receive permits — but only by a vote of a majority of City Council.
Councilman khalid's desire was to make these restrictions permanent, based on distance. However, the Planning & Zoning Department (CDRA) incorporated them into the city's new Zoning Code as Special Use Permits, meaning that these businesses can still apply for and receive permits — but only by a vote of a majority of City Council.
Zoning Classes Explained
Click the picture above to view & print this Primer on South Fulton's Zoning Classifications. This document helps explain all the maps and other documents on this site.
GLOSSARY of ZONING TERMS
The words "shall" and "must" are mandatory, and the words "may" and "should" are permissive.
The words "shall" and "must" are mandatory, and the words "may" and "should" are permissive.
Overview of City of South Fulton's Proposed 2021 Zoning Ordinance.
Certificate of endorsement (COE). A document evidencing support of a material change in the appearance of a property located within an overlay district by the person or board designated within an overlay district.
Design Review Board (DRB). A panel which, when appointed by the City Council, consists of eight members appointed to consider applications within a specific overlay district.
External design feature. The general arrangement of any portion of structures or landscaping, including the type, and texture of the materials, the type of roof, windows, doors, lights, signs, and fixtures of portions which are open to the public view.
Exterior architectural features. The architectural style, general design and general arrangement of the exterior of a structure and site, including but not limited to the kind or texture of the building material and the type and style of all windows, doors, signs, facade, landscaping and other architectural fixtures, features, details, or elements relative thereto.
Landscape. Plant materials, topography and other physical elements combined in relation to one another and to structures including pavement.
Logic of design. Widely accepted principles and criteria in the solution of design problems.
Material change in appearance. A change in a structure or a parking lot within an overlay district that exceeds ordinary maintenance or repair (defined below), and requires either a sign permit, building permit or land disturbance permit such as, but not limited to:
Overlay property. An individual site, structure, object or landscape, including the adjacent area necessary for the proper continuity thereof, contained within an overlay district.
Street hardware. Objects other than buildings that are part of the streetscape. Examples are: street light fixtures, utility poles, traffic lights and their fixtures, benches, litter containers, planting containers, fire hydrants, etc.
Streetscape. The appearance and organization along a street of buildings, paving, plantings, street hardware and miscellaneous structures.
Design Review Board (DRB). A panel which, when appointed by the City Council, consists of eight members appointed to consider applications within a specific overlay district.
External design feature. The general arrangement of any portion of structures or landscaping, including the type, and texture of the materials, the type of roof, windows, doors, lights, signs, and fixtures of portions which are open to the public view.
Exterior architectural features. The architectural style, general design and general arrangement of the exterior of a structure and site, including but not limited to the kind or texture of the building material and the type and style of all windows, doors, signs, facade, landscaping and other architectural fixtures, features, details, or elements relative thereto.
Landscape. Plant materials, topography and other physical elements combined in relation to one another and to structures including pavement.
Logic of design. Widely accepted principles and criteria in the solution of design problems.
Material change in appearance. A change in a structure or a parking lot within an overlay district that exceeds ordinary maintenance or repair (defined below), and requires either a sign permit, building permit or land disturbance permit such as, but not limited to:
- The erection, alteration, restoration, addition or removal of any structure (including signs) or parking lot;
- Relocation of a sign or building;
- Commencement of excavation; or
- (4) A change in the location of advertising/signage visible from the public right-of- way.
Overlay property. An individual site, structure, object or landscape, including the adjacent area necessary for the proper continuity thereof, contained within an overlay district.
Street hardware. Objects other than buildings that are part of the streetscape. Examples are: street light fixtures, utility poles, traffic lights and their fixtures, benches, litter containers, planting containers, fire hydrants, etc.
Streetscape. The appearance and organization along a street of buildings, paving, plantings, street hardware and miscellaneous structures.
