Dunwoody’s New Perimeter Center Zoning Addresses Tower Heights

By Dyana Bagby, Reporter Newspapers

After a three-year process, City Council approved new zoning rules for the Perimeter Center that address height and buffers for future development. The council voted 6-1 on May 22 to approve creating four zoning districts in the Perimeter Center and to also to create a Perimeter Center Overlay District.

The Overlay District addresses elements such as streetscape, building design materials and the buffer distances required between single-family residential and commercial or multi-family buildings. Building heights in the Perimeter Center area are limited to 16 stories. Developers seeking more, up to 36 stories, will be required to seek a special land use permit.

The State Farm corporate complex, already approved, includes the current 21-story high-rise and a future 22-story building and 18-story building.
Sandy Springs also is considering height limits in its section of Perimeter Center of around 15 to 20 stories, with additional height allowed in an exchange for specific benefits, such as affordable housing.

Construction updates in Perimeter Center:
► Construction crews are digging a road behind the Palisades Office Park on Peachtree-Dunwoody Road in Sandy Springs that will eventually connect to the State Farm campus in Dunwoody. The road is part of a mixed-use project that includes 425 apartments. Developer Pollack Shores agreed to help pay for the new east-west connector road between Peachtree-Dunwoody in Sandy Springs and Perimeter Center Parkway in Dunwoody. That is part of longer roadway planned to improve east-west traffic access through Perimeter Center.

► Phase 2 of the State Farm campus is underway, with crews blasting an underground tunnel that will lead to a parking garage. Dallas-based KDC is the developer for the project and is working with general contractor Holder Construction. A 21-story office tower opened in November. The second phase includes the construction of another 22-story high-rise and an 18-story high-rise. Both buildings are slated to be completed by 2020.

► The long-awaited High Street mixed-use development at the intersection of Hammond Drive and Perimeter Parkway was supposed to begin in early 2017, but construction has not started. City officials said Boston-based GID Development has not filed any documents in recent months to indicate when the work might begin.

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