Plans For Hotel in North Decatur Neighborhood Canceled

DECATUR, GA -- A rezoning plan that would have replaced six homes in a north Decatur neighborhood with a hotel has been canceled, according to one community leader.

Developers were eyeing Blackmon Drive, in the Medlock Park neighborhood just north of Decatur city limits, as the site for a new Residence Inn by Marriott hotel.

But after a contentious public hearing at which neighbors loudly voiced their displeasure with the plan, Theresa Same, zoning chairwoman of the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association, said the plan has been shelved.

"I can now officially report that this proposal will not be moving forward," Same wrote Tuesday in a post to a neighborhood group on Facebook. "The attorney, the real estate agent and a Blackmon resident have all confirmed this news."

She thanked everyone who attended the June 1 public meeting, at which representatives of the developers sometimes struggled to be heard over objections from the crowd.

"Sometimes, just showing up makes all the difference," Same wrote.

The rezoning proposal called for a five-story hotel on the property, which was a combined 2.3 acres.

The impacted properties would have been 2464, 2470, 2476, 2482 and 2488 Blackmon Drive and 1602 Scott Blvd.

In addition to needing the residential properties rezoned to allow commercial use, the developers also would have needed a special-use permit to build higher than county ordinances typically allow.