Atlanta Can’t Read, and That’s a Problem
When I started writing this, polls were still open on election day. Clearly, I’ve taken my sweet, sweet time on this piece. I’ve also been laid off, so now I have some time to delve into Atlanta.
Back to literacy. The reason this matters is two-fold. The first part relates to education, and the second part is my favorite city department, City Planning.
APS has done some good work, along with most districts in Georgia, in increasing its graduation rate. This is work that deserves commendation. The not-so-pretty stat for Atlanta, though, is the literacy rate. Barely over a third (37%) of our 3rd-8th graders in APS read at grade level. Last year’s End-of-Course Assessment in American literature and composition showed that only 32.2% of high schoolers were proficient or better. Statewide isn’t doing much better, but at least it’s 40%, still down 7 points from a pre-COVID peak at 47%. American Literature for APS in 2019 was 37%. From the listening sessions I attended last school year, I understand that the literacy statistic has been in the tank for multiple decades and predates the cheating scandal. If you want to play around and look at your district, Richard Woods’ people set up a dashboard for you. If you prefer combing through data like me, here you go.
There have been some changes on the Atlanta School Board, thanks to retirements and shifting public opinion; my district and an at-large district were among the open seats, but it’s all the even-numbered districts this year. I’m hopeful that, with this change, we’ll have a Board that will back the Superintendent’s back-to-the-basics approach. And maybe, just maybe, though I’m really stretching here, some fiscal discipline. I was fine with either Tony Mitchell or Dr. Stephen Owens for my district. It’s like picking between an imperial stout and a barleywine. Both are great, and I’m grateful to have good choices. I originally voted for the wonk, Dr. Stephen Owens. And in the runoff, I voted for Tony Mitchell.
Borrowing from Mark Yudof, education reform resembles a Russian novel; it’s long, tedious, and everyone dies in the end. He initially said this about education finance, but it applies here, too. Just like you can’t turn an aircraft carrier on a dime, it will take time and commitment from APS to turn things around on the literacy front. Superintendent Johnson is actually one of the few areas in Atlanta where I’m optimistic. Suppose the board is willing to be patient and give him the tools he needs. In that case, I’m pretty hopeful—downright confident, even—that he can turn the literacy thing around.
Now, what in the actual hell does any of this have to do with my nemesis of late (and every Atlantan’s pain in the ass), the Department of City Planning? Nothing really, other than there’s some difficulty understanding the word “impervious.” And how this relates to the project of making my backyard a much better place for water, the environment (Eagle Scout and Leave No Trace instructor here), and general livability.
Let me provide a bit of history here. My neighborhood’s topography means many basements and crawl spaces flood during rain. In a neighboring neighborhood, called Vine City, the City of Atlanta turned a sizeable portion of previously residential properties into a city park now called Rodney Cook Sr. Park. It’s a great example of how the City worked with the natural environment to create a catch basin to divert water flooding the area, turning it into a green space for families to enjoy. Additionally, it’s my understanding that a vacant lot that is along the foster dogs’ (Nucleus and Proton) morning walk to the Beltline is in the process of being acquired by the City of Atlanta to create a pocket park to address the natural flooding that occurs in it due to Proctor Creek running through the front yard. I could go further back to the building of the Civic Center on the Black neighborhood, previously referred to as Buttermilk Bottom, as its creation was also in part to address flooding in that area. In case anyone has forgotten, “piedmont” isn’t just a street name here; it’s also a reference to the literal foothills in which the City rests.
So, what does this look like in my life? Well, the rear yard (back yard to normal folks) was all concrete, which was a plus for a while because I hate mowing grass and am perfectly content with my postage-stamp front lawn. But it was old, and frankly, it didn’t do nice things with rainwater. The old concrete was ripped up, we poured a new 21′ by 21′ pad for the neighborhood kids to play basketball on, and the remainder was covered with #3 gravel. We chose gravel because 1) it plays nice with rain water, 2) I don’t have to mow it, 3) it’s prettier than grade (bare dirt or in this case clay for normal people), 4) it’s more durable than a lawn so when the foster dogs (Nucleus and Proton aka Duchess are still available, and Lifeline named them not me) get the zoomies, I don’t have worn patches of grass, and 5) I don’t have to fertilize, water, or apply 2,4 D to make it look pretty. Five yards of compost later, the raised beds are back in place and no longer sitting on concrete. The rain barrel system is functioning and happy. My plants are not, but that’s user error. At this point, we’re all just waiting for me to get the okay from this Mother May I rigamarole called Department of City Planning.
We did all this work because I thought the contractor had gotten the relevant permits, and she thought I had. My wife and I had a few things going on, namely due to the inability of DFCS to act at the time of beginning this project, but that’s another story she can tell better. Honest mistake, but failures in communication can have drastic consequences in all relationships. I own that part. I didn’t communicate well, and I got slapped with a stop-work order in July and another one on Halloween for the same project.
Zoning and Watershed DO NOT like my nice new #3 gravel that replaced a smidge over 2000 sq ft of concrete. I was told it was an impermeable surface by not one but two city departments. The kind folks at Merriam-Webster define impermeable as “not permitting passage (as of a fluid) through its substance.” Other times, I was told it was impervious, which the good folks at Merriam-Webster define as “not allowing entrance or passage.” So, two city departments are mad at me because the small rocks (#3 gravel is rocks that are an inch and a half plus or minus a smidge) with 43.75% open space between them (yup, I measured), on top of soil that drains on average at 2.02″ per hour (another experiment I had to do for Watershed) have a magical property that I am unaware of that causes water to defy physics and float on top of the surface.
I was gobsmacked. Frankly, I think I deserve a Nobel for this discovery.
The reason these two city departments are mad mad is because of something called lot coverage. This is how much stuff you can put on the land you own. In my case, I have a plot zoned R-4, which, for you folks in the exurbs or on farms, means I have a postage stamp that is at least 9,000 square feet (.2 acres) and has a road frontage of at least 70 feet. But since my house is old, like The Glenn Miller Band was at the top of the charts when it was built old, my lot is 6200ish square feet (.14 acres, which I’m sure is someone’s barn in Walton County). It’s called legal non-conforming because it predates the current zoning code, which I believe is older than Scot Turner.
Lot coverage in my zoning category is limited to 50%, so my house, driveway, impervious surfaces, and built structures can only take up about 3100 sq ft. That’s fine, I’m good there. The house, basketball pad, and driveway are all 2,899 SQ. FT. or 46.29% according to the survey. Pushing it, but still under the limit. And frankly, it’s a whole lot better than before because that 2000 sq ft of concrete was ripped up. One would think they would thank me for this.
But no. ‘Fraid not, friends.
Zoning is all bent out of shape about gravel being “impervious.”
Hello,
My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I was informed by my manager that gravel is not pervious coverage. If it’s not grass, grade, or sod it is counted as impervious coverage. If you have any questions, please contact my manager at ********@AtlantaGa.Gov.
Best,
Tuyanna Daniel
Ms. Daniel was great, honestly. Super patient and very friendly on the phone.
So, I reached out to her manager. Mr. Thompson was actually super prompt and offered some enlightening insight. Pretty sure he also hates me, but hey, I’m an analyst who asks questions, and words mean things. The TL;DR version of those emails is that he agrees he’s relying on an interpretation of the code with no textual basis, and that the word “patio” isn’t defined in the code, even though I’m required to be governed by their interpretation of patio. At this point, he got mad, mad, and told me to talk to his supervisor and then provided a generic email.
- Mr. Thompson’s Assertions:
- “It is an interpretation of the code. The gravel is being used in this case as a patio area in the rear yard, and patios are counted towards lot coverage. The construction material is not listed in the section of code, but gravel for the patio would be considered the same as if it was concrete, brick or pavers.”
- “There is not definition of a patio in Chapter 29 of the zoning ordinance.”
My job is to find things and answer questions. After about ten minutes, I had the Director of the Office of Zoning and Planning, Kenyetta Holmes, and her Admin’s email address. So, I moved on up the chain of command.
I really just want to park in my driveway and teach my kid how to change some brake pads at this point.
Also, this is the paragraph of code we are fighting over:
Lot coverage: A percentage factor which, when multiplied by the total area of any lot within the R-1 through R-5 district, establishes the total area of impervious surface which may be built on said lot. Impervious surface shall include the footprint of the main structure, driveways, turnarounds, parking spaces, and all accessory structures, including patios, decks, tennis courts, swimming pools, and similar structures.
My first email to Director Holmes went unanswered. Not surprising. But a week later, I added her boss, Commissioner Jahnee Prince, the mayoral cabinet appointee overseeing this entire charlie foxtrot; Greg Clay, a personal friend and deputy chief of staff; and Courtney English, the Chief of Staff to the mayor. Got a response the next day. Holmes doubled down on the lot coverage thing.
::sigh::
Director Holmes,
Thank you for responding.
That is the crux of the discussion I had with your Project Manager, Mr. Thompson. Paragraph 38 states: “Lot coverage: A percentage factor which, when multiplied by the total area of any lot within the R-1 through R-5 district, establishes the total area of impervious surface which may be built on said lot. Impervious surface shall include the footprint of the main structure, driveways, turnarounds, parking spaces, and all accessory structures including patios, decks, tennis courts, swimming pools and similar structures.”
The gravel is not impervious, nor do I have a patio or similar structure, as patio is not defined in code, and there is no structure. This would suggest that it should not be counted towards lot coverage.
V/R
Eric Harrison
She was NOT a fan of that.
Mr. Harrison I am aware of the definition and reviewed the definition before I replied. I also consulted staff and the long-standing interpretation and the applied standard of the use of gravel per the Office of Zoning and Development and the Office of Buildings. Gravel is counted against the lot coverage. The drainage of gravel is a standard assessed by Site Development of Watershed Management.
To resolve your issue immediately please remove the amount of gravel that would decrease your lot coverage to the allowed 50%.
Keyetta M. Holmes, AICP
Director
Office of Zoning and Development
Because this interpretation has no basis in code, I asked for where it came from and if there were any Dept of Law documents to back it up. Ms. Holmes provided, “This interpretation goes back to the 1980’s since Norman Koplan who is now long retired from the city was here.” So, we are dealing with an interpretation of code that has no textual basis and might actually predate New Coke. And frankly, it seems to be about as bad.
This was the part where Lora invited someone over to come look at things. And lo and behold, Courtney English, the highest ranking on the email, came over one weekend, while it was raining, to see this magically impervious surface. It’s worth noting that at no point did the Commissioner of City Planning (Jahnee Prince) ever add her two cents. Methinks, she had enough of our household after my wife wrote about the complete and inept failure of her department’s “support” (which one can find in municipal code- unlike the word “patio”) of the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board and a little problem with lies about a cell phone text that disenfranchised an APAB member and violated Open Records law.
Now I disagree with some of Courtney English’s positions on some things (TADs are crap, use CIDs instead). Lora more so than me, since she lived in Atlanta when he was the Board Chair for APS. Overall, though, the guy is friendly, believes the government should work for the people, and he actually showed up. And we all know in politics, half the battle is just showing up. He also found the whole situation obscene and set out to find some answers. Really, this just reiterated my opinions that staff gets shit done, and if more electeds acted like their staff, we would be far better off. But then again, having been staff, I’m biased.
Mr. English came over the week before Thanksgiving. November and December are rarely times for urgency, and hell, the stop work order was in June, so what’s a few more weeks?
He did some digging and got back to us mid-December. In short, we need to get a variance because the City Planning Department isn’t budging. Which, hey, I can’t get mad about management backing up their people. That’s good management, and there have been times when I have definitely been thrown under the bus for no good reason. Now we begin the variance process, and you can bet I’ll be pointing out at the Neighborhood Meeting and the Neighborhood Planning Unit Meeting that the City has a literacy problem. That literacy problem is baked into City Planning as well.
Literacy matters. Words mean things, and it’s essential that we all receive that constitutionally guaranteed adequate education (Article VIII, Section I), otherwise those in positions of power may be able to continue to enforce boneheaded decisions devoid of any textual basis in code because someone back in the 80’s decided it was so, without a code citation or a court decision.
