Scottdale hoping to keep small-house charm

Clyde Aikens, 47 years old, has lived in the eastside community of Scottdale since birth — and he wants to stay. With older neighborhoods inside the Perimeter booming, that may be tough. But a proposed change in DeKalb County’s zoning rules may make it easier for Aikens and his neighbors to keep their homes, and for their hometown to keep its working-class character.

Scottdale, an old mill town along the railroad tracks east of Decatur, is a community of little homes on tiny lots. Those lots, in fact, are so small that they no longer fit into DeKalb zoning rules — which means that if a house is damaged by fire, storm or even neglect, the owners can’t put up a new one in its place. That can lead to two things: either empty lots where homes once stood, or newer, larger, more expensive structures going up when someone can piece together enough homesites to create a lot big enough to build on. If newer houses bring property values up too high too fast, longtime residents may not be able to afford to stay.

“We want to make sure that people who live here aren’t displaced, misplaced or pushed out of town,” says Aikens.

A new zoning classification, though, may give Scottdale and a similar neighborhood, Lynwood Park near Oglethorpe University, a chance. The county commission is considering creating a special zoning category called the Neighborhood Conservation District that will allow new homes that fit in with the older houses on the block. The measure may be decided on as soon as July 26, and Commissioner Jacquie Scott says the proposal has the support of her colleagues.

“It’s something the neighborhoods have asked for,” Scott says.

Coming up with the wording for the ordinance, though, is tricky. Most communities like a minimum house and lot size, so the rules must be tightly drawn to include only the neighborhoods that want the change, according to Chris Morris, the county’s director of human and community development. And it must be clear that the smaller sizes will only be permitted on single, existing lots, so that a developer isn’t able to build a new subdivision of tiny residences, she says.

“We want to make the category so narrow that everybody will support this,” she says. “Keeping affordable housing is our top concern.”