Developers considering apartments next to Atlanta Waterworks reservoir on the Westside?

Firm asks city to rezone five-acre former steel supply company along Huff Road

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  • Development firm files paperwork to rezone former steel site (in orange) from industrial to high-density residential

Ever drive past the serene Atlanta Waterworks Reservoir at Howell Mill and Huff roads and think, Ya know, some day I’d like to build a high-density residential development overlooking this giant lake that’s surrounded with goose feces? Someone has beat you to this idea, slowpoke!

According to documents filed with the city, the Worthing Southeast Corporation, a Dunwoody-based apartment developer and management firm, has asked the city to rezone the 5.3-acre parcel on Huff Road from industrial to high-density residential — the first sign that a development is in the works. The company’s also asked the city to amend the area’s comprehensive development plan to reflect the change. (The city’s also looking at some rezonings along Marietta Boulevard.) Both items were listed on this week’s agenda for the Atlanta City Council Community Development and Human Resources Committee. The site is along a proposed alignment for the northwest section of the Atlanta Beltline. We called and emailed Worthing for comment and will update if we hear word.

Tishman-Speyer, the New York real-estate firm behind Colony Square and One Alliance Center, had planned to develop the former former steel supply company in 2008 but the proposal fizzled. City records show a demolition permit was issued to raze the property’s existing structures in 2010. Fulton County tax records list the property as worth $3.17 million.

Cross your fingers that, if built, we see an interesting design. If someone’s going to develop a site that, according to some early Atlanta Beltline study group meeting notes, is situated near one of the city’s highest points, you hope it’d be attractive.