912 Hightower Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30318

Mixed Residential Commercial-Low Density Residential and Commercial District

The purpose and intent of this chapter, in establishing the Mixed Residential Commercial (MRC) district, is as follows: Create a diversified city where people across the spectrum of age, income, ethnicity, and culture can live, work, shop, meet, and play; Encourage infill and rehabilitation development within traditionally commercial areas that include proportionately significant residential uses; Encourage the development of multi-family housing within commercial areas; Alleviate development pressure on existing residential neighborhoods by placing reasonable controls on development and expansion of strip commercial areas within primarily single-family neighborhoods; Place reasonable controls on the development of larger scale highway-oriented retail, service, office and dining uses which are intended to serve larger areas of the city than a single neighborhood or a small group of neighborhoods; Improve the aesthetics of the built environment; Protect existing neighborhoods from uses and building forms which are incompatible with the scale, character and needs of the adjacent neighborhoods; Ensure pedestrian-oriented building forms; Provide for a pedestrian-oriented environment on streets and sidewalks; Promote public safety through the provision of pedestrian-oriented street-level uses, sufficient sidewalk widths, adequate visibility from adjacent buildings and primary pedestrian access from buildings to adjacent sidewalks; Ensure residents have convenient pedestrian access to nearby commercial uses; Provide stable single-family neighborhoods with nodal commercial areas which are such a size that all uses are within convenient walking distance of one another; Promote an appropriate balance and scale of commercial uses which meet the needs of nearby residents; Encourage a compatible mixture of residential, commercial, cultural and recreational uses; Provide a range of housing types and prices to meet different housing needs; Reserve the space between the building and the sidewalk for pedestrian related uses; Provide appropriately scaled, continuous pedestrian oriented uses and activities adjacent to sidewalks along streets with identified pedestrian needs; Encourage a grid of connected streets to improve access and reduce congestion; Facilitate safe, pleasant and convenient pedestrian circulation and minimize conflict between pedestrians and vehicles; Facilitate safe and convenient bicycle usage; Low density residential and commercial uses intended to serve a single neighborhood or small group of adjacent neighborhoods.