Piedmont Heights'is Atlanta's oldest community, settled in 1822. It is a private park which belongs to the Piedmont Heights Civic Association (i.e., our neighborhood). It came about, ironically, as the result of property rezoning barely eleven months after the neighborhood association was formed specifically to combat such changes in land use. In November 1957, Stein Printing Company Piedmont Heig
hts filled an application with the City to rezone for commercial use a property it owned on Monroe Drive. Piedmont Heights protested and the City Zoning denied the application. Stein was considering withdrawing its request when a member of the City’s Board of Aldermen intervened and negotiated an agreement between the neighborhood and Stein to set aside property as a buffer ‘park and playground’ between the commercial development and the ‘home properties.’ Included in the agreement was a commitment of $5,000 in labor and materials to develop and maintain the playground for five years. Fifty years later, in 2007, another land use issue arose related to the park. The television station WXIA acquired a portion of the old Stein property abutting Gotham Park and wanted to expand an existing building on the property. An investigation by neighborhood leaders discovered that the building encroached into the buffer area. Negotiations with WXIA eventually resulted in the building expansion being approved and $70,000 was donated to the Civic Association for additional buffer and park improvements including the construction of the pavilion and other park amenities we enjoy today.
