What’s up with that large construction site in Oakhurst Village?

Josh Green

Fri, 12/20/2024 – 14:19

Anyone who’s visited the happening little Decatur district that is Oakhurst Village lately may have done a double-take at a construction site that’s seemingly half the size of the commercial district itself.

No, it’s not a mixed-use complex on a residential street or an expansion of the Oakhurst Village shopping center—home to Sceptre Brewing Arts, FitWit, and Oakhurst Market—next door.

It’s actually three separate projects happening simultaneously, all of them bringing rather large single-family homes.

Construction on the three contiguous Oakhurst Village sites this week, as seen looking toward Sceptre Brewing Arts next door. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Until recently, the deep lots in question—614, 618, and 622 East Lake Drive—were home to three modest, older houses in a variety of architectural styles.

A couple of years ago, Parkland Communities had put together plans to consolidate the lots and build a node of 34 townhomes (with two or three bedrooms above one-car garages). Those plans were abandoned after being rejected by Decatur city planners several times.

What’s moving forward now is also purely residential, but would add far fewer units (and people) to the increasingly tony street.

General scope of the three Oakhurst project sites in question, immediately west of the brewery. Google Maps

The trio of older homes recently razed along East Lake Drive in Oakhurst, as seen in 2021. Google Maps

Starting from the west, farthest from the shopping center, the home projects are by Robert Koch Designs, Wesley Knapp of Keller Knapp Realty (owner), and next to Sceptre brewery, longtime Oakhurst builder Arlene Dean Quality Homes and designer Rawlings Design, according to Koch.

Koch recently shared preliminary plans for what his company is planning to build at 614 East Lake Drive: a four-bedroom, four and ½ bathroom traditional-style house with an office in 3,180 square feet.

Features will include a “large wraparound porch fashioned to give the initial feel of a Craftsman four-square,” Koch noted. “The project could have been much, much bigger, but the client wanted their home to stay on the more reasonable side.”

Courtesy of Robert Koch Designs

Tentative design plans for 614 East Lake Drive, the lot farthest from the shopping center, to the west. Courtesy of Robert Koch Designs

The home in the middle (618 East Lake Drive) was most recently torn down.

Meanwhile, on the easternmost lot within three easy stumbles of Sceptre, Rawlings was more guarded with what’s in store, citing homeowner privacy.

“I will say that I have seven other projects on that block between the village and 3rd Avenue that range in style between very modern and very traditional,” Rawlings noted via email. “It won’t be as modern or traditional as the others.”

Construction progress the week of Dec. 16 randomly photographed at night. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta