Preserving Atlanta's Historic White Oak Trees

Meet Alba!

Alba is the largest white oak tree in the city of Atlanta.
Four other neighboring trees witnessed the historic Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864. They were already mature trees when this pivotal battle occurred on these rolling hills near Sugar Creek.

Alba and 3 of her friends have recently been certified healthy by Peter Jenkins of TreeInspection.com, a trusted private Atlanta arborist. If preserved, these trees could live another 500 years. But Alba and her friends are located on a 6 acre piece of land that is slated for development in the near future.

200+

4 trees

Certified as Healthy

years old

800

year life span

Advocating for responsible development that marries density and conservation, in a historically and ecologically important area of Edgewood

Who Are We?

The neighborhood surrounding Alba and her friends advocates for a responsible development that marries density with history and ecology. We aim to show Atlanta’s policy makers that developers can create attainable, dense dwellings while preserving bio-diverse ecosystems. A model for this is a "conservation village" - a development that utilizes only 50% of the buildable area of land, while conserving the rest.

In the case of Alba and her friends, we are banding together using the wealth of knowledge among us, including expertise in sustainable development, to show Atlanta and its policymakers that it is possible for the developer to realize a profit while conserving the historic trees via carefully selected green spaces.

The current zoning land use description necessitates that "The site plan shall provide for ...preservation of desirable natural features and minimum disturbance of natural topography." We intend to hold the future developer to this stipulation.

Furthermore, Atlanta zoning and planning is in the middle of a major overhaul. "Atlanta City Design" is an aspirational document that guides Atlanta zoning and planning ordinances. However, this conceptual framework that calls Atlanta a "Beloved Community" and a "Verdant Forest" is growing more neglected as Atlanta doubles its healthy tree removal each year since 2020. For this reason, neighborhoods like ours need to advocate for the preservation of our high value trees.

Our historic trees:

What Can You Do?

Zoning Ordinance Rewrite

• Join the conversation on zoning and the zoning ordinance rewrite in Atlanta via online commenting
  -zoning should limit the amount of grading that can be done on a lot
  -any more than 30-35% impervious surface per lot is unsustainable
  -We need to have larger, ungraded transitional buffers where existing canopy trees can be preserved. Right now, the zoning ordinance doesn't limit grading.

• Figure out what neighborhood you live in and join your local neighborhood association!

• Alba and her tree friends are located in the Edgewood neighborhood, which is part of the Organized Neighbors of Edgewood neighborhood association

• Sign up for email updates at the bottom

• Figure out which Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) you belong to here

• Set up NPU email reminders for their monthly meetings. Attending meetings allows you to have a vote in matters that come up related to zoning and other important neighborhood issues, such as the development Alba lives in.

• Alba and her tree friends fall under NPU-O, but your voice counts in all neighborhoods!

Neighborhood Associations

Contact Us

Advocating responsible development that preserves historic trees for future generations. Contact us today!