Fitness facility out of shape over parking woes Tuesday, January 11, 2011 12:25 PM EST Dispute over expanded parking has pitted Adrenaline Fitness against the City of Chamblee zoning rules. The city prohibits parking facing Peachtree Boulevard but the fitness facility needs additional parking for its growing membership and has a plan that still preserves green space and sidewalks.

By Rebecca Chase WilliamsFor The CrierThe good news for Jacob McLendon, owner of Adrenaline Fitness, is that business is booming. The bad news is that the city of Chamblee won’t let him expand his parking lot to accommodate his customers. McLendon calls the expansion “crucial.”

“If I don’t get the additional parking, it will put me out of business,” said the business owner.With 4,000 members, the existing parking lot with 86 spaces, as well as street parking, is packed during the busy hours of 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Neighboring businesses are unable to share lots and McLendon says he is losing business when members or prospects can’t find a parking spot.He has proposed an expansion to nearly double his parking but the only available land is on the Peachtree Boulevard side of his building. under Chamblee’s Comprehensive Plan and zoning ordinances, no parking is allowed next to the boulevard in order to preserve sidewalks and create a more attractive streetscape. McLendon’s parking would be beyond the sidewalks and behind landscaping, but the Chamblee City Council turned him down for the needed variance.Chamblee City Councilwoman Leslie Robson previously told The Crier that McLendon should have proposed his expansion before he bought the building or not located his fitness facility in Chamblee in the first place. McLendon said the law changed after he bought the building and before he had grown his business enough to afford the expansion.

“I never would have put my business here if I had know the zoning was going to change like this, “ said McLendon, who added that he has invested several million dollars into what was an empty plant. in the city comprehensive plan, ironically, his fitness facility is praised as a creative re-use of one of the empty Chamblee plants. Chamblee Mayor Eric Clarkson said the city told McLendon that he needed more parking from the beginning and that basically the same zoning has been in effect.“He’s misspeaking when he says it has changed, “ said the mayor adding that he had not seen McLendon’s latest proposal.“They have not submitted to the city, so it’s hard for me to comment,” said Clarkson.The Chamblee comprehensive plan is a 20-year vision to transform the five-lane state highway into an attractive live-work-play corridor.“We have to do that parcel by parcel, block by block,” said Clarkson. The city points to the Chamblee Wal-Mart that built its first store ever with underground parking in order to abide by the plan. More recently, Zaxby’s and IHOP have moved parking to the rear in order to build in Chamblee.Tom Hogan is the only councilman who has voted in favor of the variance for Adrenaline Fitness, arguing that the city comprehensive plan should respond to the economy and allow some flexibility.Council members have received hundreds of emails supporting the parking expansion, and McLendon is looking for any other legal remedy. as an employer of 75 people, McLendon is frustrated.“I don’t see how parking hurts anything,” he said. “ We are trying to stimulate the economy and we’re being stuffed by the government.”

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