St. Mark\'s Methodist Church has sought an exemption to city and county codes to raze three historic properties at 768 and 776 Juniper Street and 125 5th Street, including a brick Queen Anne dating from the early 1900s. The current proposal calls for the demolition of the buildings to create a surface parking lot. The Juniper Street corridor is an important \"buffer\" to the commercial development on Peachtree Street. Juniper Street\'s character lies in the historic mid-rises that predominate south of 10th Street. In particular, this block\'s historic value will be lost if these buildings are demolished. To build a parking lot is not only a code violation, but unnecessary. St. Mark\'s has been offered numerous alternate uses for the buildings, which all include solutions for the limited-usage parking the church requires. Furthermore, an asphalt parking lot that stands empty 99% of the time encourages loitering, prostitution and drug dealing, activities that threaten the safety of homeowners and employees in the area. Finally, a number of irreplaceable old growth trees that provide greenery and help fight the effects of urban pollution will be lost if the demolition of these buildings is approved. For all these reasons, we believe it would be historically, architecturally and environmentally irresponsible to allow the demolition of these buildings. If anyone would like to voice their concerns in this matter, please sign the attached petition, as well as contact those people listed below: Representative Kwanza Hall, City of Atlanta District 2 at khall@atlanta.gov Representative Anne Fauver, City of Atlanta District 6 at afauver@atlantaga.gov Representative Mary Norwood, City of Atlanta At Large Post at mnorwood@atlantaga.gov Rev. James T. Moor, St. Mark United Methodist Church at jmoor@stmarkumc.org We encourage you to forward this petition to any and all interested parties. While we recognize the important role St. Mark\'s plays in the community, we the undersigned strongly urge the the City of Atlanta and Fulton County to consider viable alternatives to demolition for the historic and architecturally valuable buildings at 768 and 776 Juniper Street and 125 5th Street. To demolish such structures would be contrary to the ideals of intelligent urban infill that the Midtown community seeks.

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