March 2026 General Body Mtg. Minutes
GENERAL BODY MEETING MINUTES
West End Neighborhood Development Inc.
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2025, 7:00 PM
Hybrid Meeting
2026 Officers
Marquise “Tony” McNeal, President – president@atlantawestend.com
John Mitchell, 1st Vice President – firstvp@atlantawestend.com
Kimberly Carlisle, 2nd Vice President – secondvp@atlantawestend.com
Troy Farina, Treasurer – treasurer@atlantawestend.com
Dave Mardis, Secretary – secretary@atlantawestend.com
Melba T. Furlow, Recording Secretary recordingsecretary@atlantawestend.com
Kim Scott, Past President – kimscottmanagement@gmail.com
Terry Ross, Parliamentarian – t-ross01@hotmail.com
➡️ CLICK HERE TO VIEW MEETING RECORDING ⬅️
INTRODUCTION (Tony McNeal, President)
CALL TO ORDER – 7:01 PM
- Welcome
- Motion to adopt March Agenda properly seconded and approved. (Melba F & Matt H)
Favor: 20 Oppose: 0 Abstain: 1 - Motion to approve February 2026 Minutes properly seconded and approved. (Melba F & Troy F)
Favor: 22 Oppose: 0 Abstain: 0
PRESENTATIONS Pt I- 7:06 PM
- Atlanta Beltline – Rashida Williamson – Community Engagement Mgr. rwillamson@atlbeltline.org Introduced “Joe” with the Atlanta Beltline. ATL Spoke 12-month pilot program, which will provide last mile service from MARTA West End Station to Lee+White. It will run 10hrs/day, except for FIFA game days, when it will run 16hr/day. There will be an attendant on board, who can drive the shuttle if needed. 5-10min Q&A with the presenter. For questions and comments, regarding the Spokes pilot, email engage@atlbeltline.org.
CITY REPRESENTATIVES & ELECTED OFFICIALS Pt I- 7:21 PM
Shadé Stokes Campbell – Shadé Stokes Campbell. ATL311 is closing cases – if you have questions about why the case was closed, feel free to reach out. Shadé can research cases for you if you have a case number. ATL311 has a supportive services team, so please reach out. 5-10min Q&A regarding encampment at Lucile & Lowery.
Cody Wallace – Intown Cares. Spoke regarding challenges and progress that has been made at the I-20/Lucile encampment. If someone is sleeping outside in District 4, please point them Cody’s way.
PRESENTATIONS Pt II – 7:34 PM
- Adair Park Today Zoning Committee – Matt Garbett.
- Asking CM Lewis and Collins to provide the community with an analysis of the cost of the alternatives to a data center. 5 min Q&A with Matt.
- Willie Watkins Funeral Home – Andre Gates
- Willie Watkins Community Day will be on May 25, 2026
- There will be music, free food, pony rides. Volunteers will take care of making sure there’s no litter. Question regarding cited blighted property across the street, which will be turned into office space.
- Community partners can table at the event and should reach out to Mr. Gates.
- Lee + White – Evan Ziegler – 1200 White St, Lee +White, GW Parkside
- Concorde Healthcare, a technical healthcare school, is creating a dental hygiene, ultrasound tech, surgery tech program and will start offering classes in Q2 2027.
- Keller Williams has relocated to occupy 12,000 sqft
- El Tesoro is taking over the former Best End space.
- Eats will occupy the former Tesoro space at Wild Heaven.
- 1038-1050 White will be getting glass “punch-outs”
- 9k sqft glass “punch ins” at the portion of the former Best End Brewery that was not taken over by El Tesoro and be broken into small commercial spaces.
- Chantelle Ritter (Beltline Lantern Parade) has moved to suite A110
- Dill Dinkers has 400+ members.
- Grease traps have been put in to hopefully attract more restaurants.
- Ackerman may request to rezone 1200 White St to MRC-3.
- Townhomes have started going up at G+W Townhomes.
CITY REPRESENTATIVES & ELECTED OFFICIALS Pt I- 7:21 PM
- Councilmember Dozier’s Office – DeMicha Luster.
- The District 4 Town Hall on March 31st from 6-9pm.
- ATLDOT is responsible for the portion of RDA that is not in West End. If you’re interested in seeing their presentation, they’ll be giving it again on Thursday at the Georgia Hill Neighborhood Center. For the West End part of RDA, GDOT said they were ready to present. DeMicha is optimistic that we will see notice/meeting date in next 45-60 days. Be prepared to bring your suggestions/feedback.
- There will be a meeting on March 24th for neighborhood presidents and vice presidents only – please send your wishlist!
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION – 7:58 PM
Feb revenues of $1,519.12. Current account balance: $12,787,21
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – 7: 53 PM
- Tour of Homes tickets went live today.
COMMITTEE REPORTS – 7:59 PM
- Education Committee – Barbara Mislan and Ayana Dunston, Co-Chair
(Education does not have a standing meeting, but communicates by text chain. If you’d like to join, email WENDeducation@gmail.com)- MAJ is doing The Lion King. Buy tix in advance. 3/26 at 6pm.
- 20 of the cast members are going to Orlando for OrlandoFest. If you can donate/support to offset cost for students, please do.
- MAJ Yearbook – In the process of creating a yearbook for the third time in 50 years. The committee has upcoming calls with contacts at HJRWEA and BTW
- Pre-K registration is open right now for APS and will close around 3/15.
- Environmental Health & Beautification – Kristen Koehnemann (Pronounced “Cane-uh-man”)
(Does not have a standing meeting, but if you’d like to join, email WENDbeautification@gmail.com) and visit the committee page- Working on comm trash cleanups, alternating areas of West End. If you have an intersection you’d like to focus on, please reach out. Will focus on West End Park a day or so before the Egg Hunt.
- Events – Doug Cain
(Does not have a standing meeting, but if you’d like to join, email wendevents@gmail.com or call/text 404-934-0583)- There are lots of events coming up.
- The next porch party will be on 3/14.
- The West End Easter Egg Hunt will be on 3/28 at 10AM. We’ll have about 2k eggs. If anyone wants to volunteer to help stuff eggs, please reach out. Last year we had around 200 participants.
- The West End Tour of Homes Gardens and Arts Stroll ticket sales have gone live.
- Grants – Looking for a Chair
- Membership – Rohen Sundaram
(Meets virtually on second Tuesdays via zoom. More information on committee page- New Membership Chair. Just moved to West End in August. He is a CAU Social Work Masters Student and is excited to get the community to turn out for ourselves and strengthen our community feel through the events we have and to create new events to connect with our residents.
- PR – Brittney Cain
(Does not have a standing meeting, but if you’d like to join, email AtlantaWestEndPR@gmail.com)- Flyers for upcoming events have been posted to social media.
- Preservation & Urban Design – Caleb Racicot (Pronounced “Ras ih co”)
(Meets the first and/or third Wednesdays at 6:30 PM, as needed. If you’d like to join, email WENDPreservation@gmail.com)- Two applications for rear revisions/additions that committee will review this week:
- 832 White St.
- 680 Lawton St.
- Two applications for rear revisions/additions that committee will review this week:
- Transportation – Matt Hawkins
- MARTA is about to revamp bus system, and it goes live on April 18th.
- New Breeze system rolls out March 28th – now you can tap to pay. Breeze cards will still be available. March 28-May 2nd is the window during which you can use both the old and the new Breeze cards.
- Film Committee – Melba Furlow
- No updates
- Public Safety Committee –
- Still looking for a Public Safety Chair. Reach out to president@atlantawestend.com
- Zoning – Larry Frazer 8:30 pm. Meets last Monday of every month. Advises on new applications as it relates to development, zoning variances. We work hard to make sure that the voices of the community are heard. We also review alcohol licenses and special permits.
- Willie Watkins Community Appreciation Day. Recommendation from committee is to support.
- Favor: 31 Oppose: 0 Abstain: 6
- Request for information on remediation costs for property of proposed data center. This would be adding our name to other communities who have signed on. In March there will be a comment and review vote by NPU-V. In April, NPU-V will hold their official vote. In May/June, the item will go to the City Council for a vote. Motion from the committee is to support West End adding their name to the letter. NPU-T will have the opportunity to review/comment.
- Favor: 34 Oppose: 1 Abstain: 3
- 1247 RDA – 16 townhome proposal. The Zoning Committee approved with four conditions. There was some misinformation floating around on social media that this development had been approved. The Zoning Chair confirmed with Director Holmes that the matter is still in deferral. The applicant, Cove Inc., has contacted the media orgs asking them to pull that misinformation down.
- Willie Watkins Community Appreciation Day. Recommendation from committee is to support.
WRAP-UP & ANNOUNCEMENTS
- The next NPU-T meeting is March 11th, hybrid. West End Merchants Coalition (WEMC) was happy to announce a clean-up was just done. 60 people came to help out. There will be another cleanup in April.
- 4/27 will be a commemorative event at West End Mall from 12-2pm.
- ATL Streets Alive in West End on 5/18 from 1-6pm.
- WEMC will be doing micro-grants for West End businesses in anticipation of the FIFA World Cup.
ADJOURN 8:33 PM
Draft Minutes Completed on 3/11/26
