Atlanta City Council moves to protect historic Just Us Neighbors community with landmark designation

The Atlanta City Council has taken a major step toward preserving one of the Westside's most historic communities.

Council members voted Monday to begin the historic landmark designation process for the Just Us Neighbors community, setting protections in motion for an area deeply rooted in Atlanta's civil rights and Black history.

Widely recognized as Atlanta's very first Black-owned and Black-developed subdivision, Just Us Neighbors holds the distinction of being the city's smallest official neighborhood. Tucked away on the Westside, the tight-knit enclave is easy to miss. It consists of just two streets, Fountain Drive and Morris Brown Drive, which form a single residential loop.

The community's origins date back to the 1940s during the height of Jim Crow segregation, when Black business leaders purchased land from Morris Brown College to create a self-sustaining neighborhood. For decades, it served as home to prominent educators, doctors, and civic pioneers who fought off redlining and encroaching highway projects to keep the community intact.

That deep history is felt by multi-generational residents like AJ Jett III, who lives in a home that has remained in his family for decades.

"I'm the third generation of people who lived here," Jett said. "My granddad built a house in the late '40s. My dad and his sister grew up here. They graduated, moved on, and have their own lives, so it's just me and my little family now. So we're keeping it on. We used to have Thanksgiving get-togethers, Christmas get-togethers, and we still try to, my wife and my daughter. We live here now, and so we try to keep that tradition growing."

For other longtime residents, securing official landmark status is about safeguarding that legacy against rapid development and displacement.

"With it being the historical neighborhood as it is, you know, we should keep it as it is and don't have to worry about the interstate or anything being built through here," said Gee Willis, who has owned a home in the neighborhood for 19 years. Willis added that it is vital to "just keep things preserved."

"We don't need to lose history," he said.

The measure, Resolution 26-R-3993, directs the Atlanta Urban Design Commission and city planners to conduct a comprehensive study and draft a permanent historic overlay. Once implemented, that designation will establish strict zoning and architectural safeguards before any future construction or demolition can occur.

City planners are scheduled to hold public hearings on the proposal before the permanent landmark ordinance returns to the Atlanta City Council for a final vote.