Sally Silver leaving NPU-B board after 14 years, but will continue to help shape Buckhead development

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North Buckhead resident and community activist Sally Silver, who also works in the District 7 City Council office of Howard Shook, announced Tuesday night she is resigning from the board of Neighborhood Planning Unit-B after 14 years of service.

NPU-B Chair Sally Silver

“After 14 years, I just want to have a life,” Silver told her colleagues during the October meeting of the NPU-B board she chairs. She said she will not run for re-election to the board and her term will end Dec. 31.

That does not mean, however, that Silver is stepping away from public service. She announced that her new duties in Shook’s council office will include evaluating zoning applications and zoning issues which Shook has to deal with in the district.

She also will be representing District 7 and Shook as a member of the Development Review Committees for the three Buckhead Special Public Interest districts, SPI-9, SPI-12 and SPI-15.

She presently represents NPU-B as a member of the SPI-9 and SPI-12 Development Review Committees, but will have to turn that over to someone else at NPU-B when she leaves Dec. 31.

NPU-B board member Bob Stasiowski, left, will replace Silver,
right, on the SPI-9 Development Review Committee.

NPU-B board member Bob Stasiowski, who also chairs the NPU’s Public Safety Committee, was approved by the board Tuesday night to replace Silver as the NPU-B representative on the two SPI Development Review Committees.

Silver told the NPU board she would still be attending the meetings—at least most of the time—but as a spectator and representative of the District 7 City Council office.

While Silver said the reason for her not running for re-election is that she believes 14 years on the NPU board is enough, some of her colleagues and this reporter wondered if the recent battle over the Fuqua Development proposed Walmart Development in south Buckhead didn’t have a lot to do with the decision.

Sally Silver, left, discuses a zoning application with NPU-B
Zoning Committee Chair Bill Murray at a recent meeting.

Silver had been very vocal in her opposition to the proposed 21-acre big box retail development proposed by Fuqua Development during the 18 months it was under consideration by NPU-B. The NPU voted many times to reject the proposal.

The Fuqua proposed development was turned down by the full City Council on Monday, largely due to the efforts of NPU-B and other NPUs across the city who urged council to deny it.  

BuckheadView reported some time ago that several people close to the NPU discussions said Silver was warned to stop speaking out against the Fuqua plans. The suggestion was that Shook himself told her to disengage.

With her new role in Shook’s office and with the SPIs, Silver will be heavily involved in reviewing zoning and planning issues, but not likely in such as public forum as the NPU meetings have become.  

Regardless, Silver’s leadership and guidance will be missed at NPU-B her colleagues said, but they are sure her presence will be felt in the rejection of poor development and approval of quality development in Buckhead for some time to come.