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Atlanta neighborhood panel postpones decision on Hardwick arrest-site redevelopment
Neighborhood Planning Unit F delayed a vote on plans to replace the Virginia-Highland home where Michael Hardwick’s 1982 arrest became a landmark in the fight over Georgia’s anti-sodomy law. The proposal is set for a city zoning hearing Nov. 5, while preservation advocates are urging the city to retain and mark the house.
Atlanta’s Neighborhood Planning Unit F has postponed a recommendation on a proposal to replace the Virginia-Highland home where Michael Hardwick was arrested in 1982, an episode that led to a landmark legal challenge to Georgia’s anti-sodomy law.
The volunteer advisory board voted Oct. 21 to defer consideration of the application until November. The property, at 811 Ponce de Leon Place, is still standing. The application proposes replacing it with a new single-family home and pool.
Hardwick was arrested after an Atlanta police officer entered his home while serving a warrant that had been voided when Hardwick paid a fine for carrying an open beer outside The Cove, a gay bar where he worked. The officer found Hardwick and another man having sex. Georgia law at the time made oral and anal sex punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Hardwick challenged the law on privacy grounds. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against him. Georgia’s Supreme Court later struck down the state sodomy law in 1998, finding it violated the privacy protections in the Georgia Constitution.
Atlanta’s 2023 LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement includes Hardwick’s arrest in its timeline of LGBTQ+ history. Constitutional law professor Fred Smith Jr., an NPU-F member, has urged the board to discuss whether the original house can be retained as part of the proposed project.
A historical marker commemorating the site has been made but not installed, according to Martin Padgett, author of a biography of Hardwick. “The site of Hardwick’s fateful 1982 arrest should be, must be commemorated by the city in the form of a historical marker,” Padgett said.
NPU-F advises Atlanta on matters affecting neighborhoods including Virginia-Highland, Morningside and Druid Hills. Its recommendation is not final: the City Council would still need to vote before the plans could be approved.
The city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the application at noon Nov. 5 in the City Hall council chambers.