The home is where Michael Hardwick, a local bartender, was arrested in August 1982 after an Atlanta police officer entered the residence and found him having sex with another man in his bedroom. Hardwick's challenge to Georgia's sodomy law reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1986 upheld the statute in Bowers v. Hardwick by a 5-4 margin. The decision stood for 17 years until the court reversed it in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, a ruling that struck down sodomy laws nationwide and became a foundation for later constitutional protections for LGBTQ Americans.

Scholars say the case shaped a generation of constitutional law. Fred Smith Jr., a professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, said the ruling's impact reached far beyond the bedroom, affecting employment, custody, adoption and the ability of same-sex couples to live openly. "It's a case that came when the court didn't even apply the right to privacy in the way that we now understand it," Smith said, describing the decision as a "disorienting" moment that pushed scholars and advocates to fight for equal protection under the Constitution.

More than 100 legal scholars signed a letter urging city officials to preserve the home, calling it an essential part of the country's constitutional history. But the owners, who bought the house about a year ago, told the board they had made structural changes over several decades, including a second-floor addition and a rear addition, and that the property had been divided into multiple apartments at one point. They argued the home no longer resembles the house at the center of the 1982 arrest.

"This is not the same house as it was in 1982," said Steve Rothman, an attorney representing the homeowners. He said his clients were unaware of the site's significance when they purchased it and that they have invested heavily in maintenance. "It's a cheap way to preserve history," Rothman said of the preservation push, arguing his clients should not be forced to keep a property they own. He said the couple is open to a historic marker noting the site's role in the Supreme Court decision.

Preservation advocates pressed the board to delay its decision. At Monday's meeting of the Atlanta City Council's Urban Design Commission, they asked the city's historic preservation director to nominate the property as a landmark, a step that could have stalled demolition. On Thursday, Smith, the preservation director, told the zoning board that the commission had not yet decided whether to nominate the site and asked for more time.

"Waiting on the process would be disingenuous," said Michael Williams, who chairs the Board of Zoning Adjustment, describing the couple as eager to move forward. "Who knows what the history may uncover?" he asked, noting that a landmark designation could take months.

The board's approval allows the owners to proceed with a new house and pool. Members also reduced some setback and installation requirements for the lot, and denied a request to increase the height of a privacy fence from seven feet to eight feet, though a double fence was allowed. The vote was not unanimous; four of the board's seven members backed the owners' request.

The decision leaves the fate of the site's history largely in the hands of a marker the owners say they are willing to accept. For LGBT Atlantans and historians who see the house as a physical link to a case that helped define modern privacy and equality law, the approval marks the loss of a building they had hoped would become a permanent reminder of what happened there.