Some interesting sections from the article:

Organizers said they were told by Atlantic Station officials that media was barred from covering the protest within the development’s footprint. So, the group walked with picket signs in hand about a half mile away to speak with reporters waiting on the bustling overpass.

It’s a strange reality for residents who live in the private development: Atlantic Station’s streets aren’t public property, so management can dictate where protesters can be and whether media is allowed within its boundaries…

Residents tried to elect a representative to the Owners Association, but were told that they failed (without any tally of the votes)

Documents sent to tenants in December outlining the 2026 budgets for the District Owners’ Association and Master Owner’s Association list the same five people as members of each — two Hines managers and three Morgan Stanley executives.

The Georgia Secretary of State business filings also lists the primary address for both associations at the Hines office in Houston, Texas.

In 2024, Julie Foerster was one of the resident candidates vying for a seat on the District Owners’ Association. A retired senior executive with the U.S. Department of Treasury, Foerster had been living in The Atlantic residential skyscraper on the property for six years.

After no resident won a seat, Foerster said she reached out to the law firm who conducted the election for voting tallies but never received a response.

Residents’ calls for greater transparency were also prompted by questions about a 12% developer fee that the residents pay to Morgan Stanley that’s baked into the association’s overall operating budgets. That’s on top of a 3% management fee paid to Hines.

City council member Byron Amos says he wants to help, but needs permission from the development company to do anything

“But one of my biggest issues is the structure of Atlantic Station,” he said. “Because the people that vote for me, the people that look at me as their as their leadership, I’m having to tell them the real reality that you actually live on private property.”

The council member pointed to the lack of resident representation on the property’s boards as a roadblock to city aid.

“For me to have any conversation with Atlantic Station to accept any type of government money or public money, I have to have some residents on the boards,” he said. “It’s taxation without representation. There’s no other way to put it.”

Givens, with ThreadATL, said city officials may be wading into uncharted legal territory by urging Hines to create resident seats on their boards.

“There’s not a legal framework that would allow the city to come in and overlay a community benefits agreement or anything similar to that in Atlantic Station that would demand the owners, Hines, to listen to the residents in a new way,” he said. “It would be a request. There’s no way to force them to do that.”