UPDATED: The Atlanta City Council voted 11-1 Monday to deny the issuance of the application to remove graves at Mount Olive Cemetery in Buckhead.

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The Atlanta City Council Human Resources and Community Development Committee voted March 9 to deny the issuance of a permit to remove a historic African-American cemetery on Pharr Road in Buckhead.

This recommendation by the committee, which includes District 6 Councilman Alex Wan, went before the full council for consideration at its Monday meeting.

“We’re extremely pleased with the outcome of the meeting,” Erica Danylchak, executive director of the Buckhead Heritage Society, said of the March 9 meeting.

Ms. Danylchak was one of four people who spoke in opposition to the application.

“It was very satisfying to hear the City Council members emphasize the historical significance of the site and the need for its preservation throughout out the discussion of the issues,” she said.

At the meeting, Post 1 at-large Councilman Michael Julian Bond said he would make a commitment to find out if the city could purchase the property from the landowner at cost to preserve the cemetery, which reportedly has between 50 and 100 graves some dating back to the late 1800s.

The landowner, Brandon Marshall of Stone Mountain, applied for the grave removal in April. Marshall bought the property in 2006 from Fulton County for about $50,000 based on a tax lien. The property originally belonged to Mount Olive Church, which was a part of an African-American community called Macedonia Park.

After the application was deferred several times, the city’s Urban Design Commission voted to deny approval of the application in December.

A public hearing was held March 8 for community members and the applicant to express their thoughts to members of the Community Development committee.

Marshall said his reason for wanting to move the graves was so that they would be permanently preserved and that nothing could be done with the property until they were removed.

“This property fits the definition of an abandoned burial site,” he said at the hearing. “In terms of preservation, why not relocate them to an established cemetery where they can take care of it? If they want preservation, that is the best way to do it.”

Sally Silver, a Neighborhood Planning Unit B board member, also spoke on behalf of the board, which voted to not support the application at its monthly meeting March 2.

“The only thing left of that once thriving community that was destroyed are the residents buried in that cemetery,” she said.