Fresh Loaf

Andres Duany

The Atlanta Regional Commission didn’t ask Andres Duany to envision a mixed-use design for Gwinnett Place Mall when he visited the region in February. But he did anyway.

He imagined how the stereotypical shopping box out in the wilds of suburbia would look should our economy collapse. Residents would have safety in numbers, gathered in dense housing. They could raze the single-family sameness surrounding them and plant crops. They could erect a wall to protect them from the barbarian hordes. Duany even included a moat. Because that’s how badass Duany is.

Last month, the smart-growth guru and father of New Urbanism converged upon Atlanta with a team of urban planners to conduct a nine-day series of site-planning sessions.

Duany’s team focused on five sites in metro Atlanta as part of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s initiative to prepare for the coming surge in the metro region’s aging population. In 2030, the commission says, one out of five adults in metro Atlanta will be over the age of 60. They’ll need a place to live. For people with limited mobility, the 40-story isolation towers we’ve stuck them in for the last few decades aren’t cutting it. The metro region’s sprawlish character isn’t hospitable for someone who can’t drive to the doctor, pharmacy or store. Simply put, the way things are right now, metro Atlanta isn’t prepared to accommodate many of the same people who helped build their communities.

Duany’s group aimed to see how the public and private sector can work together to change that. And for a wonk like me, it was a thrilling concept. After the jump, pretty pictures and lots of basic details.

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After months of behind-the-scenes coordination, the Atlanta Regional Commission can finally confirm celebrated New Urbanist Andres Duany’s project for metro Atlanta.

In early February, Duany and a team of town planners from his Duany Plater-Zyberk firm will hold a nine-day series of charrettes to design five sites in the metro region aimed at retrofitting communities — a proactive move to accommodate the growing population of aging metro Atlantans.

If that sounds like a ho-hum project for a town planner commonly called the “father of New Urbanism,” think more long-term. By 2030, according to the commission, one out of five people living in metro Atlanta will be over the age of 55. And the auto-dependent, subdivision existence that is metro Atlanta doesn’t bode well for those residents in terms of housing, transportation and quality of life.

Members of Duany’s team will set up shop in the commission’s downtown headquarters, hear input from stakeholders, and assemble and present its preliminary vision for five chosen sites — Toco Hills in DeKalb County, the Grant Park area along the Beltline, Mableton, Fayetteville and Conyers. Think of the process as Jackson Pollock meets urban planning.

Funding for the charrettes is provided by the American Association of Retired Persons, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Kathryn Lawler, the commission’s project manager, says the initiative is a first and could have national implications for how sprawl-ravaged regions can adapt to a population that’s living longer — and deserving of the right to move about the world like its younger counterparts.

(Photo courtesy of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company)

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As promised, the Beltline continues ahead. Planners for the southeast quadrant — the segment of the massive project that curves south of I-20 and encompasses Grant Park — will unveil the draft park master plan for Boulevard Crossing on Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., at the Animal Rescue Center at Zoo Atlanta. The 21-acre park is one of several new greenspaces created by the Beltline.

Stakeholders who attended a recent study group said they favored an urban confluence concept — one that would blend aspects of the city with a traditional park idea. You’d see an amphitheater with a great lawn a la Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

To view the plan, click here. Then click on “Draft Park Master Plan” under the “Boulevard Crossing Master Plan” category. A more detailed map will be shown at the Feb. 21 open house. Maps will also be on display at East Atlanta and Georgia Hill libraries after the presentation.

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