Fresh Loaf

Decatur Metro notes yesterday’s AJC article about Nadege Adam and Jude Valles, a couple who’ve overextended themselves when it comes to home ownership. With credit now tight and the housing market in disarray, the couple now faces skyhigh payments.

Here’s what Decaturite noticed:

But the number that caught my eye in the article wasn’t their $419,000 Smyrna home that costs $100,000 less than it did a few years ago. Suburb declines are well documented at this point. Personally, I was struck by the condo at “Twelve” Atlantic Station, which was purchased for $387,000 in 2005-6 and is now worth $150,000 less.

This is the Atlantic Station that everyone (including the AJC) touted as the new wave of smart growth development. Massive, single developer cities that could do no wrong as long as they threw a bunch of residential and commercial in the same general vicinity. Atlantic Station was so awesome because it had its own zip code and organized mommy stroller walks. Yeah well, the economy may have played a part in exacerbating this problem, but a 39% decline in home values is nothing short of damning market critique of this project, which shows that all smart growth (just like everything else) isn’t created equal. You can’t cut corners, you can’t overestimate demand, and I personally believe you can’t build a town from scratch and expect it to compete with areas that have developed over time.

Well put. Be sure to check out the comments as well. (On Decatur Metro, I mean — the comments on the AJC’s article are, as usual, mostly just displays of ignorance and racism.)

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Remember Decatur Court? The mixed-use development proposed for the Wachovia building near downtown Decatur? The one that concerned nearby residents because they feared it would tower over their properties and not have enough parking to handle the new residents and workers?

Our dear friend Decaturite brings word that a consultant brought in to mediate talks between the developer and residents is giving it another look on Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 6:30-8:30 at City Hall. The development’s also shrunk a wee bit.

In an e-mail from Otis White of Civic Strategies that Decaturite posted:

We are convening a meeting about the 315 W. Ponce project on Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 at Decatur City Hall. The meeting will be in the City Commission Room.

Background: A group of neighbors has been in direct talks with the 315 W. Ponce developer since our Oct. 15 meeting, and these talks are continuing. The developer presented a revised plan to this group in response to issues identified at the Oct. 15 meeting. While neighbors recognized the concessions being made by the developer, they identified problems with the new proposal. In response, the developer revised the original site plan that reduced the number of units from 218 to 160 units and eliminated the need for a parking variance.

Emphasis added. To check out the rest of White’s e-mail, head over to Decatur Metro.

(Screenshot from JLB Partners)

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The Atlanta Regional Commission’s innovative program to help local communities benefit from the spot-planning blunders of their pasts has garnered the organization the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Smart Growth Achievement Award.

Since 1999, the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) program has helped local communities design vibrant “town centers” where residents can live, work and play. Local governments apply to the commission for grants that pay for planning studies. To date, more than $141 million has been allocated.

Sounds mundane, but it’s actually cool. The program has sparked the interest of planning organizations across the nation as regions are finally trying to figure out how decades of sprawl can be retrofit to create town centers, increase areas of activity, and rethink transportation corridors. Think of it as making sense of exurban eyesores and annoyances. Or turning jalopies into Jaguars. Alliteration abounds!

The commission says the initiatives also help kickstart economic development while benefiting public health and the environment. The idea: More walkable communities encourage people to drive less and get around on their feet. This in turn reduces congestion and improves air quality while bringing people closer to their shopping needs and workplaces. And it’s been working:

Since the first LCI grants were awarded in 2000, more than 84,500 residential units, 20 million square feet of commercial space, 12,000 hotel units and 40 million square feet of office space are either planned, under construction or complete in these areas.

There’s a problem, however: This year marks the last the funds are committed to the program.

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson presented the award to Dan Reuter, the commission’s land use division chief and LCI program manager, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

For more info on LCI’s, visit the ARC’s website.

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Memorial Drive’s fast-moving metamorphosis from industrial eyesore to a neighborhood with amenities continued last week after the Atlanta Regional Commission stamped its seal of approval on a 10-acre development that would feature a much-needed grocery store.

The project on the corner of Memorial Drive and Pearl Street would add 71,000 square feet of retail, 12,000 square feet of office space and 350 housing units to the area. It also requires the demolition of the Atlanta Dairies building.

Atlanta-based developers Brand Properties wouldn’t return calls about the project. Judging from site plans submitted to the commission, however, the $65-million project’s layout would be similar to that of the nearby Edgewood Shopping Center on Moreland Avenue — except more compact and a bit friendlier to foot traffic. It features storefronts along the streets surrounding a parking deck and courtyards.

It’s an ambitious endeavor at a time when financing is tight and housing is a gamble. But it’s also a development that regional planners say is smart for Memorial Drive — a close-to-downtown thoroughfare that’s seen land prices escalate as more people want to live closer to the city.

“Kind of the easiest way to think of it is ‘Paris-style’ density — four stories with ground-level retail,” Dan Reuter of the commission says. “It’s similar to what you find in Chicago, San Francisco and even New York City. It provides a good concentration of people in an area that can support retail.”

For the project to proceed, the city must rezone the property. If things go according to plan, the developers estimate the project will be complete in June 2010.

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Mother Jones has posted an interesting chat with David Goldberg, communications director of Smart Growth America. Goldberg, a Decatur resident and former AJC editorial board member, talks with assistant editor Jen Phillips about the challenges — and opportunities — communities face as they try to become more walkable and less car-centric. He also gives a long summary on what Atlanta’s doing right after decades of doing wrong.

From the interview:

There’s some really disturbing trends here: We’re having a difficult time revitalizing places that are being abandoned, while we go out to these greenfields and build these new places, wasting a lot of money on extending infrastructure all over the place, and we’re consigning people to life in a car and now high gas prices.

So what do we do about that?

It’s worth the time to give the discussion a look if you want to know the answer. Or if you wanted a comprehensive and easy-to-read background on how smart growth concepts work.

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So you’d like there to be more public transit in Atlanta, want to see more smart-growth development, but you still don’t know exactly what the Beltline is all about. The Beltline Partnership, the 22-mile project’s fundraising arm, operates twice-a-week tours of the proposed loop of transit, trails, parks and development, so that’s one way.

Another way is to help clean the project up. Last year, volunteers cleaned up the Beltline’s southwest portion. On Nov. 8, Keep Atlanta Beautiful and other partners plan to do the same in the northeast quadrant.

Here are the details:

Last week, TruGreen LandCare, lawn and landscape professionals, donated their time and expertise to prepare the area for volunteers by accomplishing some of the heavy lifting.

On Saturday November 8, Atlanta BeltLine Inc., Ponce Park, the Historic Fourth Ward Park Conservancy, City of Atlanta, Park Pride, Trees Atlanta, Atlanta Community ToolBank and PATH are orchestrating the northeast corridor BeltLine clean-up. This is necessary to achieve the clean-up’s goal of taking a first step in creating a useable connection between Piedmont Park and Freedom Park. See images below.

Volunteers will pick up litter and remove kudzu from trees along the 1.5 mile stretch. You can register as a volunteer for the clean-up at www.keepatlantabeautiful.org.

(Photo courtesy of TruGreen LandCare)

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As Virginia-Highland attracts more residents, barflies, and Sunday afternoon pedestrians, it’ll also — for better or worse — catch the eye of developers who want to capitalize on that appeal. And for residents and property owners who want a voice in how their bustling neighborhood evolves, tonight’s their chance.

Members of Neighborhood Planning Unit F, whose boundaries include Virginia-Highland will vote tonight whether its members want Virginia-Highland rezoned as “Neighborhood Commercial.” The designation focuses on three busy “nodes” along North Highland Avenue where it intersects Briarcliff Place, Virginia Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. The designation could potentially affect The Mix at 841 (above right) — an ambitious mixed-use development proposed across the street from the long strip of bars that includes Blind Willie’s and Diesel — that’s irked some residents for its size and scope.

According to the Virginia-Highland Civic Association, current zoning allows commercial buildings as high as 11 stories in some areas. If ultimately approved by the Atlanta City Council, the rezoning would limit the height of buildings to three stories and encourage such smart-growth concepts as mixed-use design and shared parking. It would prohibit “suburban-style” buildings such as the CVS Pharmacy and encourage developers to take the neighborhood’s architecture into account.  (For the association’s documents related to the rezoning proposal, click here.)

The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. tonight at the Hillside facility between Courtenay Dr and Monroe Dr. According to the NPU-F website, “access is available from 1301 Monroe Dr., opposite the CSO facility on Monroe. Parking is available at the rear of the building off Monroe Drive.” The public is welcome, but keep in mind that you have to live or own commercial property in the district if you want to vote.

UPDATE: Christa at Pecanne Log is none-too-pleased with The Mix.

(Apologies for the screenshot. The Mix website appears to be incomplete.)

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Decatur Metro’s all over the latest smart-growth shenanigans in his burg.

First, there’s the news that the celebrated Otis White of Civic Strategies will sit down with nearby residents and developers of the controversial 315 W. Ponce project to help the two groups work out the kinks. (The developer recently postponed a requested commission hearing because of an uproar over parking at the proposed mixed-use development. Read the harrowing account of the most recent late-night public hearing here.) The sitdown led by White is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in Decatur City Hall.

Next, one of the groups that help concerned residents rally against the 315 W. Ponce project’s scope has now focused its attention on Trinity Triangle near bustling downtown. There’s an interesting conversation going on there about the debate.

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One of the Beltline’s goals is that all Atlantans — regardless of income — will be able to enjoy the 22-mile ring of parks, trails and transit. Last week, the Atlanta Development Authority approved a set of recommendations that could help make that happen.

Andy Schneggenburger, executive director the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-based Developers and a member of the advisory board that wrote the recommendations, says the authority decided to offer incentives to developers who include community land trusts and energy efficiencies in their projects, as well as those who give city residents, Beltline-area residents and public-service employees first dibs. Developments that offer 10 percent of new housing units at rents affordable to Atlantans making less than $20,760 would win extra points in competing for Beltline grants.

Beltline leaders will vote on the recommendations this week before sending them to City Council.

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The Old Fourth Ward, which has coped with prostitutes, drug dealers and gentrification, is on tap for a facelift.

The Atlanta City Council is set to adopt a master plan this month for the historic intown neighborhood, which includes Auburn Avenue and Boulevard. It served before desegregration as the business district for black Atlantans.

But city planners also are trying to fend off a potential traffic mess and other problems that could come with the renewed interest in intown living. The Bureau of Planning predicts the neighborhood’s population will rise over the next two decades from 6,000 to 20,000 — approximately the same number of people who lived there before the Civil Rights Movement. The redevelopment vision could create more walkable streets lined with energy-efficient buildings.

To view the plan, click here. (PDF file)

(Screenshot courtesy of City of Atlanta)

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Decaturite over at Decatur Metro breaks the news that JLB Partners, the developers of the controversial 315 W. Ponce, have requested an “indefinite deferral” from the city and asked the development authority and planning commission to convene public meetings so various kinks and concerns about the project can be ironed out.

Decaturite posted a well-written message from Duane Truex, a neighborhood resident with a really cool name, that sums up much of the concern about the proposed mixed-use development at the doorstep of downtown Decatur. These two paragraphs really stood out to me:

We are NOT anti growth, we live in mixed use development and always have in this neighborhood around the 315 project (Ponce place, Montgomery, Fairview etc, etc…). It *is* our backyard so we want growth to be sensible, properly scaled, proper quality and to the benefit of all…as well as something that honors Decatur’s past and future. Yes we are idealists. But we are willing to work with the city and developers on a proper project.

For the record we reached out on several occasions to Hudson Hooks [ed. JLB Partners' Atlanta associate]and company. We drank together and talked and attempted to sit down in a small setting to discuss the project. My guess is that the developers were of the opinion (somehow) that it was so ‘in the bag’ they did not need to listen. Moreover they may have underestimated both the skill set extant in these neighborhoods. We are parents, tradesmen and women, artisans and professionals–engineers, architects or various flavors, scientists, producers of content, lawyers and others who can research, reason, design, problem solve, and if needed, resist.

(Screenshot courtesy of JLB Partners)

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Five hours of comments and more than 100 concerned residents were ample enough reason for the Decatur Zoning Board of Appeals to indefinitely table a parking variance early Tuesday morning for a large mixed-use development proposed in the city.

JLB Partners has envisioned one- and two-bedroom apartments at 315 W. Ponce de Leon Road with streetfront retail. The proposed 218-unit development would rise from a parking lot and wrap around an existing 11-story office building.

At first glance and on paper, the proposal appears to be your typical smart growth development — the sensible combination of retail, office and resident that’s made Decatur such a walkable, desirable place to live. Tonight’s parking variance was necessary because the developers requested less spaces than zoning codes require for a development of its size. JLB Partners are banking on a nationally proven smart-growth concept called “shared parking” to remedy the situation — as well as allow them to both max out the land and save money on building a parking deck.

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The diligent Decaturite over at DecaturMetro reminds us the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals will review the requested parking variance proposed by the developers of Decatur Court, a mixed-use project near Watershed and the CVS on West Ponce de Leon Road.

JLB Partners wants to use a shared-parking concept in which residents and workers would swap out most of the parking spots as one group leaves and another arrives. The action starts at 7:30 p.m. in the city hall meeting room. I plan to attend.

I wrote a brief write-up of the development and the concerns neighborhood residents have about it in this week’s CL. I’ve pasted that after the jump. If you want to learn more about the project, visit the city’s website here. For another take on the issues, check out this community website that raises questions about the impact the development may have on the surrounding neighborhoods.

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