When the planners started talking about calming traffic in her north Buckhead neighborhood, Susan Houston liked what she was hearing.
“I love the concept of ‘calming,’” she said. “I volunteer downtown and they’ve done that. The trees and the sidewalks … it does feel calmer.”
Houston was among more than two dozen north Buckhead residents who gathered at St. James United Methodist Church on Sept. 30 for a North Buckhead Civic Association-sponsored gathering to collect ideas on a proposed development plan for the neighborhood.
The association has hired consultants to draw up a plan for the neighborhood. The association is scheduled to vote on the final proposal in December. The group intends to present the proposal to Atlanta city officials in hopes it can help guide development over the next couple of decades.
Residents at the Sept. 30 meeting pasted green and red dots on posters to show whether they approved (green) or disapproved (red) of the concepts planners listed there.
Big winners: development of new green space, a proposal to avoid developing the property that had been used for a toll plaza on Ga. 400, the proposed “Blueway” trail connecting the Blue Heron Nature Preserve with other parks.
Caleb Racicot, a senior principal with the planning firm TSW, told the group planners were proposing mixed-use development along Roswell Road. “We know that Roswell Road is going to redevelop, so we’ve actually come up with some recommendation of how that development should look,” Racicot said.
Resident Errett Kirkland welcomed the idea of making Roswell Road more walkable. “I like a lot of what they’re saying about along Roswell Road,” she said. “It needs a facelift.”
But Scott Selig, vice president of the development company Selig and a member of the stakeholders committee working on the north Buckhead plan, said he wanted to make sure the proposals were realistic.
“The thing that I look out for is making sure the economic impact of this doesn’t halt commercial development and you end up with no change,” he said. “Some things I see seem more like protection against what the unknown might be as opposed to an open mind for what the possibilities might be.”
To review and comment on the plan, to go www.nbca.org/plan.
Scott, my admiration for your projects goes all the way back to 70 W.Wieuca. How appropriate and wise to suggest that few good decisions are made when driven by paranoia. Glad to have you at this helm.