Sandy Springs residents called for more affordable housing and better planning during the Crossroads Small Area Plan Update open house at City Hall.
The Crossroads area includes an area east and west of Roswell Road, running from I-285 south to include the Prado shopping center. The plan is designed to address the current and future needs of the community and envision how it could evolve in the next 10 to 15 years.
Residents who attended the April 25 open house used Post-It notes and stickers to share their thoughts on land use, zoning, transit, and planned projects in the study area.
Since the area has a large Spanish-speaking population, the city provided translators at each station around the conference room.
Robert Nelson, a Crossroads area resident, told the Sandy Springs Reporter that the area needs something for younger kids like a playground.
“We also need affordable housing for a lot of people because rent is ridiculous in the area here,” he said.
Rent that once was $800 for a one-bedroom apartment is now $2,500 a month a decade later.
“It’s time now for these people to go ahead and try to own their own home, but something that’s affordable and allows them to own their own home as well,” Nelson said.
Residents can find out more about the plan and take a survey at www.sandyspringsga.gov/crossroads-small-area-plan.
Comments made by residents at the open house included:
“Ugly! Ugly. No continuity, no thought, no planning. Anything goes including sex shop! Get with 21st Century,” one resident wrote about the commercial character (small-scale) along Roswell Road.
Several community members made their thoughts clear about the residential community along Kingsport Drive.
“Charleston Square is a very diverse community where many different ethnicities live and thrive as one. Keeps getting better under new community leadership. The city needs to support our community as an example of how diversity works,” a resident wrote.
Some residents want new restaurants with improved quality among the commercial offerings along Roswell Road.
Addressing the land use and regulatory framework for the Crossroads area, several community members agreed with Nelson about housing, with one writing that affording housing needs to be made available for the community. Another said the city should leave the urban area alone in the study area because if any development was built it wouldn’t be affordable for families.
“The city needs affordable housing for community workers, teachers, police officers, restaurant and hotel workers,” a community member wrote.
And several other community members miss the Publix that had been located in The Prado, saying they want a grocery store back. On connectivity and transit issues, residents said they wanted more express bus routes between MARTA and Roswell Road.
