Sandy Springs community members will have a fourth chance to provide input on design guidelines for the city’s commercial areas during a meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20.
“Design guidelines are important because they help to ensure continuity of quality development and a sense of place in our city’s commercial neighborhoods,” Community Development Director Ginger Sottile told Rough Draft. “They set reasonable expectations and a degree of predictability regarding the standards for architecture and landscape architecture within the mixed-use commercial nodes of our community.”
Sottile said that design guidelines also help create distinction, recognizing both the current and desired character of the existing mixed-use commercial neighborhoods within the community.
The public meeting will be held at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center in the Studio Theatre Lobby located at 1 Galambos Way.
City staff will share their progress on preparing guidelines for the city’s commercial and mixed-use areas. Area-specific guidance will be provided for the Stage One focus areas of City Springs, the North End, and the Perimeter.
The meeting will include potential design approaches for stage two focus areas. Those areas include Powers Ferry and two focus areas at the southern end of Roswell Road (Crossroads and Neighborhood Village). The design approaches have been based on feedback received since August 2025.
Sandy Springs residents who are unable to attend will still have opportunities to review and provide feedback via an online comment form. Exhibit materials and feedback opportunities will be posted online on Nov. 20 and remain available until Dec. 14.
This meeting is part of the city’s work to develop design guidelines for its six primary commercial and mixed-use areas:
- City Springs
- Crossroads
- Neighborhood Village
- North End
- Perimeter
- Powers Ferry
The purpose of the guidelines is to ensure future development aligns with adopted planning documents and the Development Code to promote a unique sense of place in Sandy Springs.
Sandy Springs will build the guidelines following the standards included in the Development Code and Technical Manual by providing additional design direction for building features, building sites, landscaping, streetscapes, and other elements. This design direction will shape the appearance and experience of the six commercial and mixed-use areas.
“The guidelines will be a direct outflow of public and professional input received from the project itself, as well as reflective of the desires expressed by stakeholders in The Next Ten and other planning documents the city uses to inform its planning decisions,” Sottile said.
