Decatur PD’s Juanchella Francis forwards a note from Dan Reuter at ARC about a Wednesday, December 2nd Atlanta Regional Housing Forum at Decatur’s Maloof Auditorium.  According to Dan’s note, it’s only the second time the forum has ventured outside Atlanta in many eons.

Both Decatur’s Lyn Menne and DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis are scheduled to sit on panels that will try to predict the county’s housing future – “Housing Challenges – What to expect in 2010″ – and discuss “Housing’s Role in a Sustainable Future”.

To read more about this Wednesday morning forum and to register, click here.  The forum is free, though a canned food item for the Atlanta Community Food Bank is requested.

DeKalb commish Jeff Rader alerts his constituents of a North Druid Hills LCI (Livable Centers Initiative) Kickoff at the DeKalb International Student Center (formerly Kittredge Magnet School) at 2383 N. Druid Hills Road from 6:30-8:30pm on November 17th.

The plan itself (PDF) has noble, New Urbanisty goals, but seems to walk an awkward line between wanting to maximize driving efficiency – into and through the corridor – while also developing the kinds of density that should promote more pedestrian activity.

And while I recognize compromise as essential component of any real-world “initiative” or plan, any infrastructure that attempts to promote a sidewalk lifestyle, while simultaneously making driving MORE convienent seems doomed to disappoint both drivers and peds alike.

As part of its “Fifty Forward” initiative, the Atlanta Regional Commission is holding a series of “grassroots” forums all over the Atlanta “region”, asking lawns of residents a variety of questions about Atlanta’s vision for the future.

And guess what?  The 11th in the series, which will focus on how to make Atlanta “the healthiest region in the country” will be at the Decatur Rec Center on Thursday, September 24th!

Healthiest region in the country huh?  Man, that doesn’t sound like the easiest of topics.  How about something easier like “how to make Atlanta the smoggiest region in the country”?  I’m sure we could knock that question out in the good 20 minutes!

For more detail and more serious comments on the subject (from Elizabeth Wilson and Judy Turner), see the full release sent to the press after the jump.  I know, I just called myself “the press”…I feel so dirty. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Courtesy of Re-Nest

The Apartment Therapy junkie in our household noticed that the RainShine house was prominently featured on AT’s sister site Re-Nest yesterday, with a bevy of interior and exterior pics of the Decatur eco-home on Wilton Drive.

In that green-vein, The Decatur Minute noted yesterday that the city of Decatur, along with friendly arch-nemesis Alpharetta, won bronze-level certifications from the Atlanta Regional Commission for efforts towards environmental sustainability.  Cobb County was the only municipality to receive a silver certification (?!).

In response to the ARC announcement, District 2 City Commission candidate Kyle Williams tweeted “Step in the right direction #DecaturGA, now let’s pass ordinances providing green building incentives.”  I, for one, would be very interested in hearing more details on this proposal.

After the jump, you can read the ARC’s announcement detailing Decatur’s green efforts to-date that led to the certification. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, the ARC voted in favor of their plan to redirect $25 million in federal stimulus dollars to help bridge MARTA’s crippling budget shortfall that threatened to close down services for entire days of the week.

In doing so, ARC came to the rescue of not only MARTA and it’s riders, but also inadvertently Georgia lawmakers , who’s inability to pass a number of important measures this session was just beginning to gain some serious traction in the press behind this massive MARTA fumble.

Not only were rail-noodling Dems up in arms, but so was all of Atlanta’s business community, who knew full well the importance of public transportation if Atlanta (and Georgia) wished to compete in something we like to call “the global economy.”

It was just getting good.  Pissed lawmakers were giving the inside scoop on committee meetings,  MARTA was calling for special sessions, we had the House Majority Leader on record saying he went to Disney World more often than he rode MARTA (and therefore couldn’t see the benefits to his Isle of Retirement (St. Simons.)

Those were the days.  We were all pissed and we could smell the blood.  It was going to be an embarrassment to end all embarrassments.  One that might actually shame the legislature into action – since rational argument had long ago stopped having any effect.

But then ARC made their announcement that they had figured out a way to help MARTA through the year with the help of stimulus funding and all the press simply…vanished.  The hounds were called back to the house, the horses led back to the barn.

Now, as the ARC votes in favor of formalizing the MARTA bailout by giving it $25 million for “preventive maintenance” (which MARTA will repay with $25 million in “capital improvements” around MARTA stations), transit advocates are cheering with a pit in their stomachs.

Happy the city isn’t being saddled with a public transportation system that keeps the hours of a Chik-Fil-A, everyone is now wondering if the legislature learned it’s lesson.  Or have they instead learned that when they do nothing, someone else will clean up their mess?

With its generally spoiled 4-year old mentality, I’m going with the latter.

Playing catch up this morning…

First up, something that I’m sure has caught the eye of anyone that has a stake in Decatur’s Community Transportation Plan.

According to a report in the AJC, if the Atlanta Regional Commission succeeds in helping MARTA close its $25 million funding gap, everyone’s favorite transit authority promises to return the favor by using some of its stagnating $65 million in capital improvement funds to help fund development projects in Fulton and DeKalb that “complement transit.”

Wow.  That could be almost anything.

First on DM

MJK writes in…

The ARC transportation policy committee just voted to explore the possibility of using up to $25 million of the remaining Federal Stimulus funds to plug the MARTA operating gap thus avoiding draconian service cuts. It will be [made] official during the May Board meeting.

Trying to confirm what stimulus money we’re talking about here.  Is this the remaining mass transit funding from the federal stimulus package?

Wheatley forwards a call-to-action from StandUpDeKalb, over the land use redesignation of the Williamsburg Apartments at the southeast corner of Clairmont and N. Druid Hills Road.

The note promotes opposition to the redesignation because the apartments were not part of the County Planning Department’s original list of “appropriate town centers”, and because the developer JLC (not to be confused with 315’s JLB) has turned down the neighborhood’s request to submit a detailed site plan.  However, a site plan isn’t required for land use redesignation in the county, only for rezoning.

This project is part of the larger ARC project to create senior-oriented mixed use development in this car-centric area of DeKalb County.  Duany talked the neighborhood specifically in his opening address to the ARC a few weeks back, and though the neighborhood says the apartments weren’t part of the county’s original “town center” list, I believe Duany showed inital plans for this very intersection.

Unfortunately for everyone, with the advent of sprawl, today we have these huge plots of developed land that rely solely on automobile use.  And whether you believe in “climate change” and our “dwindling natural resources” or not, you must admit that the only 50 year-old concept of “retirement homes” is a rather depressing result of our car culture.  The only feasible way to “start over” in these massive plots, and allow our aging population to “live in place” (read: avoid the retirement home) is to let developers take them on at once, building these large mixed-use communities.

Its NOT the optimal solution.  I’d much rather see individual properties with different owners, slowly redevelop their individual plots to create more organic mixed-use growth.   But that ship sailed long ago.  Now, thanks to the huge land grabs made 50-60 years ago, these large-scale redevelopments are about our only option.  I’m not advocating that we let the developers run wild.  Do your part.  Go to the meetings, challenge their plans, make them second guess everthing.  If you have a critique, make it known.

But don’t stand in the way just because its new and different.

A couple days after Fresh Loaf reported on an ARC report that “attributes the reduction of forested- and agricultural-land development to the recent housing-market slump and, to a lesser extent, the growing popularity of living intown and mixed-use developments.”, another report out of Haaaavaard University says the exact opposite.

Harvard smart dude, Mark Duda, says “The data indicates Atlanta’s strong suburban housing stock and lack of geographic barriers has hindered in-town reclamation and gentrification of neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosures. Rather than moving inside the city and buying foreclosed properties, local residents have a plethora of housing options along the city’s perimeter.”

To sum up…sprawl has slowed because of the housing market and people’s desire to live in-town, but people aren’t buying in-town because there’s plenty of housing options amongst the sprawl.

Confused? Me too.