I saw this in the Decatur Focus over the weekend, but the AJC beat me to it…

Decatur residents are needed to serve on two volunteer boards in the city.

The Decatur Development Authority and the city’s Planning Commission both need members to help with their duties. Each commission meets once a month at Decatur City Hall.

For more information, visit www.decaturga.com and click on resident boards and commissions under the city government services. Residents should complete a statement of interest form and send it to the City Manager’s office at City Hall on North McDonough Street.

Lain points out that the city has just posted a ton of documentation on the 315 W. Ponce development on its website. We’re talking application letters, site plans, design studies, traffic studies, parking studies and working group minutes [all pdfs] It’s like Christmas in July!

For those who haven’t seen these before (like myself), its going to take some time to go through it all. I took a cursory glance at everything and the traffic study especially is quite detailed and therefore very long (38 pages).

I don’t have many observations thus far, except that the buildings look like they will have a nice upscale appearance if the design plans are any indication (Mongomery/W.Ponce) and the site does look kind of cramped. But I guess that can’t be helped with a 10 story pre-existing office tower. Also, from first glance, I’d almost say that Fairview residents might endure greater adverse effect than those on Montgomery that we’re always discussing. A 3-story brownstone across the street seems like a much nicer alternative than a (5 story?) parking deck behind the backyard. But that’s always the hazard of buying next to C-2, I guess.

Lain also reports that at the DDA meeting this morning “the board passed a resolution to approve the project and noted their desire for a parking and traffic contingency plan (in case the shared parking doesn’t work out), research on performance bonds, and approval of the building materials and landscaping designs.” So Scott, at a minimum you were on the same track as the DDA with the parking contingency idea, or perhaps they just flat out took your advice! Either way…great suggestion.

Alright everyone…take a look and lets hear some observations. I’ll certainly be chiming in once I finish the 38 page traffic study.