> Zoning is a political process. Without a champion for zoning reform in both the planning department and government commission (DeKalb has neither with any coherent end goal in mind), there is inertia. Furthermore, governments shudder at the prospect of “down-zoning” the value of a piece of property to avoid litigation. Given what is or would be allowable on the Williamsburg site, it may be hard to match the return potential at a finer grain with greater required infrastructure.

> Historically, laying down the grid would either be paid for by the municipality or required by code to continue an existing grid at the property owner’s expense. None of those apply here, so a binding master plan of the area would be required (another pot-hole ridden political nightmare) with a new code. The property owner’s not going to pay for that and the county lacks the required champions (or political will) to pull it off themselves.

> If the new blocks are to be subdivided and sold/developed on a parcel by parcel basis, the property owner would want to turn the streets over to the municipality for long term management and maintenance. But the narrow streets you suggest don’t meet the specs of the DOT’s beloved Green Book, so they wouldn’t be allowed. A private street network is often the way to achieve ped-friendly streets in spite of that, but that responsibility makes the individual parcels less marketable.

Do you have any thoughts on strategies to make these royal pains in the azz less onerous?

Widening arterial roads throughout central DeKalb is a non-starter. It would be totally disruptive. We’ve all seen the impact of a road widening on the exisiting businesses and homes. It is a nightmare. So if we want redevelopment and we don’t want road widenings, what are the options?

The traffic on these roads is mostly regional and destined to and from employment centers. Therefore a regional solution is more housing closer to employment centers. More peple can walk or bike, or take a shuttle. This regional solution needs to be employed everywhere so more DeKalb residents can live closer to work and so more of Rockdale and Gwinnett residents don’t drive through DeKalb.

Another option particularly for local travelers is to connect a grid street pattern. This gives us options to avoid the arterials and the worst congested intersections. Some people will also discover a pedestrian route that is faster and more direct than driving for a few of their shopping erands.

The most important policy to ensure a successful redevelopment of these older shopping districts is to create a Transportation Management Association to operate shuttle buses that connect these sites to MARTA stations and neaby employment centers. The TMA’s should be financilly supported by the businesses and residents that live within the district served. Businesses in these areas should be limited to how much parking they can provide and there should be parking fees to encourage alternative transportation.

The simple way to redevelop the site and make it work is to tear everything down and replace it with a grid network of streets, and rezone the setbacks and designated uses so that each parcel can be uniform and thus flexible. Scale is key – the streets should be narrow, for pedestrian safety and encouragement. The grid must connect out to the world at multiple points.

etc. etc.

Atlantic Station, Edgewood, you name it, are examples of getting it backwards. The right way is to simply zone the scale and texture, and let the market fill in the space.

Unfortunately these proposals are not required to ask the developers for any money to build out the infrastructure to support their development. They could build the next Disney World at Williamsburg and be under no obligation to add even a turn lane.

I would recommend anyone against unbridled development without specific plans to contact their Commissioner and tell them no. We can’t be letting the county continue letting big business to “ready, fire, aim.”