No big surprise here.  UPDATE (12/12/07): OK, I stand corrected.  According to the AJC, many didn’t expect the vote to happen yesterday.  But I’m not all that surprised the commission voted in favor of the TAD.

GoDeKalb reports that the DeKalb County Commission has approved a Tax Allocation District (TAD) in a 5-2 vote (Boyer and Ellis voted against) for the potential Sembler project at Briarcliff and North Druid Hills Road.

The real unpredictable vote still belongs to the DeKalb County school board, which has voiced concern about the tax money that would be taken away from county schools if they were to approve it. Because about 60% 72% of county taxes are dedicated to schools, the future of the Sembler project may hinge on whether the school board will get on board or not.

In its cover story for the week, CL uses the the Sembler project at Briarcliff/N. Druid Hills Rd to argue how DeKalb County has come to a crossroads in terms of future development. With more people looking to avoid the long commutes downtown, will DeKalb have to accommodate a larger population with more condos and fewer single family homes?  It’s already happening.  Older shopping centers with huge expanses of asphalt are ripe for development.

The article uses Decatur as an example of successful mixed use development.

“Compelling evidence (of mixed use development) lies just a few miles south of Briarcliff, in Decatur. With 19,000 residents packed into four square miles, the longtime county seat is the most densely developed city in Georgia. Surrounded by busy roads, it’s several minutes’ drive from a major highway, yet plans for new blocks of condominiums are welcomed and property values continue to soar.”

Though I certainly wouldn’t argue that Decatur is a successful example of mixed use, its not an apt comparison to the Sembler development, which would be created by a single company. Look to Atlantic Station or Sembler’s Edgewood development for what the future might hold for the Briarcliff intersection.

An excellent read.  Pick one up or click here.

Hattip: Decatur-DeKalb