The final Decatur Strategic Plan “Community Academy” is tonight at the Holiday Inn Conference Center beginning at 7pm.  Tonight’s topic: Understanding Development Issues.  From Decatur Next…

Join us Wednesday night, November 17, from 7-9pm, as we consider the prospect of development and how we can get the most out of it. From attracting the right projects to leveraging good design, we’ll move beyond tired discussions of whether new development is good or bad and start to look at the big gray reality in between.

During the meeting at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, participants will examine how much development is currently allowed under Decatur’s existing zoning, how much of that is already built, and what our prospects are for future growth. Then, in focused table discussions, we’ll take on the questions of how we attract the type(s) of development we want the most, along with what design tools or regulations might be necessary to ensure we all keep getting along.

Decatur’s motto proudly boasts the berg as the  “City of Homes, Schools and Places of Worship”.

Perhaps this phrase is an apt starting point for tonight’s Community Academy discussion taking place at the Holiday Inn Conference Center!

Why?

Well, in addition to making Decatur sound like a tranquil place to live – filled with educated youths and faithful congregations – it also (inadvertently) points out Decatur’s expensive student population and general lack of commercial space.  (We don’t market ourselves as the City of Homes, Retirees, and Businesses!)

In fact, looking at the focus of our nifty primary colors logo through greenback-colored glasses, you might guess that Decatur has a residential tax burden that is “higher…than most anywhere else around”.  And you’d be right, according to a recent post on the event over on Decatur Next!

If you look closely, this burden is embedded in many on-going discussions within our community.  From annexation to density concerns to attracting more residents of the non-breeding persuasion, it all comes back to finding new ways of attracting additional businesses and retirees, who pay more in taxes than they get in return, and thereby easing everyone’s residential property taxes.

If you have ideas regarding this most important of Decatur issues, you might just want to show up tonight night and stun the mindful masses.  Here’s what Decatur Next promises at the event…

During the meeting at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, participants will get hands-on with a city map, looking at each of our potential growth areas and determining what uses are most in line with their context and surrounding needs. There will then be discussion of what services and employment options are lacking in Decatur and how we might go about attracting them.

If you enjoy getting down to business, especially when it involves dealing with regional, national and global factors we have no control over, then this is the session for you.

This evening from 7-9pm at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, the city will host a “Community Academy” discussion surrounding one of the most powerful arguments for more walkable, “livable” communities – in my opinion – often referred to as “aging in place”.

From DecaturNext…

According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, Lifelong Communities “are places where individuals can live throughout their lifetime; they provide a full range of options to residents, insuring a high quality of life for all.” That means a place that works for kids, for working folks and for seniors.

During the meeting at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, participants will explore a variety of factors related to Housing, Basic Needs, and Community Life, then rank each according to how well (or how poorly) Decatur fares. Those ranked the lowest will warrant discussion of how they might be improved and what potential ideas and initiatives should be worked into the developing Strategic Plan.

Why is aging – of all things – such a powerful argument?  Because it exposes a huge, poorly bandaged hole in the car-based infrastructure model.  I think I can summarize it with a single question:  How many people, each year, are put into nursing homes because they can no longer drive?

The notes from the city’s first Community Academy, entitled “Going Mobile”, are now online along with the video above, sharing resident reactions.

Though the document doesn’t indicate any sort of decided upon resolution between pedestrians, bikers and drivers, the tilt of the 13 pages of suggestions leans decidedly towards the foot-powered modes of transportation over the gas-powered ones.  In fact, aside from suggestions of free downtown parking for residents and concerns about the Church street road diet, I really didn’t see much that promoted greater individual car use.

And while many resident suggestions offered at the meeting have already been written down in the city’s community transportation plan (indicated in the notes with an *) there was one that permeated many of the sections of discussion at the meeting, which hasn’t gotten much air-time yet:  a Decatur shuttle service.

Here a sampling of the brainstorming bullets that specifically reference a “shuttle”:

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