From Decatur Next…

New/Amended Zoning Districts
Wednesday, April 23 | 7-9pm | Decatur City Hall

The Strategic Plan’s goals for a more diversified housing mix reflect a gap — what we’re calling the missing middle — between our predominantly single-family residential and our downtown. This session explores the idea of transitional districts in the Unified Development Ordinance to accommodate things like live/work units, downtown-friendly townhouses, small-scale apartment buildings, neighborhood-scaled mixed use, cottage courts, and more, and gauges the circumstances under which such solutions might make sense.

The site also provides specific examples of what it’s describes as the “missing middle” and notes there will also be discussion of

• Modifications to existing zoning districts
• The possibility of a new R-50 residential zoning category
• A suggested neighborhood mixed-use category

Photo courtesy of TheTinyLife via Decatur Next

Do you like to discuss stormwater runoff and infrastructure in your spare time? Well then…

STORMWATER | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 | 7-9 PM | DECATUR CITY HALL

Join us Wednesday, March 26, from 7 – 9 p.m. at City Hall, 509 N. McDonough St., for the second of our UDO Drill-Down sessions. Members of the UDO engineering team will be on hand to present on Decatur’s stormwater challenges and how those challenges are currently managed.

More information about this and future Unified Development Ordinance meetings is available at DecaturNext.com

A recap of the Community Character meeting can be read here.

Also a new post on Decatur Next gives a more detailed overview of the issue and what you can expect at the Wednesday night session, including some interesting “unresolved questions”:

1. Trees. Trees aren’t currently recognized, at least in the code, for their ability to absorb water and contribute to stormwater reduction. This results in trees being periodically removed to allow for required stormwater retention systems, creating a scenario in which addressing one problem (retention) exacerbates another (tree canopy). Should the UDO rectify this?
2. Green Infrastructure. A variety of low-impact, lower cost, green interventions — such as permeable concrete, grass-paving systems, rain gardens and cisterns — have reached the point where they’re now proven and recognized within state ordinances. Should Decatur add these approaches to its list of choices in how homeowners can meet requirements? Which green approaches do you prefer? Is there anything we haven’t thought of?

Photo courtesy of The Decatur Minute

The DecaturNext website, which was updated frequently during the 2010 Strategic Planning process, has been revived as the city works through the process of crafting a “Unified Development Ordinance”.

The site is already reporting that the UDO “Kick Off” meeting will take place on Thursday, November 14th at 7pm at City Hall.  The site says that the consulting team will first present a “UDO 101” for the room and then attendees will be asked to answer a specific question: “In what way(s) do you feel our existing development regulations fail to address the intent and/or goals of the Strategic Plan?”  You can read more about the meeting on DecaturNext.

The rest of the anticipated UDO schedule currently looks like this…

Trees! Crafting Decatur-Appropriate Regulations
Let’s find some common ground for a healthy canopy.
December 11 | Time and Location TBD

UDO Table of Contents Public Meeting
Help determine our “big picture” direction and what initial
recommendations will be made to City Commission.
January 8 | Time and Location TBD

City Commission Meeting
Consideration of a new tree ordinance will be on the agenda.
January 21 | 7:30pm | City Hall Commission Meeting Room

City Commission Meeting
Consideration of the UDO’s code assessment, “big picture” recommendations, and recommended policy changes will be on the agenda.
February 3 | 7:30pm | City Hall Commission Meeting Room

The City of Decatur will hold another Strategic Plan Open House this coming Monday, January 31st from 6p-9p at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, where the coveted “Strategic Plan Project List” (or SPPO as no one tends to call it) will finally be unveiled to its adoring public.

As a tease for the upcoming event, the official Strategic Plan website “Decatur Next” reveals that a “circulator
shuttle”, which would transport residents between downtown, Oakhurst Village and East Decatur Station, is just one item that came out of the resident round-tables that made the list.  (The site is mum on any other projects that made the cut, hoping the anticipation will get you in the door.)

What does making the “Project List” mean?  From Decatur Next…

Actually, a lot. The adopted plan defines the focus of city leadership and staff for the next ten years, and sets out the areas where our money will be directed.

Inclusion on the list doesn’t guarantee the shuttle, or anything else, will come to fruition but it does ensure attention and resources. That means looking at the various ways such a system could be approached, who could run it, and how much the various scenarios would cost. Then, a decision can be levied one way or another based on the merits.

Shuttle Example pics ripped from DecaturNext

If you didn’t have a chance to attend Decatur’s Strategic Plan “Open House” a couple Saturday’s back, you missed out on some excellent free food and refreshments.  You also missed the chance to get a sneak peak at the city’s 2010 Strategic Plan Goals, along with some very interesting development options for Decatur’s commercial districts.

Now if this were the 1998 Strategic Planning process and you missed the open house, you’d be SOL unless you wanted to make a trip downtown to City Hall.  However, this being the “age of accessibility”, you don’t even have to put any weight on your feet to go over the goals yourself.  You’ll find all four principles and goals after the jump; courtesy of the city and the good people at DecaturNext.  You may notice that many are quite similar to the 2000 goals, but there are a few new ones.  Applaud yourselves for being consistent!

As is mentioned on DecaturNext, the next step in the process will probably be the most interesting to you: coming up with specific projects to meet these goals.  DNext promises meetings in the new year to go over these.  To be sure, the city and consultants probably already have an extensive list of potential projects from the roundtables early this year, but take a look and feel free to reiterate what sort of projects you’d like to see under specific goals on the list.

For example, under Goal A2, I would probably suggest something like – provide a financial incentive to attract a grocery store/co-op to downtown Decatur.

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you care about Decatur’s key principles, goals, or long-term land-use plans?  Well, you better get yourself over to Agnes Scott tomorrow morning.

As noted on Decatur Next, from 9a-12n tomorrow morning in Rebekah Scott Hall on the Agnes Scott campus, the city’s consultants are hosting an “open house” style event where residents can stop in and review an initial draft of the city’s 2010 Strategic Plan.

And then the best part for those of you with opinions: you get to provide feedback!  Here’s the lowdown…

First, we’ll be rolling out a draft of our overall vision and its four key principles. Essentially, these are the broad categories under which we’ll compile our more definitive goals and projects. Your job will be to review them and ensure that, collectively, they capture the spirit of what Decatur residents have been saying over the past eight months. Do they read right? Are they missing anything? You tell us.

Next, you’ll review the goals themselves, making edits as necessary to ensure they’re hitting everything that needs to be hit.

Finally, you’ll have an opportunity to review some long-term land-use plans that consider potential development scenarios for areas of Decatur most likely to experience redevelopment over the next decade.

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.