Okay, I know it stings but it’s good medicine. So temper it with a little sugar and suck it up.

For those outside our city borders who still consider themselves a part of the Decatur community, this morning’s AJC features a fine instructive example of what should have happened prior to our latest Walmart dust-up at Suburban Plaza.

In short, circulating rumors of the big box giant’s arrival in Sandy Springs’ downtown mixed-use district — no development proposal, mind you, or even validated interest, just floating possibilities — got people questioning: “Hmmmmm. We have a vision for what we want that area to become. I wonder if our zoning regulations ensure that’s what we’ll get.”

Turns out they don’t, so the city proactively dropped a 90-day moratorium on land-use petitions to allow enough time to “put its ordinances in line with its land-use plan for downtown.”

Well, howzabout that. Seems so much simpler than what happened here, and that’s for some very specific reasons:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Brookhaven Reporter reports that DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader called Sembler’s request for a 20-year, $52 million tax abatement of its Town Brookhaven project “effectively dead” at a July 15th meeting.

So what happens now?  Rader predicts that Sembler “should be breaking ground very soon on the rest of their project to the degree that the market will support it.  I think we are going to see that fully redeveloped, because that is an attractive place for people to be.”

h/t: Clairmont Heights Civic Association

Lots of in-depth articles in this Sunday’s AJC, including a look at the influence of Georgia’s largest road builder on State transportation legislation and a closer look at Georgia’s generous movie tax credit.

But none left me as unsettled as Ty Tagami’s report about Sembler’s request that DeKalb County fork over $52 million to help them “finish” the 54 acre mixed-use project near the Brookhaven MARTA station.

Why unsettled?

Because on the one hand, I have serious issues with Sember’s prior perversions of “mixed-use”, not to mention watching a cash-strapped county hand over a briefcase or six full of 100s to said developer (that’s how it works right?) Also, as Burrell Ellis has stated, it sets a bad precedent in the dark world of money-starved developers.

But at the same time, it’s mixed-use near a MARTA station.  Can the project survive if Sembler walks away from the project and leaves a big hole in the ground?  Will someone else pick it up? Also, how is it different from the federal government borrowing up to its ears to provide a cushion of employment during an economic squeeze?

I wasn’t born yesterday.  I recognize that there has always been a special back-scratching relationship between government and developers.  In this specific case though, I think there are enough concrete reasons to justify my unstated desire to watch Sembler squirm.

So, for right now…I’m coming down in favor of the hole.  Once the recession ends, let another developer, who doesn’t want $54 million, have a go.

As for the county, we’ll see what they decide next month.

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