With all the T-SPLOST talk, you may have forgotten that some North DeKalb residents will also be voting on whether to create a City of Brookhaven on July 31st.  The Champion newspaper has a nice article on the upcoming vote in their latest issue.

Supporters of cityhood say they’re “not overconfident” but “confident” that the measure will pass.

As many of you already know, the creation of another city in North DeKalb would again have adverse effects on DeKalb County’s budget, which is already under a lot of stress, due in part to high property foreclosure rates and evolving measures of property assessment.

The gauntlet has been thrown!

In an article in The Champion newspaper this week County Commissioner Jeff Rader says that in order for Walmart to receive the parking variance it has requested to build fewer spaces than is required under the current code, they will need to “have to show how their project will adapt and change people’s travel behaviors.”

OK, so this is obviously isn’t a really much of a gauntlet.  It’s a purposely vague statement, as one should expect from a public official expected to weigh the pros and cons of any development for a community.  But it sure would be interesting to think about what it would take to change the travel behaviors of Walmart shoppers, wouldn’t it??

So if the Walmart design needs to “adapt and change people’s travel behaviors” the first, most obvious questions are “How many people?”and  “change their travel behaviors in what ways?” Read the rest of this entry »