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Bill Torpy of the AJC is one of my favorite columnists and today's article about the "Megapolis" that will replace the current location of the AJC, located next to the Dunwoody Marta station is spot on and therefore recommended reading. The article is currently behind the "paywall" but I have published just a bit of it below for you to get a feel for the article. Transportation, traffic, future 285 construction, and schools are all discussed, with the article quoting Mayor Mike Davis, Representative Tom Taylor and Senator Fran Millar.
Holy urbanization! Megapolis just ate my office! by Bill Torpy
Sometimes news hits you over the head.
That’s the case with an e-mail last week telling us AJC employees that we’re moving around the corner to the Cox Enterprises headquarters. It turns out the ugly building we currently rent will be levelled to create a development whose working title is Megapolis Behind The Mall.
The preliminary plan would create a 42-acre-complex with 3,000 rental and condo units. It would cram a population more than twice that of Avondale Estates into a few blocks of live/work/play hipness. High Street, its official name, could include 400,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, a million square feet of office space, 750 hotel rooms, promenades, parks and plazas. It would, according to its Boston developers, “transform Atlanta’s Perimeter Center area and become its urban heart.”
Dunwoody officials inherited Megapolis from DeKalb County, which approved the zoning before the city was incorporated in 2008. In fact, it would be fair to say that former county CEO Vernon Jones, a large reason why Dunwoody was created in the first place, is enjoying this a good bit.
The city was created as a leafy suburb with 4-bedroom ranches walking distance from community swimming pools. But, Davis said, “the millennials don’t want that. They want to go downstairs and have their pick of six restaurants.”
Millennials are the new generation that developers are still trying to figure out. Millennials wear porkpie hats and make us Boomers look old, stodgy and avaricious because they don’t want to drive or buy homes. And they love craft breweries and tapas.
The mayor and council members must toe a fine line between accommodating growth and keeping true to the folks who take time from watering their lawns to vote in local elections.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteWe wake up and find out that the concepts envisioned by existing zoning, subsequently thrashed by some of our founding citizens, may now be close to 'market-ready.'
Will a mega-complex overbuild Dunwoody or can THE MARKET absorb this type of occupancy?
Beantown owners with oodles of dough and the best possible information seem to think so.
For all those the HATE this idea, no offense, you may not support High Street, but you cannot deny the project is already zoned.
Property rights trump and these folks can literally litigate until beans that have yet to be grown are oven-baked.
Today, Georgia lawmakers are grappling with transit solutions attempting to resolve a $1+++ BILLION dollar infrastruction deficit problem coupled with years of 'kicking the can' down the road.
Really good read here:
http://www.peachpundit.com/2015/02/03/help-wanted-transportation-leaders-mere-critics-need-apply/
Mayor Davis nails the long view perfectly - Instead of more 'developmental highways,' toll lanes, and TRAFFIC, why not do what every other World Class city has done - GO UP and increase density? It is a natural development evolution coupled with our current youth demographic.
I want TEN places downstairs to spend my money!