| Title | Example | More Information | Tools |
| Alpharetta's Big Creek Greenway | The Big Creek Greenway is primarily a 12-foot wide concrete path that meanders through the deciduous woods along Big Creek offering opportunities for walking, jogging, inline roller blading, and biking. The greenway runs along Big Creek parallel to North Point Parkway. A soft mulch trail encircles a large wetland between Haynes Bridge Road and Mansell Road where wildlife such as blue heron, deer, ducks and Canadian geese can be observed. Long-range plans would extend the greenway to Windward Parkway and to the Roswell city limit. Roswell is developing a plan to expand the linear park south into that city. | Mike Perry Director Alpharetta Parks and Recreation Department 678-297-6100 [more information] |
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| Atlanta Scripto Factory Remediation | Land that once housed a Scripto ink and pen plant was located next to the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site in Atlanta. Contaminated with elevated levels of total petroleum, hydrocarbons, lead, arsenic, PCE, TCE, cyanides, and methylene chloride, the 5.23 acres were cleaned up from 1992 to 1996. The acquisition and development costs were paid by the National Park Service, while the remediation costs were paid by the former landowner. The area is now part of the expanded Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site. | [more information] |
Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Brownfield Remediation |
| Atlanta Tree Protection Ordinance | Atlanta is known for its large number of trees, in comparison to other cities. These trees are valued as a scenic amenity, and also for their environmental qualities: they lower temperatures, help clean the air, protect groundwater, and provide habitat for animals. In 1977 the city passed a law protecting trees, which has been amended in 1995, 2001 and 2002. The tree protection ordinance sets out strict rules limiting the removal of trees, protecting trees during construction, and specifying when new trees must be planted. The ultimate goal of the ordinance is to prevent a net loss of trees in the city, and to protect "mature" trees. In particular, a permit is required before any tree with a diameter larger than 6" can be removed. In many cases, new trees must be planted to replace those that have been cut down. The City Arborist makes decisions regarding day-to-day implementation of the ordinance, and those decisions may be appealed to the Tree Conservation Commission. | The City Arborist 404-330-6874 [more information] |
Tree Protection |
| Atlantic Station | The ongoing Atlantic Station development is on the former Atlantic Steel Mill brownfield site in Midtown Atlanta. The project is redeveloping 138 acres into a giant live-work-play area that contains housing (townhouses and apartments), offices, entertainment (including a cinema), a hotel, and extensive retail. Two of the buildings are skyscrapers which make their mark on the city's skyline. There is a small park as well. The City of Atlanta established a tax allocation district (which uses tax increment financing) to pay for infrastructure improvements in the area, including roads, sidewalks, sewers and parking. Atlantic Station's expected high rate of "internal capture" was a factor in gaining EPA approval for it. The project is also knit into the surrounding areas. A new bridge, the 17th Street Bridge, was built over the I-75/85 highway to tie the project to Midtown Atlanta, and an adjacent pre-existing residential neighborhood is well connected by several streets. 17th Street has been extended all the way through the project, from the new bridge to Northside Drive, and this major new route may help ease traffic congestion. | Kristen Stone Edelman Public Relations 404-832-6778 kristen.stone@edelman.com [more information] |
Improving Street Connectivity Raising Internal Capture Tax Allocation District (TAD) |
| Atlantic Steel Mill brownfield site | Located in Midtown Atlanta, the former Atlantic Steel Mill brownfield site has been redeveloped into the giant Atlantic Station mixed-use development. As the largest urban brownfield redevelopment in the country, the restoration of the site necessitated the remediation of soil contaminated by years of industrial use. Approximately $10 million was spent to remediate the Atlantic Station property, with over 12,000 truckloads of material removed from the site. | [more information] |
Brownfield Remediation |
| Auburn Glenn Apartments | The Auburn Glenn is a medium-rise, medium-density apartment building which covers nearly 3.5 acres and includes 271 apartment units, apartment amenities, and 10,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space. The Auburn Glenn is part of the resurgence of higher density mixed-use urban development in Atlanta. The project is located in the Martin Luther King National Historic District and takes design cues from the adjacent historic Auburn Avenue commercial district. It is a private development by a partnership of for-profit and not-for-profit developers, and has received significant support and funding through the Atlanta Development Authority in exchange for long-term affordability for 75% of the residents. | Tom Dalia Principal Architect Smith Dalia Architects, LLC 404-892-2443 |
Creative Design for Higher Density Mixed-Income Housing |
| Balzar Theater | The Balzar Theater is a 200 hundred set located in the historic Fairlie-Poplar district. The playhouse will add to the cultural-district vision proposed by Research Atlanta at Georgia State University. The vision links Fairlie-Poplar's ambience with Auburn Avenue's historical significance to spark revitalization. The theater's structural architecture will be preserved and the rest of the building will be rebuilt to meet the environmentally efficient building standards adopted by the U.S. Green Building Council. | Tom Key Artistic Director Theatrical Outfit |
Adaptive Use Education/Marketing Campaign for Quality Growth Heritage Preservation Programs Historic Preservation Standards Urban/Downtown (Re)development |
| Camp Creek Marketplace | Camp Creek Marketplace is a 1.2 million square-foot "power center" (essentially a strip mall). The area was difficult to develop due to its topography and lack of infrastructure, and so the City of East Point created a TAD (tax allocation district) to construct the needed infrastructure. This led to activity on the part of developers; the Camp Creek Marketplace provides retail in a low-income area that needs such amenities. A new business park is also under construction as part of the TAD. | Tax Allocation District (TAD) | |
| Centennial Olympic Park | Centennial Olympic Park was created in 1996 for the Olympics, in what was a run-down area of empty lots and abandoned buildings in downtown Atlanta. (During the Olympics, it was the location of a tragic bombing.) It represents a much-needed area of greenspace in the downtown, is popular with both residents and tourists, and has become a distinctive symbol of the city. Unfortunately its legal status as public land is not clearly defined. | Park Creation and Financing | |
| Centennial Place | Located on the former site of Techwood Homes, the nation's first public housing project, this innovative, large-scale residential project was developed through a public-private partnership. It was the Atlanta Housing Authority's first public housing/mixed-income initiative and includes a wide range of apartment sizes with rents varying by income. In addition to the planned socio-economic mix, the 60-acre community includes a new school, a new YMCA center, a new police mini precinct and a renovated community center. | [more information] |
Creative Design for Higher Density Mixed-Income Housing Traditional Neighborhood Development - Site Specific Requirements Urban/Downtown (Re)development |
| Chattahoochee Hill Country Introduces TDR Program in South Fulton County | Residents of the Chattahoochee Hill Country, a 40,000-acre area in south Fulton County, and land planning experts created a master plan to preserve the area’s rural character while accommodating future growth. The resulting comprehensive land-use plan and overlay district guidelines that were adopted by Fulton County concentrate future growth in three 750-acre high-density, mixed-use and pedestrian friendly villages. The plan was made possible when Fulton County adopted a transfer of development rights ordinance in April 2003. Within the Chattahoochee Hill Country, the receiving areas are the three villages. To calculate the number of TDR’s needed for residential development, one subtracts the gross acreage to be developed from the total number of residential units to be developed. Thus, if 7000 residential units are to be developed on 500 acres, 6500 TDR credits are needed. For every 2,000 square feet of commercial space, a developer is required to buy one TDR. For every acre of village, approximately seven acres in the sending area will be preserved in perpetuity. A nonprofit TDR bank is in the process of being established. The Atlanta Regional Commission named the Chattahoochee Hill Country its first greenfield Livable Centers Initiative project. As such, the Hill Country received an $87,000 ARC grant to fund the design of a model sustainable village. A complementary grant of $10,000 was made by the State of Georgia Department of Community Affairs for the development of a GIS greenspace database. | Stacy Patton Executive Director Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance 678-463-1548 stacy@chatthillcountry.org [more information] |
Conservation Easements Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) |
| Crogman School Apartments | The historic but dilapidated Crogman School, built in 1923, had been abandoned for 25 years and was due to be demolished when the Atlanta Development Authority saved it in 1996 by purchasing it from the school system. The building was rehabilitated, and along with a new addition it became the Crogman School Apartments, a 105-unit affordable housing complex that has spurred redevelopment in the surrounding Pittsburgh neighborhood. The work complied with historic preservation guidelines, and was funded with tax-exempt bonds and with state, federal and historic tax credits. The Atlanta Business Chronicle awarded the project an honorable mention in its "Best in Atlanta" real estate awards, and the Georgia Housing Conference made it a finalist for the "Magnolia" award in the category of superior design. | Ron Keller Director of Neighborhood Development Atlanta Development Authority [more information] |
Adaptive Use Historic Preservation Standards |
| East Point Streetscape and Pedestrian Improvements | East Point is home to a MARTA rail station, close to two additional MARTA stations, is served by 13 bus routes and is the potential site for a proposed commuter rail station. East Point’s LCI study will capitalize on these transportation amenities by encouraging two TODs with full range of housing, commercial services and employment opportunities. | TOD Small Area Plans | |
| Environmental Park - Alpharetta | A thirty-six acre site on Kimball Ridge Road in Alpharetta will be developed into a park with an outdoor classroom, amphitheater and environmentally themed kiosks. This site will preserve thirty-four acres of forested wetlands and the ecosystem of Big Creek. | Education/Marketing Campaign for Quality Growth Riparian Buffers Strategic Location of Public Facilities | |
| Fulton County Considers Conservation Subdivisions | Fulton County is considering a new zoning ordinance that would allow developers to build houses on smaller lots with the same number of units as currently allowed. The catch is they will have to use the remaining area to provide at least 40 percent greenspace. The ordinance is expected to go before the County Commission March 2004. | Steven Cover Director Environment and Community Development 404-730-8000 |
Cluster Development Conservation Subdivisions Mandatory Conservation Subdivision Ordinance |
| Glenwood Park in Atlanta | Green Street Properties is developing a 28 acre in-town area into a mixed-use traditional neighborhood. The former brownfield development includes retail, office space, high and medium-density multi-family dwellings and single-family dwellings. The craftsman-style architecture blends well with the existing neighborhood. Retail parking is well-contained, and connections with the main traffic circulation patterns are well-maintained through the parking lot directly into the street grid. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has recognized the Glenwood Park Design for neighborhood design excellence. | Creative Design for Higher Density Infill Development Program Mixed-Use Zoning | |
| Greenbriar Livable Center Initiative in Atlanta | Through Livable Center Initiatives (LCI), the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) will invest $5 million over the next four years to fund "smart growth" studies around Atlanta. Beginning in 2003, ARC will contribute $350 million to help implement the various study projects. The Greenbriar Mall is an existing older suburban mall area that functions for the immediate community but also offers opportunity for redevelopment. The City of Atlanta will develop a study, which based on LCI goals will be a model for other older suburban strip centers or malls throughout the region to determine needs and incentives for redevelopment. | Harry Boxler Atlanta Bureau of Planning 404-330-6912 |
Design Charrette Transportation Enhancement Program |
| Keep South Fulton Beautiful, Inc. Cares for Trees at Industrial Park | Keep South Fulton Beautiful, Inc. develops, maintains, and enhances the tree resource within a 1.318 acre park in the Fulton County Industrial park, and provides opportunities for active and passive education of basic tree care principles and the value of trees for park users, business owners, and their employees. | Judith Noles Executive Director Keep South Fulton Beautiful, Inc. 770-306-3252 |
Education/Marketing Campaign for Quality Growth |
| Lindbergh City Center | Lindbergh City Center occupies 51 acres surrounding MARTA's Lindbergh subway and bus station. It comprises 4.8 million square feet of development: 2.7 million square feet of office space, 330,000 square feet of retail space, 566 apartments, 388 condominiums, and a 190-room hotel. The master plan creates a mini-city of medium- and high-rise structures and decked parking grouped around a street grid centered on the MARTA station. This pedestrian-friendly street grid connects to the surrounding neighborhood and to Piedmont Road, a busy thoroughfare. The station is currently the second busiest on the MARTA system, accommodating 26,000 passengers a day. Parking requirements were reduced due to the presence of the station, shared parking between office and retail uses, and transportation demand management programs. MARTA also agreed to pay for the construction of sidewalks and traffic calming measures in adjacent neighborhoods. | Bill Fernandez Sr. Manager, System Transit Development MARTA 404-848-5828 |
Shared Parking TOD Small Area Plans Traffic Calming Transportation Demand Management (TDM) |
| Parkway Village Design District Overlay | In 1992 the City of Roswell enacted a Parkway Village Design District overlay up to 1000 feet in depth along the Crossville to Woodstock Road Corridor with the purpose of capturing and preserving the authentic rural landscape and 19th century local building tradition before it was undermined by development pressure. The goal is to recognize the effects of the Highway 92 road widening spanning six miles from Holcomb Bridge Road west to the Cobb County line. Parkway Village was established to provide property owners along Highway 92 with an opportunity to develop their property, while simultaneously providing large buffers and setbacks for those abutting the properties along the roadway. This cohesive development plan is intended to discourage piecemeal zoning. The overlay district allows mixed uses and provides an overlay of design requirements with optional bonus incentives. The illustrated guidelines also provide for retrofit and in-fill. The Planning and Zoning Administrator may approve bonuses in order to recognize exceptional design features. | Susan Canon Planner City of Roswell 770-641-3780 scanon@ci.roswell.ga.us |
Corridor Study Incentive Zoning Mixed-Use Zoning Overlay Districts Right-of-Way Improvements Targeted Corridor Redevelopment Traditional Neighborhood Development - Site Specific Requirements |
| Project ATLANTA | Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land-use ANalysis: Temperature and Air-quality) seeks to observe, measure, model, and analyze how the rapid growth of the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area since the early 1970's has impacted the region's climate and air quality. The primary objectives for this research effort are: 1) To investigate and model the relationship between Atlanta urban growth, land cover change, and the development of the urban heat island phenomenon through time at nested spatial scales from local to regional; 2) To investigate and model the relationship between Atlanta urban growth and land cover change on air quality through time at nested spatial scales from local to regional; and 3) To model the overall effects of urban development on surface energy budget characteristics across the Atlanta urban landscape through time at nested spatial scales from local to regional. | [more information] |
Heat Island Mitigation |
| Roswell Impact Fees | The City of Roswell charges impact fees on new developments. The impact fees are used to pay for the provision of roads, bridges, parks and recreation, police and fire protection that will be needed to serve the new developments. | Kathy Field 770-594-6173 |
Impact Fees |
| Sandy Springs Livable Center Initiative | Through Livable Center Initiatives (LCI),The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) will invest $5 million over the next four years to fund "smart growth" studies around Atlanta. Beginning in 2003, ARC will contribute $350 million to help implement the various study projects. Sandy Springs is located in a highly developed area of Fulton County. The study will focus on implementing the LCI program with existing goals of Sandy Springs Revitalization of redevelopment of the community to an urban mixed-use village. Specific attention will be paid to design standards needed for a pedestrian scale community. | John Cheek Sandy Springs Revitalization, Inc. 404-252-9352 |
Creative Design for Higher Density Transportation Enhancement Program |
| Streetscape - Georgia State University | Georgia State University intends to make Decatur Street into its "Main Street." This initiative will make downtown Atlanta a more enjoyable place to walk around, and will offer transportation alternatives, especially for bicyclists. The overall goal is to bring order to the campus and improve the movement and safety of both pedestrians and vehicles on a busy downtown campus. | Ramesh Vakamudi Director of Facilities Planning Georgia State University 404-651-2000 |
Bicycle Facility Specifications Capital Improvement Programs Corridor Study Downtown Planning Traffic Calming Transportation Enhancement Program Urban/Downtown (Re)development |
| Technology Square | This large mixed-use development in Atlanta, across the 75/85 highway from Georgia Tech, is known as Technology Square or "Tech Square." It consists of 700,000 square feet of office space, approximately 300,000 square feet devoted to research, over 100,000 square feet of street-level commercial space, a 250-room hotel and conference center, and 132 residential units. Buildings are located to enhance the pedestrian environment while minimizing the impact of cars. Streetscapes have furniture, ample street trees and wide sidewalks to create a strong sense of place. On-street parking and bike lanes serve to calm traffic. This development is an urban model of a public-private partnership that created a better urban environment. | [more information] |
Creating More On-Street Parking Increasing Use of On-Street Parking Mixed-Use Zoning |
| The Villages at Carver | The Villages at Carver provides mixed-income housing, in a low-income tract in the City of Atlanta designated for redevelopment. This project has also stimulated development along the Pryor Road Corridor, which had been stagnant for three decades. | Carver Redevelopment Partnership 404-224-1887 |
Mixed-Income Housing |
| The Villages at Carver | A unique mix of partners worked together to transform the former Carver Homes public housing community into mixed income housing. The combination of subsidized and market rate units in the development has helped spark new development in the area. | Traditional Neighborhood Development - Comprehensive TND Ordinance Traditional Neighborhood Development - Floating Districts Traditional Neighborhood Development - Site Specific Requirements | |
| West End Livable Center Initiative in Atlanta | Through Livable Center Initiatives (LCI), the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) will invest $5 million over the next four years to fund "smart growth" studies around Atlanta. Beginning in 2003, ARC will contribute $350 million to help implement the various study projects. The West End area is the location of a MARTA rail station and a small mixed-use community. The area has many opportunities for redevelopment including the Candler Warehouse. The LCI study will determine opportunities for Transit oriented Development and other needs in the area to create a more thriving urban community. | Harry Boxler Atlanta Bureau of Planning 404-330-6911 |
Design Charrette TOD Small Area Plans Transportation Enhancement Program |