Friday, April 27, 2001
Friday, April 27, 2001 |
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West Village group: Help! Task force seeks citizen input at Saturday meeting
By JOHN
MUNFORD The public is being asked to help the task force studying the development of West Village with input at a planning charrette beginning Saturday at 9 a.m. at council chambers in City Hall. Task force members hope input from the public will bring a variety of ideas to the table. Residents can drop in for as short or as long as they like, said City Planner David Rast, who is helping orchestrate the study of the West Village area. The entire meeting is expected to last no later than 1 p.m. The first three hours of the charrette will have four different groups discussing alternatives in land use, transportation, architectural character and aesthetics. Each group will have a moderator to lead discussion, and at noon, the groups will shut down so the entire task force can come together and the results from each group can be presented. The groups will cover the following topics: Transportation including roads, cart paths and driveway cuts Land Use both existing and proposed land use designations along with possible re-development opportunities Architectural Character including building design, material selection and massing Aesthetics including landscaping, street lights, signal poles and gateway features. The task force will use the results of the charrette to design a cohesive plan for the West Village area, which is beginning to grow with residential areas and will soon have major commercial locations such as the Wal-Mart Supercenter and Home Depot. The task force was formed by the city originally to study the use of alternative transportation in the area, such as cart paths. The idea was that the Atlanta Regional Commission might consider funding the cart paths especially for expensive items like a bridge over Highway 54 with $350 million in funding it will offer. The city has to present its alternative transportation plan for the area by June 1. The results from the charrette will be used by city staff to develop an overall plan that will be presented to the task force at its next meeting Monday, May 14. At its last meeting, the task force talked about how to handle the future widening of Ga. Highway 54. One of the ideas was to eschew a landscaped median in favor of adding more buffering from the highway on each side of the road. There was also talk of creating an access road to get to the commercial development north of Hwy. 54. Doug McMurrain of RAM Development, the company that owns most of that commercial land, said an road is planned to be built behind the stores off Hwy. 54.
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