project: IMAGINE DOWNTOWN & LCI UPDATE
date: 2003-2004, 2009
location: ATLANTA, GA
client: ATLANTA PROGRESS (CAP)  AND THE ATLANTA DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
contact: JENNIFER BALL, VICE PRESIDENT (CAP)

The most significant physical planning process for downtown Atlanta since the 1996 Olympics, Imagine Downtown united several smaller plans with new ideas for five important corridors and districts creating a vision for urban development that was built on exciting new projects like the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. Already a regional destination, Downtown Atlanta has been guided to its evolution as a world-class urban neighborhood by the frameworks contained in Imagine.

Urban Collage, along with collaborators Cooper Carry, had devised several different and innovative public involvement techniques to gain the widest range of opinions. An Internet-based survey that used graphics and targeted questions ran throughout the year-long process, giving access to outlying metro counties interested in Downtown. The Internet was also used to disseminate the results of several ‘Charrette Weeks’, intense three-day workshops allowing residents and stakeholders a direct voice in the physical plans for each Focus Area.  
This project received a GA Planning Award for Outstanding Planning Document.

In the short few years since Urban Collage completed the 2004 Imagine Downtown Plan, growth has continued to focus on Downtown Atlanta in the spirit of short commutes, urban living and an overall increased quality of life. Working with Central Atlanta Progress and The City of Atlanta, Urban Collage is taking a fresh look at the changing urban fabric in Downtown and helping to re-prioritize plans for incenting new development, transportation enhancements and improved public spaces.

project: SUWANEE TOWN CENTER PLAN
date: 2003
location: SUWANEE, GA
client: CITY OF SUWANEE
contact: MARVIN ALLEN, PLANNING DIRECTOR

Suwanee, Georgia, is a rapidly growing small town in metropolitan Atlanta. In April 2001 the city began a planning process to “Imagine Old Town Suwanee”. The plan focused on renewing the economic vitality and preserving the character of the historic core and surroundings under the purview of a newly-created Downtown Development Authority. Urban Collage crafted a public participation process including three workshops and development simulations to shape the community’s vision. This vision included creating a new, 60-acre, mixed-use Town Center in close proximity to the old downtown, focused on a new public park. The park, town center and historic core are linked by a network of streets, sidewalks and trails that provide a framework for compact housing and commercial space. Urban Collage worked with city staff and a design review board to draft a set of Development Standards to shape the character of the Old Town District and its two nodes, and continued on as development planners for the Town Center itself (in partnership with Clark Patterson and Associates).

Implementation Highlights:

• Old Town Suwanee Development Standards adopted by City Council in summer of 2002
• 21 acres purchased by the city for the new town center, including a 10-acre $3-4 million public park and amphitheater funded by greenspace bonds and Park opened in Summer of 2004
• Over 80,000 square feet of mixed-use retail, office and residential
• County branch library constructed in 2004
• An additional 40 acres of residential development adjacent to Town Center;
• Project received funding for $1.1 million dollars in pedestrian improvements by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC)
• This project received a 2004 GPA Award for Outstanding Plan Implementation and Georgia Trend’s/GMA’s 2005 “Trendsetter” award

project: DAHLONEGA DOWNTOWN PLAN & DESIGN GUIDELINES
date: 2007 – 2008
location: DAHLONEGA, GA
client: CITY OF DAHLONEGA
contact: JOEL CORDLE, DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY BETTER HOMETOWN PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Urban Collage, leading a team comprised of PBS&J and Bleakly Advisory Group, prepared a 10-year development master plan for the future of downtown Dahlonega. Recognized as the Jewel of the North Georgia Mountains and the Gateway to the Appalachian Trail, Dahlonega is a historic community surrounded by lush forests and vineyards. Downtown’s Public Square is noted for its 1836 courthouse, the oldest surviving in the state; while nearby Price Hall on the campus of North Georgia College marks the site of the U.S. Mint which was erected during the county’s first Gold Rush.

The team lead an investigation to find alternatives that would allow the downtown to grow without sacrificing its unique character and valuable historic resources. The master plan recognizes the downtown’s special context by creating several character districts which draw the surrounding natural and cultural landscapes in, but leave room for new infill development and major redevelopment of underutilized commercial land. The team also prepared a companion set of design guidelines that used the district framework and vernacular building typologies as organizing elements for standards for new construction and public improvements.

Implementation Highlights:

• Plan adopted by council in 2008
• Programming completed for new city hall

project: BELTLINE TAD FEASIBILITY STUDY / REDEVELOPMENT PLAN
date: 2004 – ONGOING
location: ATLANTA, GA
client: ATLANTA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
contact: TERRI Y. MONTAGUE, PRESIDENT – ATLANTA BELTLINE, INC.

The BeltLine is a visionary ‘Smart Growth’ initiative for twenty-two miles of under utilized railroad right-of-way ringing Downtown Atlanta. Envisioned as a transit and greenway corridor with new transit-oriented development on former brownfield sites, the BeltLine proposes over 2,000 acres of new or improved parks connected by thirty-three miles of greenway trails, all available to over 50,000 new housing units as well as the residential base located in forty-six of the city’s historic neighborhoods.

Urban Collage was involved in the creation of both the 2004 TAD (Tax-Allocation District) Feasibility Study and the 2005 TAD Redevelopment Plan. Besides formulating redevelopment scenarios and program quantifications for twelve key transit-based activity centers, Urban Collage helped shape the redevelopment / future land use envelope for the entire BeltLine and were instrumental in facilitating and supporting the extensive public involvement process. Urban Collage also helped the public understand the economic development implications of a TAD (or tax-increment financing district) and the criteria for its smooth functioning; and contributed to the preliminary development guidelines that could become the basis of future regulatory control.

The BeltLine project earned top honors as Overall Deal of the Year, Award Winner
for Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Best in Atlanta Real Estate Awards.

Recipient of the 2007 American Society of Landscape Architects Analysis and Planning Honor Award.

Implementation Highlights:

• Tax Allocation District legislation approved by the City of Atlanta, Fulton County and the Atlanta School System
• Ongoing strategic land assembly by Trust for Public Land
• Ongoing greenway capital campaign by the PATH Foundation