project: DOWNTOWN LIVABILITY CODE
date: 2003
location: ATLANTA, GA
client: CENTRAL ATLANTA PROGRESS
contact: JENNIFER BALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF PLANNING
The Downtown Livability Code is the result of an initiative of Central Atlanta Progress and the City of Atlanta to review and update a Special Public Interest (SPI) Zoning District for downtown Atlanta.
Through a three-phase planning process, Urban Collage created comprehensive graphic “Development Standards” which act as a companion piece to the SPI Zoning text. The standards included illustrative explanations for specific regulations, architectural guidelines and examples of “best practices”. The purpose of this process was to promote a more vibrant downtown with a mix of uses and an enhanced street environment.
Urban Collage, facilitated an involved consensus building process between property owners, city staff and residents to validate existing conditions and issues and create a vision for 9 distinct subareas within downtown Atlanta. The process included weekly work sessions with a 25–member working committee and quarterly meeting with the 60-member advisory committee. Special task forces created for historic neighborhoods within downtown guided the creation of a historic preservation component in the code and development standards.
Form-based code components:
- Building and sites: included standards for site planning, density, articulation and historic preservation.
- Public spaces: incorporated standards for sidewalks, furniture standards and materials, supplemental zones, plazas and open spaces and bikeways.
- Parking: included standards for on street, surface and structured parking
