ADDA Moves Forward On Downtown Master Plan for Athens, Ga.

The board on Tuesday agreed to negotiate with UGA Planning Professor Jack Crowley about creating a master plan for downtown.

The particulars have to be worked out--such as, what are the boundaries of downtown--before the ADDA can approve the contact. They expect to do so next month. ADDA director Kathryn Lookofsky and board attorney Jim Warnes will negotiate with Crowley.

to the board last month in which he proposed to create a plan for free, charging $30,000 to cover stipends for student research assistants and supportive technology. He created a master plan for Tulsa, Oklahoma, two years ago.

On Tuesday, the ADDA board agreed that a nine-person steering committee should include two members from the Downtown Athens Property Owners Association. Janey Cooley, head trust officer with First American, was representing the property owners at Tuesday's meeting, and she made the request.

Cooley also told the board she wanted a marketing survey to be part of the master plan, as well as an inventory of existing infrastructure and future infrastructure needs

Other commnity members also chimed in on the proposed master plan. Planning Commission member and ACC Commission candidate Jerry NeSmith said that sewer capacity has surfaced as an issue in various downtown projects.

Brett Johns said he hoped the plan would consider sorting out the "mishmash" of fiber optic cable linking Atlanta and Athens. Melissa Link said she hopes the "funky vibe" of downtown that helped spawn a local creative culture isn't lost with increasing commercialization, but she already knows many artists who've left Athens for other communities with more affordable space.

College Avenue property owner Marion Cartwright said that downtown needs businesses that will make money and will generate money. Whoever does the downtown master plan needs to talk to tenants and property owners both.

"What makes downtown viable is businesses that make money and will generate money. Once everything is run as a business, it usually succeeds," Cartwright said. "Pie in the sky comes back to haunt you every time."

In other business, the ADDA board agreed to allocate Community Events Program funds for festivals and events that promote a sense of community and which bring people downtown. Among them are AthFest, the Hot Corner Festival, the Twilight Criterium, the Athens Children's Film Festival, the Parade of Lights and the Human Rights Festival. Other events could receive discretionary funding.

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