Athens Corridors Driving Discusssions

More than 20 citizens, planners and other interested parties turned out last night to learn more about the proposed changes to the Oak/Oconee Street and Prince Avenue corridors.

Athens-Clarke County Development Department Senior Planner Bruce Lonnee spearheaded the discussion, welcoming those who braved the rain to give their feedback.

“What we want to do is be available, be accessible,” said Lonnee, who stressed the importance of community feedback on the proposal. It includes road realignment and rezoning certain areas to stimulate growth without stifling the corridors’ natural, private potential for growth and improvement. 

The current study has its roots in a 2008 decision for the Planning Department to embark on a vigorous study of the Oak/Oconee Streets and Prince Avenue resources at the request of the Mayor and Commission of Athens-Clarke County.

“We’re really good about studying curb side to curbside,” Lonnee said. “Then we got a little crazy and studied the sidewalks.”

From there, the Planning Department and its allies, including more than 40 undergraduate students from UGA’s Landscape Architecture program, branched out to study the impact of parking space, adjacent businesses, nearby residential areas, light fixtures and other urban topography on the corridors and vice versa.  

Lonnee said both Oak-Oconee Streets and Prince Avenue have a great many resources, whether urban or historical.  The trick was balancing their needs and their differences in such a way that neither side suffered. 

“Categorically, those resources are the same,” he said. “They’re very urban, but they’re urban in very different ways.”

Though the Corridor Study suggests alternative courses of action in the event the Georgia DOT does not cede control of certain roadways, Lonnee said the city would best be able to institute changes if the corridors and their connecting streets come under city control. 

Lonnee used the intersection of Prince Avenue and North Milledge Avenue as an example of why the city can’t mix local and state control.

“Whose signals are whose?” He asked. “Whose crosswalk is that? For them to abandon right-of-way, they can’ do it piecemeal.” 

Dan Lorentz, Chair of the Boulevard Neighborhood Association, said he was most concerned about the prospect of changes affecting safe pedestrian travel along Prince Avenue. 

However, he said the study, which cautions against excessive roadway and parking lot development at the expense of green space and safe walking areas, was as sensitive to his concerns as he could have hoped.

“I think they’ve done a great job,” he said. “Based on my superficial look at their recommendations, I’m very impressed.”

Jennifer Lewis, public service projects coordinator at the University of Georgia, said the 2008 Corridor Study is an extension of the earlier efforts by CAPPA, the Community Approach to Planning Prince Avenue.

Lewis, whose offices helped organize the CAPPA steering committee, said CAPPA began in response to a 2004 effort to build a multistory medical facility in a vacant lot along Prince Avenue.

Lewis said that even though the building’s proposal eventually fell through, the groundswell of support and the cross-section of different stakeholders involved in CAPPA have continued to influence public opinion about development in the Prince Avenue community.

The Corridor Study presentation, which included several visual aids, even featured a section dedicated to CAPPA’s 2004 project, which highlighted the community’s hopes for future development and practical ways of going about it.  

“Everybody cites that as a very important, defining moment for the Prince corridor,” she said. 

The Tuesday meeting is the first of two, which will continue with another public hearing at the Dougherty Street Government Building on October 25.