Friday, April 26, 2013
Those in attendance approved of how the plan is evolving and what it contains.
Sanni Baumgaertner was among the 200 or so people who turned out Thursday night for Step Two of the Downtown Master Plan. She liked what she saw, which was a fleshing out of ideas gleamed from a November meeting she attended. "I think the plan is heading in the right direction," she said. "I like the focus on public participation and the fact that we get to give our opinion." And what did the public see and vote on? Features related to connectivity, green space and transportation. On the screen were a rail line running through campus along the Norfolk and Southern rail line; a linear park connecting downtown to Lay Park and the Lyndon House; a beefed-up role for Dudley Park, with the restored trestles and a commuter shed along the …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
The meeting will start at 6:30pm in the Classic Center Grand Hall.
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Tuesday, April 23
UGA Professor Jack Crowley and his team of graduate students have been working for months on the Athens Downtown Master Plan. On Thursday, they are going to show what some of the proposals can look like and will ask the attendees to vet them. Here are two proposals, one for the area around City Hall; the other, a proposed tax allocation district in the eastern part of downtown.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The event will start at 6:30pm in the Grand Hall of the Classic Center.
Here are some of the high points of the Downtown Master Plan thus far. UGA landscape architecture professor Jack Crowley outlined them to the board of the Athens Downtown Development Authority Tuesday afternoon: *A greenway along Jackson Street connecting downtown to Lay Park and the Lyndon House *A 17-feet wide commuting cooridor along the abandoned Georgia Railroad bed, including the restored/rebuilt Murmur Trestle *A traffic circle and cross walk at Dougherty and Thomas streets *A median on Oconee Street And to fund the $150 million in improvements, Crowley urged the board to recommend that the ACC Commission create a tax allocation district, or TAD, for the area of town that includes Poplar over to Oconee Street on one side, to the …
Monday, March 25, 2013
Some ideas for the Master Plan will make downtown more inviting and easier to navigate.
Here are a few Big Ideas which Jack Crowley says are emerging as likely keepers in the developing Downtown Master Plan: *A park around Athens City Hall instead of a parking lot. A family friendly park, in fact, with a spray fountain and some shade. And maybe a bathroom. *Newton Street between the Bottleworks and the Grit will be closed. There will be tables outside for outdoor dining, and Meigs Street will be one way, heading toward downtown. *There will be a round-about where Thomas and Dougherty meet. On Dougherty and Thomas, the sidewalks will be placed behind lines of trees. The east side of Jackson Street will have a linear park running to the Lyndon House and Lay Park. *There will be a pedestrian walkway between Thomas and Foundry …
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Director Jack Crowley expects the project to be finished in May or June.
There's going to be another public meeting in March on the Athens Downtown Master Plan. UGA professor Jack Crowley, the director of the project, told the board of directors of the Athens Downtown Development Authority that a few Big Ideas have emerged from the input his team and he have received thus far. These include: *Establishing a "green" corridor along Jackson Street from downtown across Dougherty to the Lyndon House and the Foundry Inn. *Creating a pedestrian extension of Clayton Street to Foundry Street. *Reconstructing the railroad trestles off Oconee Street and tying into the Firefly Trail. This development could provide a safe way to get into downtown for bicyclists and pedestrians, thus offering an alternative form of …
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
A public meeting on the master plan is set for Nov. 27 at the Classic Center.
Should Athens have an unadorned river, as does Fort Collins? Or a riverwalk type of place, like San Antonio? Maybe turn that retention pond into a park? What about making an arts district north of Dougherty? Speaking of streets, what about making Dougherty one way? Or extending Pulaski all the way to Florida Avenue? Why not get rid of that parallel parking around City Hall? These are some of the ideas UGA professor Jack Crowley has gleaned from his hours of talking with various Athenians over the past few weeks. He shared some of them with the board of the Athens Downtown Development Authority on Tuesday at its monthly meeting. The board has hired him to create a master plan for downtown--which first meant determining what, exactly, is …
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Jack Crowley and his graduates students are talking to a myriad of groups and individuals as they work on the master plan for the ADDA.
It's been a long time coming, but a master plan for downtown Athens is beginning to take shape. The Athens Downtown Development Authority and UGA Professor Jack Crowley have reached an agreement on what it is that he and his graduate students will be creating in a master plan. Last week, they met at the monthly meeting of the Federation of Neighborhoods and talked with the 30 of so people who attended the meeting. Click here for the original story about the meeting.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
UGA's Jack Crowley and his student assistants talked with people at a Federation of Neighborhoods meeting about the planning process.
They've studied Austin, Boulder, Chapel Hill, Ann Arbor, Colorado Springs and Portland, looking for features in these cities that could work well in Athens. They've talked to various groups, including Bike Athens and downtown property owners, and they plan to keep talking. And talking. Because Jack Crowley and his graduate students assistants are determined to let everyone have their say about how downtown Athens should develop over the next 20 years. They want as much input as possible for the evolving Downtown Master Plan, which will govern how the town functions and looks. Monday night, they were talking with about 30 people who came to a meeting sponsored by the Federation of Neighborhoods. The students were armed with notebooks to …
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The Board voted Tuesday to negotiate a contract with UGA Professor Jack Crowley for services.
The Athens Downtown Development Authority 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. The UGA professor made a presentation 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 …
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Jack Crowley wants to design a downtown master plan. He really does.
Jack Crowley wants to develop and design a master plan for downtown Athens. He really, really wants to do it. Why? Because then the 20-year resident of Athens might “be granted citizenship,” and because designing a plan for his adopted hometown would be “an honor,” he said. Crowley is the former dean of, now a professor in, the UGA College of Environment and Design. As he told a packed room yesterday at a special meeting of the board of the Athens Downtown Development Authority, he’s also a landscape architect, a professional planner, a licensed real estate broker in two states and an Oklahoma transportation commissioner. So he understands planning, design, transportation and real estate. He spent about 40 minutes laying out why the …
June Ball
5:11 pm on Sunday, October 7, 2012
Thank you for covering the presentation at the Federation of Neighborhoods and for talking about it on Athens News Matters. more ›