A new vision for Memorial Drive is in the works, courtesy of Georgia Tech students and surrounding communities

• Joeff Davis/CL File
• Atlanta Beltline Inc. purchased the Triumph Lofts in 2011 for affordable housing

On a map, Memorial Drive looks like the grand boulevard it was meant to be when Reconstruction-era engineers planned the route linking the Gold Dome to Stone Mountain. On the ground, its Atlanta stretch combines spotty land uses - everything from vacant lots to institutions like Oakland Cemetery - with a roadway resembling an epic fail of a street-racing video game.

“Imagine Memorial” is an unprecedented effort to change all that - in the long run, anyway - by coming up with a coherent planning vision for the entire 3-mile strip. A Georgia Tech urban planning class led by professor and former Atlanta planning commissioner Mike Dobbins has been working in collaboration with Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong on the vision since August. Dobbins’ classes have previously worked on similar projects re-imagining Northside Drive, West End, and other areas.

The final project is due in early December - and the idea is certainly stirring local excitement. At least 70 people, including Councilwoman Carla Smith, attended an open house Monday night at the City Hall Atrium to review the work thus far and give more suggestions as to how Memorial Drive could improve.

“It’s just a rag-taggle stretch of insanity right now,” Archibong told CL at the open house, describing the Memorial mess. “Future planning is going to be intentional. We’re making Memorial Drive a destination.”

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Of course, locals have heard this before. A city rezoning effort to turn the cemetery-area section into a condo-and-boutique gentrification hotspot <a href=”http://www.ajc.com/news/business/big-dreams-on-hold-for-atlantas-memorial-drive/nQd55/”>lost steam</a> in the Great Recession. The Memorial Drive corridor was added to the Atlanta Preservation Center’s list of endangered places in 2013. History Atlanta has a <a href=” target=”_blank”http://historyatlanta.com/endangered-memorial-corridor/”>detailed write-up on the street’s past and present.

But “Imagine Memorial” is a different animal - both bigger in scope and finer in detail.

The Georgia Tech students are combining dozens of existing plans and proposals, for transportation and development alike, and adding their own suggestions and tweaks. The end result will not be a construction-project master plan that probably no one could afford anyway. Instead, it will be a “framework” of planning goals for public agencies and private developers to follow when opportunities come along. And, by its very existence, “Imagine Memorial” is intended to spur interest in creating some of those developments.

“This is not just about talking. It’s about doing,” Archibong told the open house crowd.

Basically, it’s about getting everyone to buy into what Dobbins describes to CL as a “vision for a distinguished boulevard.” The sheer number of agencies involved — every entity from the Atlanta Regional Commission to the local NPUs - is impressive. The students have held nearly 30 meetings with local organizations and developers. And they aren’t done yet.

The process is already bearing fruit, Archibong says, by getting reps from various agencies and businesses out of their “silos” and sitting at the same table, talking about how their projects affect each other and the community. One small example: Atlanta Gas Light is considering daylighting a long-buried stream on one of its Memorial Drive properties as a local enhancement.

There’s also the hope of reviving NPU O’s attempt to join ARC’s Livable Centers Initiative program, which provides funding to help communities plan for walkable communities served by transit. The NPU’s LCI application a couple of years ago was rejected, Archibong says, for lack of transportation-oriented goals, but “Imagine Memorial” may help change that.

The sheer amount of information the students have compiled is overwhelming. On the land-use side, they’ve targeted six separate areas along Memorial. They’ve contacted every abutting property owner and reviewed every existing zoning plan. Everything from a long-desired supermarket to ways to preserve affordable housing are covered in those detailed discussions.

Some transportation recommendations are already coming into focus. Better north-south connections for pedestrians and bicyclists are a local priority. The students are suggesting redesigns of some problem intersections, such as Memorial and Cottage Grove Avenue. They’d also like to see Memorial’s speed limit lowered from 35 to 25. They say it gives the same or better traffic flow with a huge decrease in car pollution.

Check out the current data yourself on the “Imagine Memorial” Facebook group. And the students want even more public comments at memorialdrivestudio at gmail.com. Help them out.