• Central Atlanta Progress
• Downtown boosters are asking for input on how streets along 2.5-mile route should develop in future

While construction on Atlanta's streetcar, the $94 million transit project that's been called everything from a white elephant to downtown's greatest hope, continues, downtown boosters and city officials are preparing for how the 2.5-mile route along Edgewood and Auburn avenues could change the heart of the city.

Last week Central Atlanta Progress and city officials asked residents and business groups to discuss how the project could help Atlanta pull a Portland (PDF) and revitalize nearly 80 acres of property within two blocks of the route. The group is currently reviewing existing redevelopment and master plans to determine whether updates are needed; meeting with nearby property owners, institutions, and businesses to hear their plans and visions; studying zoning regulations in Atlanta and other cities with modern streetcar systems; and working with Invest Atlanta, the city's economic development arm, to formalize a "Toolbox of Incentives" that would be available to developers, among other measures.

The group's seeking public comment (PDF) on what shape the area should take and provided plenty of documents to dissect. First get acquainted with a map of so-called "catalytic sites" — parcels of land along the streetcar route that CAP officials think will, once successfully developed, trigger nearby economic activity and ultimately create a more walkable, vibrant downtown. Fans of pretty sketches and renderings will then want to peruse 3-D proposals of what might one day exist, say, at the corner of Auburn Avenue and Jackson Street. (Planners even stuck a cute clone of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum next to Centennial Olympic Park. Knowing Atlanta, the faux structure will probably host the once-seriously-discussed Pirate Museum.)

But wait! you say. It's highly unlikely that anyone's going to start building skyscrapers along Centennial Olympic Park or new mixed-use buildings along Edgewood Avenue, what with the economy in the tank. You are quite correct! Downtown boosters are also considering "short-term" uses for areas along the route, including public art, bike parking, pocket parks, pop-up shops, and yes, food trucks. Feast your eyes on the possibilities by clicking the screenshot below.

• Central Atlanta Progess

Pore over the documents and send planners your comments (PDF) before May 1.

• CL File

Atlanta saw the largest absolute increase in its urban area between 2000 and 2010, growing from 1,962 square miles to 2,645, an increase of nearly 683 square miles.

Okay, that makes sense, right? It's suburban (and exurban) sprawl. No news there, not in a city of only 420k but in a metro area with 5.5 million. But I also wondered, what does "urban" mean exactly? Can something like the development of the city's westside be considered new "urban" land, because it has more density now? Or is what they count as "new" urban land just formerly unincorporated areas that now have roads and such?

Someone who helped me get my head around this is Patrick Kennedy, a Dallas-based urban designer and planner currently doing work in Atlanta. (Dallas, you'll see from the chart on the linked post above, gained the second-most urban square miles, and there are many similarities between the two cities' growth patterns.) This got us into a discussion whether such sprawl can possibly be good for an area. On the jump is some of our exchange.

• WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
• Yes please

[University of Georgia researcher Jung Sun Lee ] says communities may also be affected by a lack of stores participating in assistance programs like food stamps.

Food deserts aren’t new for areas in Athens and Atlanta either. In Georgia, Lee says there are roughly six census tracts in the Athens-area alone. Today Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed attended an event to support building a new Walmart in Vine City. He cites combating food deserts in the area as a reason for his support.

Still, Lee says there's more than geography at play.

“The distance and availability of stores may not always tell us what’s going on in each different household and individual’s food-related behaviors,” Lee says. “That’s what we are trying to better understand how we can make better options and better ways to promote healthier food involvement for living in different areas.”

Ellen Dunham-Jones, a Georgia Tech professor and expert on how cities can transform their drivable (and dying) suburban landscapes into walkable communities, recently sat down with Next American City, a national magazine focused on urbanism. (A bit of disclosure: I've freelanced for NAC in the past and have a new article coming out soon.)

Among other issues, Dunham-Jones discussed whether city officials and developers are understanding that younger and older generations aren't pining for the maze-like subdivisions and strip malls of yesteryear.

NAC: In suburban communities around the country, have you found that local leadership and developers are on the same page with this shift? Are they heeding the public’s growing penchant for more urban-like places to live, or are they still caught up in the thirst for sprawl?

EDJ: In different markets you see very different dynamics happening. But overall, one thing the recession has done is it has given the municipal planners a chance to catch their breath and talk to their communities about what kind of future they really envision. Before the recession, most of the redevelopments that were trying to be more walkable were really developer-led—developers who saw the underperforming asphalt in suburbia as an opportunity to address growing markets. But zoning codes and buildings codes had not caught up with that. The recession has allowed many communities to revise their regulations and really position themselves to capture that coming demand as the economy fully recovers. But it varies: There are certain communities that are still very interested in going back to the old model of sprawl, and there are plenty of developers who do that too.

I've spent the last few minutes chuckling to myself while I imagine the appearance of one of those pro-sprawl developers.