Ponce, Moreland study continues to plan for both corridors
by Camille Goswick
The
Story
November 4, 2004
Plans are continuing in an effort to improve two of Atlanta’s
busiest corridors, and residents, developers and other stakeholders
apparently want to see a little more hospitality on these crowded
streets.
Tunnell Spangler Walsh & Associates planning firm is heading
up the Ponce de Leon/Moreland Avenue Livable Centers Initiative
study, with funding through the Atlanta Regional Commission. The
process is trying to envision what these two major corridors should
be in the future, including the transportation offered there and
how buildings and land uses relate.
A group of stakeholders recently participated in a Saturday workshop
to further hammer out details. Participants had already voiced
some opinions at a kickoff meeting, and hundreds took an online
survey to give their thoughts on a series of images. Participants
at the workshop were divided into several groups that looked at
sections of the two corridors.
Looking at the western end of Ponce de Leon Avenue, participants
said they wanted to preserve the area’s historic structures,
and current buildings that fit the future vision for the street.
What participants wanted to see go were the fast food establishments
and other uses that have large setbacks contrary to urban planning
ideas. The group said those inappropriate uses were mainly concentrated
at Parkway/Charles Allen and Monroe/Boulevard.
This group said it wanted commercial nodes with retail on the
ground floor and multi-family housing or offices above, at four
or more stories. The group also noted the prime open space at The
Mansion, Ponce de Leon Center and Yaarab Shrine Temple. The group
said it liked townhouses and multi-family housing of six to eight
stories at Ponce de Leon Center, and also voiced a desire for wider
and improved sidewalks. The group wanted to remove or consolidate
some of the area’s many curb cuts, and singled out Juniper/Ponce,
Piedmont/Ponce, Parkway/Charles Allen/Ponce and Boulevard/Monroe/Ponce
for intersection improvements.
This group also said it favored a trolley with permanent tracks
to bike lanes, and suggested using the Mansion for the mayor’s
residence.
A group studying the middle section of Ponce said that many of
the uses there—McDonald’s, Cactus Carwash, the Local,
Dugan’s, Green’s—were great, but that there forms
were detrimental. The group said it would like to see those businesses
redevelop but stay in business there. The group also wanted to
see the Phoenix nightclub go, quick, and would like the Clairmont
Hotel to be rehabilitated.
That group liked the idea of four-plus story mixed-use buildings,
and used the Piedmont/10th Street intersection as a good example
of that. The group said building heights should get lower as Ponce
approaches Freedom Parkway, and noted that the uses should go from
more mixed use to more residential traveling eastward.
Participants wanted more landscaping to buffer pedestrians from
travel lanes wanted wider sidewalks throughout, though not at the
expense of vehicle travel lanes. They also singled out Boulevard/Monroe/Ponce
as the intersection most in need of improvements, and would like
to rework the façade of Midtown Place shopping center.
Another group working on the south end of Moreland Avenue said
that plans for the Edgewood Retail District, (on the site of the
former Atlanta Gas Light property), were appropriate and wanted
to see those plans implemented. The group said that node would
be an anchor for the corridor. Participants also liked the idea
of the current activity center at Wiley and Moreland, but did not
like it’s current form. They said that area should be mixed
use with neighborhood commercial uses that were attractive to adjacent
residents. They said the same of the node at Memorial Drive and
Moreland.
This group said that the streetscape along Moreland should have
a 10-foot landscape strip, a 10-foot sidewalk and a 6-foot “supplemental
zone” along the whole corridor. The group wanted to see southbound
I-20 access and liked the idea of a rubber-wheeled trolley to move
people between East Atlanta, the MARTA stations and Little Five
Points.
The group working on the northern end of Moreland singled out
several buildings to preserve, unlike other groups. Participants
here said that all structures in the Druid Hills historic district
should be saved, along with the Victor Hugo Kriegshaber mansion,
now home to the Wrecking Bar. The group also noted that the Bass
Recreation Center should be saved, as well as the historic homes
and apartment buildings between Euclid Avenue and Freedom Parkway.
What the group wanted to see go were the gas station at Moreland
and Ponce, the Junkman’s Daughter and Savage Pizza shopping
centers and one-story, auto-oriented buildings on Moreland. Participants
liked the uses of some of these buildings, but not their form.
Zesto’s was one example of that.
These participants said that the Neighborhood Commercial zoning
already in place in Little Five Points would govern future development
there, and said that vacant lots in the commercial district should
be developed to include ground-floor retail and two stories of
lofts or offices above.
Stakeholders will get to see a draft plan for the area November
30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bass Recreation Center, 326 Moreland Ave.
NE. The final plan will be presented December 14.
