Atlanta city officials introduced a series of events Thursday to increase public participation in its five-year comprehensive development plan.
Known as “Plan A” the development plan is an official document and roadmap for the city’s future growth and development.
The kick-off event on Thursday evening was the first of three phases in which the city will hold community meetings for land use and neighborhood planning. According to the city, it will adopt all Plan A land use and neighborhood planning elements in early 2025, updating the plan “to bring community ideas to life,” a Department of City Planning handout states.
About 300 people gathered at the Greenbriar Mall as Mayor Andre Dickens, City Planning Commissioner Jahnee Prince and others pushed for public input as they develop the plan.
Earlier this month, the Atlanta Regional Commission projected that the 21-county metro area will increase to 7.9 million people by 2050.
“Where are they going to go?” Prince said. “You’ve got to help us plan for that. We need to hear from each and every one of you.”
Dickens said there would be open houses, community workshops and pop-up events so the public could have their say.
He said that in the past, the comprehensive plan process had led to the creation of some of the city’s most iconic projects, including the Atlantic Station Mall, new parks along the Beltline, the Broad Street Boardwalk in downtown, and the 80-acre Summerhill community, a redevelopment of the former Olympic Stadium.
“Cities don’t just rise up by accident. Plan A is our path to grow stronger together,” he said.
The public can comment and meet with city planners to weigh in on topics as varied as affordable housing, transportation, zoning, and historic preservation at 12 community meetings in March and April. The meetings begin March 19 at the Dunbar Neighborhood Center and end April 16 at the Northwest Library at Scotts Crossing.
Plan A was adopted in October 2021, is updated every five years, and is required by state and local laws, according to the city.
Atlanta has more than 240 neighborhoods, grouped into 25 neighborhood planning units, or NPUs, which will provide a forum for public input on Plan A. This year, the city celebrated the 50th anniversary of the units which were established in 1974, during the tenure of the city’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson.
Rohit Malhotra, founder and executive director of the Center for Civic Innovation in Atlanta, told the audience that Plan A was something that “all of us need to be talking about.”
“I’m not surprising anybody here by saying we have heard time and time again that people’s voices will be heard in decision-making processes ... and time and time again, many of those promises have been broken,” he said. “The comprehensive development plan process is an accountability tool that gets us to say that even if we disagree, we can agree on what the plan for the city should be moving forward.”
Sigrid Pearson, 44, an attendee at the event, said that affordable housing and accessible transit were two of the things she’d like to see more of. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment and pays $1,200 a month. She works two jobs as a cleaner and cashier, earning less than $20 an hour, and said she spends at least half her income each month on rent.
“When I move, I’m going to have to downsize because this is getting too expensive. They raise the rent every year,” she said.
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