MARTA announces big developments at Brookhaven, Chamblee stations (how much, living)

[wasel]

Those developments are not appropriate for the area size wise.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Good point. But what would they engage the street with? A waiting room? Or bring in some private coffee shops / businesses?

Yeah, a library strikes me as the kind of thing that can totally integrate with the street-activity. That said, I also get the idea that it's odd to have county services on TOD land, since it's usually cheaper in the long run for a county to own the land the buildings sit on over leasing it.

It can very well have outside cafe space, or outside reading space, maybe a small / discount bookstore in addition to the library, patio space, performance space, etc. If it's treated like a mini-community center, with plenty of activities and events and such, it should do pretty well.

[wasel]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Yeah, a library strikes me as the kind of thing that can totally integrate with the street-activity. That said, I also get the idea that it's odd to have county services on TOD land, since it's usually cheaper in the long run for a county to own the land the buildings sit on over leasing it.

It can very well have outside cafe space, or outside reading space, maybe a small / discount bookstore in addition to the library, patio space, performance space, etc. If it's treated like a mini-community center, with plenty of activities and events and such, it should do pretty well.

There is up to 40K of "civic space" allocated for the development. I have seen some cities incorporate a civic center in their TOD design, which would be cool here, I think, as Brookhaven lacks a venue for small concerts, theatre productions and other assemblies.

Interestingly -- a survey that MARTA recently put out to residents had 2 questions that specifically referenced whether a library should be included. No mention of any other civic uses.

[wasel]

MARTA revised the Brookhaven TOD plan based on citizen input. This one is much better....includes a food hall and ownership component.

MARTA unveils revised Brookhaven/Oglethorpe University TOD plan | The Brookhaven Post | Brookhaven, GA

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by wasel

MARTA revised the Brookhaven TOD plan based on citizen input. This one is much better....includes a food hall and ownership component.

MARTA unveils revised Brookhaven/Oglethorpe University TOD plan | The Brookhaven Post | Brookhaven, GA

That is just glorious.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by wasel

MARTA revised the Brookhaven TOD plan based on citizen input. This one is much better....includes a food hall and ownership component.

MARTA unveils revised Brookhaven/Oglethorpe University TOD plan | The Brookhaven Post | Brookhaven, GA

Very nice, also like this:

According to MARTA, funding from a $2 million Federal grant received from the Atlanta Regional Commission will be used for improvements to the Station access tunnel – complete with an elevator.

An elevator for that tunnel is long overdue.

[cqholt]

Glad to see MARTA and developer is willing to work with the residents and listen to their feedback. This project will add a lot of tax money to Brookhaven's coffers.

[jsvh]

Nice. More density makes a city better so I am disappointed some of the pieces got a little scaled back. However, I understand that change often is incremental and this is still very awesome. Much better than the mostly empty parking lot that is currently there. Good job. Looking forward to this happening.

[wasel]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Nice. More density makes a city better so I am disappointed some of the pieces got a little scaled back. However, I understand that change often is incremental and this is still very awesome. Much better than the mostly empty parking lot that is currently there. Good job. Looking forward to this happening.

It depends on how you define density. This revised plan with the green space and food hall etc. will draw more "street life" during the day, rather that just having occupied offices with people indoors working and apartments where residents are away working for much of the day.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by wasel

It depends on how you define density. This revised plan with the green space and food hall etc. will draw more "street life" during the day, rather that just having occupied offices with people indoors working and apartments where residents are away working for much of the day.

True. Green space is a key part of density. There is a reason the densest parts of Atlanta are next to Piedmont Park and the densest parts of the US are around NYC's Central Park.

But I don't think they really increased the "green space" much in this revision. Just downsized the buildings a little.