New development coming to Downtown Auburn (Gainesville: construction, schools, college)

[Airforceguy]

The agreement allows the developer to use existing right-aways for construction. Some of the lanes on Glenn Avenue will be narrowed from 11 feet to 10 feet, and a portion of Wright Street will be closed during construction.

The development agreement the city has with the developer will ensure that the impact to the infrastructure during construction will be very little. The city says the project will lead to more pedestrian traffic downtown, but will cut down on the number of students driving to campus. “If we didn’t have this development here and we had it further out where people weren’t able to walk to campus, didn’t have that option or couldn’t use their bike to get to campus, they’d have to take the transit or drive their cars to campus,” City Engineer and Public Works Director Jeff Ramsey said. “Any of those trips where we can get people to use a bicycle or walk, that’s one less trip where we have cars on our roadway.”

Site work will begin in August 2017, and construction is slated to be completed in August 2019.

Ray Huff, a member of Keep Auburn Lovely says he and members of the group feel the new development will change the face of Downtown Auburn. “The small town is what separates us from Athens, from Gainesville, from Knoxville, from Tuscaloosa from all the other SEC schools,” Huff said. “I’ve had countless students tell me we picked Auburn because it reminds of our own towns. It’s a small town. We’re giving that up. We’re voluntarily giving that up over the next few years.”

New development coming to Downtown Auburn | WRBL

[Columbus1984]

Game changer for downtown.

[Newsboy]

Wow! This will elevate downtown Auburn closer to a denser urban downtown like Athens.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Wow! This will elevate downtown Auburn closer to a denser urban downtown like Athens.

Which is a good step, pedestrian traffic is definitely a better form of traffic.

[GRS86]

Auburn is really transitioning from a small college town to a decent sized city!!!