Exponential Growth Taking Off In The City (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: living, train)

[netdragon]

A lot of Southside/West End neighborhoods are also filling up, that went empty due to unfinished gentrification and mortgage fraud during the recession. E.g. in the less desirable West end neighborhoods, it went from 50-75% occupancy to almost 100% occupancy.

[jsvh]

Noticed this stat:

According to Wood Partners' numbers, Midtown's eclectic population has swelled by 105 percent since the year 2000 — from 17,000 residents to 35,000 in 2010. The area, they claim, is projected to gain another 17,000 people by 2016.

A Massive Midtown Parking Lot will Soon Look Like This - Development du Jour - Curbed Atlanta

[atler8]

I just saw Saintmarks post here from the 17th. I couldn't have said it better myself & have written some shorter less all-encompassing thoughts before.
An obsession with raising the density in ALL areas of the COA proper seems ill advised if it decreases or does away with the natural beauty that marks much of the geographic landform of the city.
I get how & hopefully where increased density works well (think of replacing a barren plot of parking lot) but density everywhere for the sake of density & for meeting some established or imaginary standard of what a "real" dense city is is not valid or a worthy goal for the city proper of Atlanta to strive for in my view.
As such, Atlanta has nothing to apologize for for having such closein areas as those in Midtown near Penn Ave. & 8th St., or Argonne Ave. & 9th St. or Charles Allen Dr. & 6th St. where a mixtue of housing styles of usually low to mid density structures mingle with a gracious, leafy streetscape.

[JoeP]

I'm not sure I'd classify anything in west Buckhead as "McMansion neighborhoods". Isn't a McMansion neighborhood typically tightly-packed, large, similar-looking houses packed into a development?

Those aren't "McMansions" they are actual mansions on very large lots. It's a terrible waste of space and disconnects the city from 285 to the north and 75 on the west.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Those aren't "McMansions" they are actual mansions on very large lots. It's a terrible waste of space and disconnects the city from 285 to the north and 75 on the west.

Somebody needs to tell these people their large lots are a waste of space that's blocking the way to I-285 and I-75. Can't they get it through their heads that folks from Cobb and points north and west want to drive EXACTLY where they are living?

[alco89]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Somebody needs to tell these people their large lots are a waste of space that's blocking the way to I-285 and I-75. Can't they get it through their heads that folks from Cobb and points north and west want to drive EXACTLY where they are living?

Well those folks from Cobb don't mess around, so they'll get it done, am I right?

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Somebody needs to tell these people their large lots are a waste of space that's blocking the way to I-285 and I-75. Can't they get it through their heads that folks from Cobb and points north and west want to drive EXACTLY where they are living?

I must be the odd Cobb Countian that enjoyed gawking at all those wasteful mansions whenever I would cut across Mt. Paran or W. Paces to get from 75 over to the real parts of the city that are dense like a city should be.

[Ant131531]

I don't personally mind Buckhead and Cobb being low density. It is what it is...I do think the inner 25 square miles of Atlanta should be dense. That's a 5 by 5 mile area.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I don't personally mind Buckhead and Cobb being low density. It is what it is...I do think the inner 25 square miles of Atlanta should be dense. That's a 5 by 5 mile area.

The incorporated cities in Cobb are certainly more dense than Buckhead as well as a majority of the unincorporated part of Cobb. You have to go to the western half of the county to see any decent undeveloped tracts and they are disappearing daily.

When I first moved to Cobb in 89, you still saw plenty of multi acreage lots on the primary county roads... the type of development when land was cheaper and people looking for some breathing room would buy 2 to 10 acre plots and move to the "country." Sandy Plains Road, East Piedmont Road, Jamerson Road and any number of other county roads had many examples of this. Over the last three decades, as the large multi acreage tracts got subdivized (made up a word there), developers have then turned to these land owners and have pieced together smaller tracts to create infill subdivisions. I have watched plenty of these 60s/70s era ranches being torn down or rolled out and the large lot turned into a cul de sac of 20 (or more) quarter acre (or less) lots.

Cobb is getting denser every day. Mentioning it as on par with the majority of Buckhead is hardly an apt comparison.

[netdragon]

This is mostly just filling vacancies left by the recession. The population of Atlanta dropped precipitously during the recession even despite some ongoing development.

Originally Posted by Ant131531

I don't personally mind Buckhead and Cobb being low density. It is what it is...I do think the inner 25 square miles of Atlanta should be dense. That's a 5 by 5 mile area.

The part of Cobb that borders Atlanta (Smyrna, Cumberland, South Cobb) is much more densely populated than the portions of Atlanta they immediately touch. For instance, Saintmarks mentioned Buckhead but there's also NW Atlanta as lower density than Cobb. The only portion of Atlanta that is higher density than Cobb is along MARTA from Midtown South, East Atlanta, and West End. Also, Smyrna has a higher population density than Atlanta, and Atlanta is very unlikely to catch up because of all the townhome development going on in Smyrna which really adds up. Cumberland's development frenzy right now may also surpass everything but midtown in population density.

Vinings is one exception which is more Buckhead-like in density though the very center of Vinings is very dense.