Atlanta's War on Density (Washington, Clayton: appliances, home builders, construction)

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by jsvh

I own property downtown and also a duplex in towards East Atlanta.

Of course I wish that duplex could be expanded to offer even more units, but zoning prohibits even the duplex from being rebuilt there today (zoning only allows single family homes there now) even thought they were very common in the original neighborhood!

Like I said, we need to fix our zoning laws and give people options and help moderate housing prices. Myself and many others would love to offer more housing units on their property but zoning laws and NIMBYs prevent it.

I think your area in Ormewood and those like it (mostly southern areas) should be R5. I do not think the whole city's residential areas should be R5. It looks like like only real difference between R4 and R5 is the permission of duplexes and ADUs.

[Street Advocate]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I think your area in Ormewood and those like it (mostly southern areas) should be R5. I do not think the whole city's residential areas should be R5. It looks like like only real difference between R4 and R5 is the permission of duplexes and ADUs.

SamIwas, thought of you and our Memorial Drive speed limit discussion while reading the following article from Congress for New Urbanism. While some of our views differ, I thought you would find it interesting. Here's a sample (I would post a sample image, particularly the one that shows the majority of someone's commute from the suburbs remains the higher MPH but reduces for a small portion of the commute through the downtown aspects... but last time I included an image and cited the article it came from a mod slapped a warning on me for posting an image):

"Downtown, the speed limit should be 25 mph or possibly even 20 mph. Don’t propose “slowing drivers down,” he advises. “Who wants to be slowed down? That sounds like congestion. Instead, we can simply talk about ‘reducing illegal speeding.’ Streets need to be redesigned so that fewer people will speed on them.”

Trade-offs must be made between commute time and safety, but overall, the benefits of slower speeds greatly outweigh any time lost, he argues. Would you rather have a downtown that’s quick to drive through, or one worth arriving at? That is a key question. “People avoid sidewalks they don’t feel safe on,” Speck emphasizes, “and without people on sidewalks, cities don’t thrive.” "

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/201...101-salvations

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by jsvh

I own property downtown and also a duplex in towards East Atlanta.

Of course I wish that duplex could be expanded to offer even more units, but zoning prohibits even the duplex from being rebuilt there today (zoning only allows single family homes there now) even thought they were very common in the original neighborhood!

Like I said, we need to fix our zoning laws and give people options and help moderate housing prices. Myself and many others would love to offer more housing units on their property but zoning laws and NIMBYs prevent it.

A lot of the old duplex zoning was blanket rezoned to prevent those from being built again pre-gentrification, as the duplexes where truly or faslely thought to attract more crime than SFH. Now that crime rates have fallen and prices gone up, I wonder how many neighborhoods regret that decision? Of course many new residents will claim they care about affordable housing, but when it comes to approving some or increasing density in their own neighborhood, they turn into NIMBYs.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by Street Advocate

SamIwas, thought of you and our Memorial Drive speed limit discussion while reading the following article from Congress for New Urbanism. While some of our views differ, I thought you would find it interesting. Here's a sample (I would post a sample image, particularly the one that shows the majority of someone's commute from the suburbs remains the higher MPH but reduces for a small portion of the commute through the downtown aspects... but last time I included an image and cited the article it came from a mod slapped a warning on me for posting an image):

"Downtown, the speed limit should be 25 mph or possibly even 20 mph. Don’t propose “slowing drivers down,” he advises. “Who wants to be slowed down? That sounds like congestion. Instead, we can simply talk about ‘reducing illegal speeding.’ Streets need to be redesigned so that fewer people will speed on them.”

Trade-offs must be made between commute time and safety, but overall, the benefits of slower speeds greatly outweigh any time lost, he argues. Would you rather have a downtown that’s quick to drive through, or one worth arriving at? That is a key question. “People avoid sidewalks they don’t feel safe on,” Speck emphasizes, “and without people on sidewalks, cities don’t thrive.” "

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/201...101-salvations

I read over this, and it moves a lot with what I believe. For instance, low speed limits downtown, but not necessarily everywhere. Still have the 45 MPH arterials to get to downtown, then slow down once you are there. In his example, the 15 mile commute has a difference of 48 seconds when the last 3/4 mile is at 25MPH. Fine. But, if the whole drive were 25 MPH? That's a difference of 20 minutes vs. 36 minutes (AKA an extra 5.5 days per year).

Lane removal and "road diets" (I hate that term) where it makes sense. The article says "a key technique for making a place walkable is to remove any lanes that can be cut without unduly impacting the experience of drivers". That's different from "just remove lanes and drivers will go elsewhere". He brings up OKC, where roads with fewer than 7,000 trips daily had 4-6 lanes (I wonder why induced demand didn't take hold?). That's not necessary. 2-3 lanes is sufficient for this. However, cutting a 4-lane road with 15,000 trips down to two lanes is impractical and causes more problems than it solves.

One thing I did not agree with in the article is to slow traffic down by means of "discomfort" by making lanes so narrow (as little as 8 feet) that people feel so unsafe that they drive much slower. This is asinine. Certainly there are ways of slowing down people in necessary places without actually increasing the chances of collision.

I also like the idea of roundabouts in non-urban locations. So many places where you sit for a minute and a half at a light at some tiny intersection without a cross vehicle in sight.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by chiatldal

That is...mesmerizing.

[joey86]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

The problem with the parking is they thought the apartments would attract young DINKs who would have less cars, but instead it attracted empty nesters who had a lot of cars.

I just walked through this development and three out of every four spaces in the deck were empty. Usually most people are at home at nine o’clock Saturday morning, especially empty nesters. Zero of the retail spaces are occupied, and only one is being built out. From what I can see, your information about this place not having enough parking is questionable.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by joey86

I just walked through this development and three out of every four spaces in the deck were empty. Usually most people are at home at nine o’clock Saturday morning, especially empty nesters. Zero of the retail spaces are occupied, and only one is being built out. From what I can see, your information about this place not having enough parking is baseless.

Perhaps many people are out of town for the holidays? I also find at 9am many retail space get very little business. Maybe at 9:30 or so?

[joey86]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

Perhaps many people are out of town for the holidays? I also find at 9am many retail space get very little business. Maybe at 9:30 or so?

No retail spaces are open at this development. Only one is even being built out.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

That is...mesmerizing.

I was depressed looking at it.

[Street Advocate]

Originally Posted by Gulch

I was depressed looking at it.

Our job clusters in relation to where we live are ridiculous.