Newspaper Page Text
PIM S
Prince, Oak/Oconee
Corridor Studies Get
Plenty of Feedback
Public comments have fairly poured in
to county planners about the future of two
Athens streets, Prince Avenue and Oconee/
Oak streets (which runs from downtown to the
bypass, where it becomes Lexington Hoad).
Drafts of the two "corridor" studies were com
pleted by county planners in October, shortly
before Selig Enterprises announced its plans
for a controversial new retail/apartment devel
opment along Oconee Street.
Each street study is over 50 pages long.
Aside from the usual demographics and plan
ning boilerplate ("Sustainable development
should achieve a balance that satisfies the
community's housing, recreational, educa
tional, commercial, and industrial needs"),
some specific recommendations are included.
Both studies are available on the Athens-
Clarke County website, and
public comments will be
accepted at least through
Jan. 5.
The Oak/Oconee study
suggests wider sidewalks,
trees and retaining walls,
as "likely development" will extend eastward
from downtown. Connections to nearby Dudley
Park and the Greenway should be better
marked, and a wider bridge across the Oconee
River is needed to accommodate bicycles and
sidewalks. County parking requirements should
be relaxed, encouraging more on-street park
ing and fewer large lots (although parking lots
"are not typically driven by zoning minimums
but rather by private prerogatives").
Denser housing development would support
more neighborhood businesses (and justify
more frequent bus service), the study says,
but airport noise presents conflicts. Because
the corridor is a state-maintained highway
(and the Georgia Department of Transportation
resists adding amenities like trees and pedes
trian crossings that may slow traffic), ACC
should consider taking over control from the
state and paying the maintenance costs itself,
the study suggests.
Prominent in the public comments were
traffic concerns ("a huge issue at this choke
point crossing the Oconee River") and antipa
thy to the proposed big-box "anchor" for the
Selig development: "Suddenly I may as well
live in Buford," one citizen wrote. "I have
seen many [earlier] failures in downtown,
and this large out-of-scale chain reeks with
disaster," commented another. Still another
doubted that a "massive-scale big box devel
opment" like Selig's "can be located at the
heart of town without overwhelming the infra
structure, even if it is massively upgraded."
"This corridor is dangerous to cross, and
cars are known to speed through red lights,"
a commenter wrote. "As for quality of life, it
concerns me that bus stops often don't have
at minimum a place to sit." Said another,
"a bike and pedestrian path connecting Oak
Street with East Campus would help a lot."
"When I first moved
into this area, I was able
to walk to campus by cut
ting through the cemetery.
Why is that no longer pos
sible for the general pub
lic?" asked another. (The
report suggested approaching the cemetery's
owners about dealing with security concerns
and making that "remarkable greenspace
asset" more accessible.) There were also con
cerns about crime: "I have had my cars broken
into three times in the last four months."
ACC Transportation and Public Works
Director David Clark was noncommittal about
the impact of the Selig development on traf
fic. Clark told Flagpole there's been no count
of traffic on the Oconee Street hill—but Selig
must submit a traffic impact study that will
include that information. Clark's department
will then evaluate and comment on Selig's
traffic study, but because Oconee Street is
d state-maintained highway, it is GDOT that
“This is a neighborhood
street and should not be
treated as a speedway.”
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must approve or reject it. Typically, Clark said,
a developer will propose to "mitigate" traffic
problems, perhaps by paying for wider traffic
lanes or adding a stoplight.
Like the Oak/Oconee study, the county's
Prince Avenue Corridor Study draws on ear
lier studies and public comments (including
the 2004 "Community Approach to Planning
Prince Avenue"), plus a couple of UGA land
scape architecture projects. Its recommenda
tions are mostly general (and similar to those
for Oak/Oconee): consider taking over local
control from GDOT; tweak zoning and encour
age denser residential development; "accom
modate" bicycles and relax county parking
requirements; conduct a traffic circulation
study and make a master, block-by-block
streetscape plan (neither was done for either
study).
Citizens who commented liked the trees
and walkable shopping areas along Prince. But
fast traffic was the overwhelming concern:
"People drive too fast, never signal when they
switch lanes and are completely oblivious
to pedestrians and bikers," wrote one com
menter. "This is a neighborhood street and
should not be treated as a speedway," added
a business owner. The solution, some sug
gested: a center median or reducing Prince
to three lanes, a controversial proposal which
could be implemented only if the county were
to take over Prince between downtown and
Milledge. "Policing and high-tech crosswalks
only have limited impact," one commenter
suggested, and ajlded that three-laning "has
improved Milledge, Lumpkin, and Baxter for
all users." Some commenters also feared "out-
of-scale" development of office or "monster
medical" buildings, and criticized "fast-food
architecture."
John Huie
And we welcome Airman 1st Class Iar/rod A. Neujahr, Airman ist
Class Erin Tranielio, and Airman i«udass Zachary D. Taylor.
Enjoy your stay in Athens, be safe and come back to visit our town.
DECEMBER 14. 2011 FLAGPOLE COM 5
