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2451 Jefferson Road
The University of Georgia
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WHAT’S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT
At least twice a week I've driven the stretch of road that a
Walmart may soon inhabit. Sunday mornings, coming in from
Winterville to go to church, this was always the gateway to
the city. In design school, I looked at the site several different
ways, and later on, some of that work was adapted by the Blue
Heron folks to illustrate their concepts. But I didn't antici
pate just how central this one site was—how many questions
it would raise about the fundamental nature of this town,
where it's been and where it's headed. Of course, when we
look at that one painting from Carr's Hill, we see it's the place
where Athens began 200 years ago, give or take a decade, so
maybe it's fitting that it should all come back to this spot.
The anti-Walmart rhetoric here isn't the same argument
heard everywhere else in the country; it's an endemic strain
I that is based around a desire to defend the hand-crafted local
character for which Athens has become world-renowned over
the past few decades. It's also complicated by a sense of what
could be. Had conversations about public economic develop-
| ment initiatives not been so forcibly ripped off the table a few
j months ago, and instead been allowed to run their course,
would that idea of a River District have remained as strong a
concept? Did the idea that got away grow in the retelling?
The concerns about traffic likewise tread upon the aspira-
tional. Current plans call for five different greenway routes,
including rail and riparian ones, to converge in the vicinity of
the Armstrong & Dobbs tract, where the Atlanta firm Selig's
mixed-use development will be situated. Our multimodal
transportation center is just across the street, and a potential
extension of Hickory Street, allowing efficient and convenient
access over to UGA's Jackson Street bus mall, is supposed to
pass through the site, too, though Selig has yet to incorporate
it. Those ideas about what could be are bundled up with the
very practical present issue of too many cars on too narrow
a road. The bridges along Oconee Street are very real choke-
points that have defined this city's evolution and growth so
far, and will determine where we go from here.
Even the notion of historic preservation is differently
framed here, with the destruction proposed not just of a der
elict landmark, but of one with a regionally, if not nationally
known local company still inside! The question of a structure's
value becomes so much different when the argument involves
a thriving local business, rather than simply a shell that stands
in the way of this particular sort of progress. Here, the conver
sation has the potential to revolve around taking something
that already works and growing it, rather than inventing
wholesale new uses, which is often the case with buildings in
need of preservation.
Things could have played out a little differently, if the poli
ticians, realtors, developers and others who knew the details of
this project ahead of time had pulled Selig into the public
conversation about the area that was already in progress,
rather than ending that one so that this one could begin.
Maybe it's too idealistic, but suppose Selig had said, "We've
heard about your river district, and we'd like to be a part of
it," loudly and publicly, rather than whispering for months
until a permit for demolition thrust their project into the day
light. Although many, myself included, would love to see such
a partnership come to pass, the initial perception caused by
the approach Selig did take has been hard to overcome. Here,
we have the choice to let business proceed as usual, or to cre
ate a new way of doing things that overcomes the cycle of
reaction.
For a great many around town (including the 10,000 or
so residents determined enough to have signed a petition),
the status quo is better than what's been proposed. But it
took something as totally intolerable as a Walmart to bring
fully into comprehension just how much value the status quo
already has, and what could be lost. There's a door that's open
here, but it'll take developers and community working together
to fully realize something better. This project has the poten
tial to be a catalyst not only for downtown, but for the entire
community, if executed correctly. A tax allocation district
funded by the project would generate millions of dollars,
funding improvements, amenities and infrastructure that could
lay groundwork for so many other good things to happen. The
community has to trust Selig for that to happen, and Selig has
to earn that trust by truly listening to what they're hearing,
and incorporating that feedback into its proposal in a mean
ingful way.
While claims of new sales tax money are somewhat specious
(who is going to drive past one of the other two Walmarts to
bring new money into the county?), the property tax revenue
that a development of this scale would generate would carry
the weight of a new SPLOST, generating a lot of new construc
tion jobs over the coming years while laying the groundwork
for the sorts of office development that we were all talking
about a few months back. It might allow the broadening of our
economy, with a diversity of good jobs to ensure we're not the
poorest urban county in the country again.
This is the spot where Athens started, with layers of soil
piled over granite, across which clear flowing springs once
traveled. Who knows what we'll find under that soil soon,
when Selig begins the process of constructing its development,
whatever shape it takes? Athens has its fair share of problems,
some endemic and some the same as everywhere, but I can't
think of a better place to try to start over.
Kevan Williams athensrising@flagpole.com
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1239 Fowler St.
404-532-0001
Athens • 195 Paradise Blvd.
Behind Terrapin Brewery
706-353-2223
Athens first began in this part of town. Could this also be the site of its renaissance?
6 FLAGPOLE.COM-DECEMBER 21, 2011
