Newspaper Page Text
Still Big But
SELIG DEVELOPMENT UP FOR
Better?
VOTE NEXT MONTN
residents will finally (finally!) get a chance
to formally weigh in on Selig Enterprises'
controversial downtown development.
A year and a half after the proposal was made public, Selig
Enteprise filed plans with Athens-Clarke County earlier this
month for a massive mixed use development on the Armstrong
& Dobbs property between East Broad and Oconee streets. And,
yes, it will require Athens-Clarke County Commission approv
al???but only for a small portion of the development.
Part of the development would include ground-floor residen
tial units, which are illegal downtown???ACC requires commer
cial space on the ground floor in the downtown area???so Selig
will need a special use permit from the commission.
The county planning commission is scheduled to make a
recommendation on the request at its Thursday, June 6 meet
ing at 7 p.m. in the planning department's Dougherty Street
auditorium. (Public comment will be taken.) It's only supposed
to consider the narrow issue of whether ground floor residential
should be allowed.
"That's what staffs review is going to be held to, and that's
what the planning commission is supposed to focus on, not
the big picture," ACC planner Gavin Hassemer says.
The "big picture" decision will be left to the ACC
Commission at its Tuesday, July 2 meeting, should the plan
ning commission issue a recommendation June 6, a time when
many locals are likely to be out of town on vacation. However,
even if the commission turns down the special use applica
tion, Selig could still build the development with retail on the
ground floor.
At the same time, Selig is also going through an alternative
compliance process to get around minimum window require
ments along Wikerson Street and part of East Broad Street
because the topography and lack of space for on-street parking
make ground-floor storefronts with windows impossible, says
Jo Ann Chitty, senior vice president for the Atlanta-based firm.
A public art mural could cover a blank wall along East Broad.
"The way the topo goes with the road, and the way the
buildings have to be constructed, it's almost like a retaining
wall," Hassemer says.
The alternative compliance process was put into place as
part of downtown design guidelines approved in 2006 to give
developers more flexibility to meet the guidelines. "It gives
them a chance to give and take," Hassemer says. The ACC
Planning Commission has final approval on that aspect of the
plans.
The requests prove that Protect Downtown Athens???the
Patterson Hood-soundtracked activist group formed to fight,
or at least positively influence the development???was right in
saying that it wasn't a "done deal" and didn't meet the local
zoning code. Co-founder Tony Eubanks isn't ready to comment
on it quite yet. "We appreciate Selig's efforts to address some
of our concerns with the previous plan," he says. "It's a signifi
cant change from the original proposal, and given the poten
tial impact, we're studying the plans to issue a careful analysis
as soon as possible."
The development is still gargantuan: half a million square
feet, including a Walmart's worth of commercial space (though
divided up into smaller stores) and 375 apartments. But "the
design has improved, thanks to public input that Mayor Denson
sought to thwart," says Russell Edwards, part of the People for
a Better Athens movement that fought the development when
Walmart, which has since backed out, was supposed to be the
anchor.
As promised, the development's big box anchor is much
smaller: 35,500 square feet, as opposed to 90,000 in the origi
nal 2011 proposal, which was never filed. The anchor has also
been moved from the corner of Wilkerson and Oconee streets to
the middle of the development, near the Hickory Street exten
sion that will connect Oconee Street to the Multimodal Center.
Another common complaint was that the development
turned its back on the future Firefly Trail. Retailers and apart
ments will now line the raiIs-to-traiIs project on the east side
of the development. There will be bike racks, a tire pump and
outdoor tables along Firefly Trail, too, Chitty says.
The development will draw an estimated 5,900 car trips
per day, according to Selig's 460-page traffic study. To accom
modate those cars, the company plans to add a left turn lane
to southbound Oconee Street, as well as a traffic signal at the
intersection with Hickory Street Extension. That street will
connect Oconee Street and the University of Georgia campus to
the Multimodal Center. It will, according to Chitty, be "beyond
what's called for in the (ACC) transportation plan," and will be
able to accommodate buses and include sidewalks, bike lanes
and a pedestrian plaza at the East Broad Street entrance.
All those drivers will need places to park, and so will the
nearly 1,000 people who could live there. The development
will include about 1,400 parking spaces in two decks that are
mostly hidden by apartments and stores.
"We anticipate that the primary residents will be students,"
Chitty says. "That's the market." Some of them could be con
verted to condos down the road, she adds.
Additional student housing was needed to obtain financing
and attract retailers to the development, she says. "The more
residential there is downtown, the better it's going to be for
the businesses, the retailers and the restaurants."
Chitty says Selig is seeking "a mix of national, regional and
local retailers that will be a good fit for Athens and this space.
"No leases have been signed yet, but there is strong interest in
this project."
Blake Aued news@flagpole.com
Mixed Use Development | Athens, GA
Building 300 Exterior Elevations
Selig Enterprises i os.oj.toti | seal*
NILES BOLTON ASSOCIATES
8 FLAGPOLE.COM ??? MAY 15, 2013