Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008 - (Page 20)

MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT The Jonquil City How a City Revitalized its Downtown By Rowland Davidson O ver the past 10 to 15 years, Smyrna, Georgia has become a thriving young town, where residents average a young 32 years of age, and families make up just 51.7 percent of the population. Smyrna’s youthful, single character makes it a demographically attractive community, with a median household income of over $57,000, which is substantially higher than the U.S. median of just under $50,000 a year. Smyrna’s visionaries - Mayor A. Max Bacon and the City Council foresaw many changes coming to their growing community. As Smyrna has evolved into a charming and bustling city of over 47,000 people, the mayor and council began to lay plans to attract housing developers that would in turn attract retail developers. a new library, a new community center, a new town hall, and a village green. People were beginning to take notice. Retailers and developers follow The new public buildings led retailers to open new stores in the area. That stimulated a mixed-use development called Smyrna Village, which included retail, restaurants, and housing built around a village green that could be used for concerts, fireworks and community events. Bacon persuaded a developer to take on the Smyrna Village project, and once it was complete, other developers were no longer hard to find. The additions to Smyrna caused housing development to take off. Near the entrance to town, an old subdivision that once found itself on the wrong side of a set of railroad tracks has been completely redeveloped with new and renovated housing. On the other side of Smyrna, new housing units worth upwards of $450,000 each is replacing old post war bungalows worth around $70,000. The newly created city center has reinvented Smyrna into a desirable loca- Creating a downtown core Located northeast of Atlanta in Cobb County, Smyrna started life as a bedroom community with no downtown or city center. Since the beginning of his term in office, Bacon has pushed to change the community’s sleepy, lifeless image. He instituted a moratorium on apartment construction, under which all housing built within the city limits would until further notice be single family or condominium and for sale. Next, the city leaders rebuilt the public infrastructure downtown. They strategically selected an area near the local government buildings and put up 20 May 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today tion for developers. Today, a handful of ambitious developments are taking shape. One of the largest is the $100 million mixed-use development set along the main road leading into Smyrna called Jonquil Village. Given a strong identity as the “Gateway to Smyrna,” it will have a distinctive brick structure at its entrance with signage stating – “Welcome to Smyrna: The Jonquil City.” The city leaders are utilizing a creative tax policy that pays for infrastructure improvements and allows developers to put all of their investment funds into their developments instead of setting significant amounts aside for infrastructure projects. The idea has ensured a steady supply of developers. Jonquil Village will be the first development in Smyrna, Georgia to take advantage of the new tax incentive, which is called a TAD or Tax Allocation District. Under the TAD, the district issues bonds for infrastructure improvements. Those improvements enable private developments to proceed. When the development is complete, the district will contribute dramatically higher property tax revenues to the municipality. The increase in tax revenues will repay the

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008

Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008 Contents Our Voice Editorial Board SLDT Resources Addressing a Crisis with Wastewater Recycling Visionary Award Finalists The Jonquil City - How a City Revitalized its Downtown Industry Spotlight: Enviroquip Solar Power System Design and Installation Stormwater: The Return of the Cistern Site Amenity: Fiber Optics Surveying and Mapping Wastewater: Low-Pressure System Special Feature: The Urban Canopy as Infrastructure Industry News Advertiser Index Products/Services Showcase Classifieds The Last Word: Nature Bats Last…

Sustainable Land Development Today - May 2008

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