Georgia County Government - April 2009 - (Page 31) Dynamic DeKalb Reflects the Scope, Breadth of a Mature Urban County The Fernbank Museum of Natural History is a must for any museum hopper in DeKalb, and houses permanent displays including replicas of the world’s largest dinosaur and Georgia’s unique natural habitats, from the mountains to the coast. Photo courtesy of DeKalb Convention & Visitors Bureau. P Diverse Neighborhoods once de Leon Avenue, the five-lane thoroughfare uniquely designed during the turn-of-the-century to accommodate vehicular and pedestrian traffic, winds elegantly through DeKalb County’s “intown” suburb of Druid Hills. The wealth of this perhaps most scenic residential area in the state belies the diversity that applies across the board in DeKalb County, from its population to the many varieties of neighborhoods here. A number of the mansions in the Druid Hills and the neighboring Candler Park and East Lake areas contain affordably-priced “granny f lats,” apartment-style housing especially suited to students, young professionals and retirees, and the trend is growing. There is something for everyone. A stone’s throw from tree-lined streets of turn-of-the-century mansions are rows of textile-mill shotgun houses, post-war “bungalows” and the “Ponderosa”-style neighborhoods of the 1960s, the same that proliferated when Americans first discovered the “TV room” – i.e., “den” – and found the newfangled two-car garage – a.k.a., “carport” – revolutionary. subdivisions. Infi ll, whether it went up The scores of suburbs built in DeKalb between two 1960-era homes that can from the 1950s through the late 1970s look Lilliputian by comparison, or on evidence, too, the yesteryear “joy” of a huge lot that once accommodated expansive yards. When land use was only one more expansive family home, not a hot-button issue, one single famsparked huge debate in DeKalb, and ily home could easily occupy two or subsequent sanctions and regulations three suburban acres and no one raised by the Board of Commissioners, liman eyebrow. Zoning remains relatively iting the height and character of infi ll unchanged in many parts of the county developments. On any given day there today that once allowed ample acreare campaigns afoot to save traditional age to suburbs and homes modest by neighborhoods, most of them quite today’s standards. Often, these suburorganized and successful. ban stretches are flanked by churches The building industry’s experience with extensive grounds, and in the same in DeKalb has become something of general vicinity, strip malls built 30-odd a case study in how large urban local years ago still stand, reflecting the more governments have attempted to balrestrained consumer of an earlier day. ance builders’ interests in high-density It’s not the land use protocol of today for high profits, against quality-of-life – communities like this go against issues – among these, crowded schools, “smart growth” principles that conwear and tear on streets, and neighborcentrate infrastructure to leverage the hood conformity. economics of building. Neighborhoods In any event, every kind of neighborlike these are simply too expensive, and hood can be found in DeKalb County expansive, to build today. and the types of housing offered in recent Infi ll residential structures – sinyears have embraced the ethics and aesgly or in “clusters” – have sprung up thetics of high-end smart growth design. as “dated” homes in such suburbs have been sold to developers purchasing them as individual lots, group lots, or entire DYNAMIC DEKALB continued on page 32 APRIL 2009 www.accg.org 31 http://www.accg.org
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