Event: A First Look at Riverwalk Village

Town Hall | Roswell is an unique forum to learn about our city.  Listen to local, regional and national voices discuss important topics and how they impact Roswell.  Add in a little laid back socializing, have a drink and enjoy.

Our topic this month is Riverwalk Village.  Hear from the group behind this $500 million development slated for the southeast quadrant of the GA 400/Holcomb Bridge interchange.  The proposal includes over 1,500 residences, 1.7 million square feet of office and 500,000 square feet of retail. Over 40 percent of the land will be preserved as some form of green space and it will center on a small lake which will be the heart of the development with a 200 room hotel, Roswell’s largest, overlooking the lake.

Kevin Sloan of Kevin Sloan Studio will lead the presentation.  Per his Wikipedia Entry…

Mr. Sloan is a landscape architect, urban planner and writer with international scope, located in Dallas, TX.  He is the founder and director of Kevin Sloan Studio, a design studio principally concerned with the urban design and landscape architectural problems generated by the metropolitan city and its new and unprecedented formation.

Recent projects include master planning the 270-acre South Campus at Syracuse University in New York; the urban design at Vitruvian Park, a 100-acre mixed use development in north Dallas; the master plan for a dense urban addition on Lake Carolyn in Dallas; and the master plan for the Southern Methodist University’s winning submission for the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

Admission is free this time around and will be limited to the first 250 people.  You will need to reserve your tickets quickly for this one.  RSVP Here

Town Hall | Roswell is brought to you by RoswellNEXT in partnership with Roswell Inc.

Comments

[Andrew]

Can someone who attended this forum provide an update of how the event went?

[Blake]

It was really impressive except at the end of the presentation when one guy started yelling at the speaker and the cops had to be called. That's another story though. They had several new drawings of the development that got me really excited about the project. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find them online except the one included on the link below. I'm hoping they release the others soon.

http://neighbornewspapers.com/bookmark/26422509/article-Roswell+gets+glimpse+of+Riverwalk+Village

[Tracy Flick]

This project, if built as it is now proposed, could add at least 3000 new people who will need to travel Old Alabama, HBR and GA 400. The majority of the residential units proposed are apartments. When the UDC meetings were held, Nancy Diamond, said "We (Roswell City Council) have no intention of flooding the city with Apartments". Interesting, that is exactly what is is pushing now. Nancy Diamond is the council person who INSISTED on the portion of the UDC that allows developers to get greater heigth (and density)by adding green space. When asked why she insisted upon this, I am told that she said, "we need it for leverage". I want growth in Roswell, but at what cost?

[Eves]

http://northfulton.com/stories/Roswell-gets-first-glimpse-at-Riverwalk-Village,67560

[Sarah]

I would like to share an quote from an email I received regarding the Roswell Riverwalk development. I find it very distressing.

"Property values and community impact: The project could very well be a key to unlock the property values of several large neighborhoods on the east side of Roswell - especially Martin's Landing. This neighborhood has 1,964 homes whose property values have been held down largely because of its elementary school, and my alma-mater, Esther Jackson. The school has a high, 40% Hispanic population and ranks 1,136 out of the state's 1,799 elementary schools. It has been very hard to sell houses to families with children in this school district.

Roswell Riverwalk will reduce much of that Hispanic population because the project will raze a massive apartment community that feeds into Esther Jackson. You could expect over the next year or so to see the impact as it begins the process of ending existing leases. "

[tD]

That quote is from some guys real estate website who sells homes.

[Scott Long]

Yeah that quote doesn't make a lot of sense. Nobody's goal should be to try and push out a population based on race. Plus, anyone with a basic understanding of the Fulton County districting process would know removing those apartments would not accomplish that anyway. The "Red Lobster" area apartments on the NW quadrant are actively and painstakingly divvied up by Fulton County amongst multiple schools including, yes, Esther Jackson and Hillside. Removal of the Marquis Trace students, which are actually fairly stable compared to others, would simply create more capacity at EJ that would be filled with apartments from the Red Lobster area.

But why even go there. The teachers at Esther Jackson love all those students. That's why they are teachers. I can't say I know anyone whose goal is to push out a population.

I'm as excited as anyone about this project. I do think Roswell city staff / elected officials need to aspire to the same spectacular due diligence that Alpharetta did for Avalon in ensuring a true mixed use project in their approval that is not in any phase dominated by apartments or any other single use. I think it's more productive to focus on what we want to get rather than who we want to get rid of.

[Andrew]

Great comments. As a new resident of ML and located within a short walk of the proposed new development I am very excited about the potential here. I am very happy to hear the comments discouraging the talk of removing certain segments of the population from the school. My wife and I moved into ML for many reasons, but one of them is we want our kids to go to a diverse school.