Sign Overload: Parking & Trees & GDOT

I think this one speaks for itself.  I feel bad for those poor trucks that may be looking for their handy Truck Route sign.  You may not notice but there is also a nice big tree behind all that signage.  YES there is a gigantic tree literally inches from the roadway.  On a side note, the reason Roswell could not put big trees along the newly redone Midtown Streetscape on Alpharetta Hwy just north of the historic district is because GDOT standards say trees too close to the road are dangerous...  So, you can have a gigantic tree along hwy 9 here for at least 50 years but you can't put one along hwy 9 two miles up the road?  Also, take notice that the historic wayfinding sign is actually closer to the road than the tree.. You can tell that the sign has been clipped by a passing vehicle.  Safety First GDOT... and let's not forget to remove the redundant brown parking sign.

NUR Weekly - TSPLOST, Parking, Restaurants, Blocks & Mixed-Use

I keep coming up with good ideas for this weekly digest so I had to add a section.  The last part is dedicated to fun stuff and may or may not relate to what we discuss on the NUR blog.  This week, Joan Durbin at the North Fulton Neighbor was on fire with several notable stories.

What’s Up in Roswell

Holcomb Bridge/GA 400 Improvements Tied to TSPLOST - North Fulton Neighbor

Here’s the gist from city council woman Betty Price:

Whether or not T-SPLOST passes, some interim improvements will be evident in the near future. With additional funding and guided by the recommendations of this study, whole-scale improvements can be made in the future that will revitalize this inadequate intersection, bringing with it a welcoming and functional entrance to Roswell from 400.  

Pay Parking May Come to Roswell Historic District - North Fulton Neighbor

My prediction...  People are going to hate this more than they hate looking for a space.  If you’re willing to walk 200 yards, there is NO parking problem.  Key Excerpt:

The locations are the lot next to Wells Fargo on the west side of Canton Street and a lot on the east side between Ga. Hwy 9 and Canton Street that used to be the old city fire department years ago. 

Roswell’s Red Light Cameras May be Relocated - North Fulton Neighbor

This is fairly controversial to some.  Here’s my 2 cents.  These cameras tend to reduce deadly ‘perpendicular’ or ’T-Bone’ crashes at intersections but increase rear-end collisions.  Generally, anything that causes people to pay more attention

Four Canton St Restaurants on Jezebel Magazine’s Top 100 Restaurants for 2012

This is a great sign that Canton Street is doing all the right things.  Little Alley Steak, Inc Street Food, Salt Factory and Table & Main made the list in that order.  You’ll have to check out the magazine to see where they weighed in.

4th Annual Trilogy Trolley Crawl Tix on Sale

Top 5 Articles of the Week

What is a Block? - Better Cities and Towns

The block is something that confuses most people.  This article takes a stab at defining it and does a pretty good job.  Here’s how they define one:

the definition of a block should be based on the legal structure of urbanism. Therefore, a block is legally defined as private property surrounded by public rights-of-way. By this definition, a block is one of the two fundamental units of urbanism (alongside the right-of-way) reflecting the two types of property (private and public, respectively).

The article also uses an example from up the road in Alpharetta to illustrate the absurdities of suburban ‘blocks.’  They managed to find one has a perimeter of 12 miles!  We need more connectivity and smaller blocks. 

Don’t get Mixed Up on Mixed-Use - PlaceShakers

Mixed-use is one of those terms like sustainability.  It is over used and often used out of context.  This article lays it out pretty well:

Today, the most common misunderstanding I find about mixed-use is that most people think it equates, on any street or in any context, to a shopfront with housing above.

In short, mixed-use makes for three-dimensional, pedestrian-oriented places that layer compatible land uses, public amenities, and utilities together at various scales and intensities. This variety of uses allows for people to live, work, play and shop in one place, which then becomes a destination for people from other neighborhoods. As defined by The Lexicon of the New Urbanism, mixed-use is multiple functions within the same building or the same general area through superimposition or within the same area through adjacency… from which many of the benefits are… pedestrian activity and traffic capture.

How to Get a Trader Joe’s - Smyrna is signing a petition - Smyrna Patch 

I’d love it if it were just this easy to get a grocery store where you want it.  I’m sure we could collect a lot of signatures to get one here in Historic Roswell.  This commenter said it best:

Ultimately Smyrna has to prove we have the demographics to ensure Trader Joe's can survive. It's not about where we want it and why. Will Trader Joe's consider Smyrna and why?

Cops Set Up Sting to Keep Pedestrians Safe - AJC

Read this article, you just might learn something that will keep you out of trouble when walking or driving.  Here’s a stat that I wanted to be sure got out there.

...four people are hit by cars each day in the metro Atlanta area. (Sally) Flocks said between 70 and 80 pedestrians are killed each year in the metro area and more than 20 percent within 100 feet of a transit stop.

Alpharetta Downtown Development Picks Up Speed - ABC

Keep moving forward Alpharetta!  This will be a big boost to walkability in North Fulton.  I thought this excerpt was noteworthy:

In the past decade, other suburban cities including Woodstock, Norcross and Suwanee have tried to reinvent their downtowns by launching major projects.  Those ideas reflect principles of New Urbanism, a countermovement to the development patterns in the 80s and 90s across metro Atlanta that to suburban sprawl. New Urbanism aims to create public spaces, such as a city center, where people can congregate in parks that are near shopping, restaurants and entertainment.

Unfortunately, Roswell didn’t get a mention in the article but we are doing great things and our historic district has arguably been more successful than any of the towns that were mentioned even though they pursued very high profile projects.

Fun Stuff

Church vs Beer Map - Guess Where Georgia Is

Beijing’s Olympic Ruins - Much worse than Atlanta’s Ruins

Top 10 Best & Worst Cities to Live - This ranking used a very interesting methodology.  Number one on the list, Hong Kong.  Last on the list, Tehran.  Best US City, Washington DC.  

What the World Would Look Like Covered in Lego - Simple and Fun.. I’d love to drive under this bridge..

Quote of the Week: Parking

Since I've been thinking about Parking lately, I thought this one would be good...

As more land is used for parking, less land is left for the things that really make a city great: a place to live, work, shop and socialize. Our data supports this concept. ...

The best use of the city’s land is making great places that attract people. The role of transportation policy should be to provide access to these places in the fairest, most efficient ways.

Christopher McCahill from Too Much Parking, Too Few Residents at New Urban Network

The article covers analysis of New Haven, CT and has an interesting image of New Haven's parking space in 1951 and the same area in 2008.  It looks like cancer.

Where to Park on Canton Street?

I recently read this article on The Roswell Neighbor discussing the availability of parking on Canton Street and potential solutions to the issue.  I know this is a hot topic for many especially since the restaurant scene has exploded here over the past ~5 years.  I think the common complaint is that it takes too long to park and thus we need more parking.  However, let's not over react.  

I go to Canton Street (by car) almost weekly to eat and the longest it has ever taken me to park at peak time is about 10 minutes.  When I do get a spot, it's usually within 50 yards of the main restaurant area. Anywhere else on Canton is a breeze to park.  There are 1,847 parking spots between Magnolia St and Woodstock St and a recent study suggest that the area is 69 spaces short during peak times.  

A normal parking space is about 180 sq ft (10x18).  So, 69 spaces is 12,420 sq ft. or ~.285 acres.  When you add in driving space, that effectively doubles.  So, just to meet the current peak demand, Canton St would need to figure out where a half an acre could be paved to park some cars.  I'm not so sure that we need to do this given the demand but I wanted to think about what we could do to prepare for added demand if that does come.

Here are my recommendations in order of cost from the least to the most expensive:

• Do nothing - The current situation isn't actually as bad as it seems.  There are plenty of spaces within a short walk along Mimosa, at City Hall and across 9 from Diesel.  Proper direction and labeling could help.  There is also some opportunity for lot reconfiguration and multi-use lots in areas.
• Create a Parking Lot - I don't have any ideas on where to do this since we won't be able to find a half/acre unless we tear down a building or two.  If we do that, then we might as well do it right.. see the last two entries.
• Deck Behind Restaurants - Here, we would just build a deck where a current parking area is.  See the red shaded area on the map.
• Surface Lot Behind Buildings - This one is actually my favorite as it will do a lot to complete Canton Street and give additional parking.  You tear down the old antique store and move a 2-3 story building up to Canton Street and line the north side of Webb Street with either shop fronts or townhomes.  Behind the buildings invisible to Canton Street, you would have a surface parking lot that is larger than what is existing. If demand grew, you could eventually build a deck here.
• Deck Behind Townhomes - Here we would line the southern tip of Canton St, the northern side of Magnolia and the southeastern tip of the Webb Street Extension with townhomes or live work units with some retail below.  The corner of Canton & Magnolia would be a small office or bank building.

Here's the visual:

Now, let's not forget the age old problem of charging for parking.  If the need to charge arises and you have built an expensive deck, the logical course of action would be to charge for the deck and leave the surface parking alone.  However, what you really need to do is price the deck lower than the surface parking.  This will price the commodity properly by pricing the most sought after commodities (street parking) higher than the less desirable (deck parking).  If you fall into the trap of charging for deck parking while not charging for street parking, you will still have congestion which will cause a perceived lack of parking because everyone will try to park on the street for free first and use the deck as a last resort.  

Parking on Canton St, Beltline Progress and Regional Transit?

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last NUR Review.  I’ve been sidetracked with another project I’ve been working on.  We’re catching up on news since early February so some of the news might be a little dated.

Roswell

Canton Street restaurants eye parking spaces | Roswell-Neighbor

If they are going to do this, it needs to be all or none.  Also, do not cut out the automobile traffic and make it into a pedestrian mall.  There is not enough density to support a pedestrian mall in our area.

City Council Agrees on Proposed Road Projects | Roswell, GA Patch

The city voted on a list of six projects to submit to the Regional Transit Roundtable.  The six projects are the Highway 9 Historic Gateway, Big Creek River Bridge Phase 1, Big Creek to the River Multi-Use Trail Connection, North Fulton Cross County Trail Connection, Houze Road Operational Improvements and Holcomb Bridge/GA 400 Interchange Improvements.  I think that all of these are necessary and the list is appropriate for our municipality.  now, we won’t be getting all of them but I’m sure we’ll see one or two make their way into the regional list of projects.

Cruzeiro Esporte considering Atlanta? | Atlanta Business Chronicle

So, this isn’t our usual type of news review.  However, this could be very interesting for Roswell and N.Fulton.  Cruzeiro has a huge youth program and could bring major attention to N. Fulton.  The facility would need about 100 acres, could have 18 fields and investment could be $20 to $40 million.  This might be something nice to put in or around the Holcomb Bridge/400 interchange.

Alpharetta Wants to Make Plans for Vacant Auto Dealerships, Big Box Retail Stores | Alpharetta-Milton Patch

We need to seriously start looking into ideas like this here in Roswell.  The state of empty big-box retail and car dealerships in our city is dismal.  

Region

High-speed rail funding would build new $39 million Amtrak station near Atlantic Station | Creative Loafing

This could be neat.. but it’s still AMTRAK.  

Leaders Push Transit Plan That Ends MARTA | WSB Atlanta

Please... make this happen!!

ARC pushes for transit governance | NorthFulton.com

Again.. please... make this happen!!

PolitiFact Georgia | Atlanta Streetcar projected to be jobs boon

This is some very interesting info on what makes a job a job.  When you hear about how many jobs a project is expected to create, economists, politicians and developers have a pretty nifty way of making things sound better than they actually are.  

Alpharetta Council OKs Mixed-Use Rezoning on Haynes Bridge Near GA 400 - Alpharetta-Milton, GA Patch

This is old news but if you haven’t seen it, there is some interesting commentary on the Alpharetta Met life project

BeltLine Construction Could Begin in March - Virginia Highland-Druid Hills, GA Patch

It's becoming an reality.  I can't wait to go for a walk on the trail.

Historic Fourth Ward Park, the newest Beltline greenspace, opens | Creative Loafing Atlanta

If you haven’t seen this park, it’s a true gem thus far.  Great addition to Atlanta’s park system and it’s also another piece of the BeltLine that’s starting to take shape.

City wants downtown streetcar to use new Beltline friendly vehicles — for an additional $9 million | Creative Loafing Atlanta

This makes total sense and the city should work to make this happen for the long term success of both projects.

City Hall East details trickle out: Adios parking deck, hello 'food hall?' | Creative Loafing Atlanta

Another neat project that’s near the BeltLine.

Atlanta Wins Two ‘Opportunity’ Zones | Atlanta Business Chronicle

More good news for City Hall East.

Doraville presents final plan for GM plant, town center  | ajc.com

Please just do something here.  

Alpharetta Buying Downtown Property for City Center | Alpharetta-Milton, GA Patch

Alpharetta may be looking to revive its City Center project sometime soon.  I'm looking forward to seeing their idea.

Atlantic Station, prepare for your spellbinding transformation into the 'anti-mall!' | Creative Loafing Atlanta

Thankfully, the new owners are planning to do something with the retail in Atlantic Station. I’d love to see a more local and regional focus.

Streets of Buckhead may come to life | Atlanta Business Chronicle

New ownership and new life have people much more optimistic about the SoB these days.  Let’s hope they get the cranes moving again.  

Development, in high times or low, can’t crush Smyrna’s blooms  | ajc.com

Smyrna is starting to feel a little optimism about development.  

Pedestrians, Parking and Prospect Park

It's been a while since the last update. Today's post primarily focuses on Roswell and Alpharetta. There's been a lot going on lately especially in Alpharetta. Enjoy!

Roswell

City Considering Ways to Warn Drivers of Pedestrians - Roswell Neighbor