Douglasville's North Side Redevelopment Plan Moving Forward

DOUGLASVILLE, GA – To build on the momentum of the Downtown Master Plan that was presented in 2017, the City of Douglasville selected APD Urban Planning Management to create a redevelopment plan for the North Side in early 2018. Last month, the firm presented their findings and recommendations of the redevelopment plan to the Mayor and City Council.

Throughout 2018, APD Urban Planning Management held a series of public outreach meetings that provided residents of the North Side the opportunity to participate in the process and provide insight into the area that outside consultants may not be privy to. From these meetings, APD was able to establish a vision, goals and objectives, and policy priorities that serve as a foundation to their recommendations.

APD highlighted this portion of their process as the most rewarding slice of the project. “Sometimes the community outreach portion can be difficult,” Matthew Bedsole a planner with APD, said of the stakeholder meetings, “the amount of participation we received from the North Side residents made the process really fun and easy.”

The crux of the recommendations included connectivity solutions that would provide infrastructure improvements to allow for a walking and biking network, in addition to revitalization solutions for some of the neglected areas within the neighborhood. APD’s recommendations also call for an investment in parks and green space, which the City is already pursuing with their parks redesign and master plan projects.

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APD Urban Planning Management is assisting the City further in partial execution of these recommendations. They, along with the City of Douglasville Community Development Department held the first of a series of steering committee meetings focused on improvements on Dallas Highway between Strickland and Brown Streets Jan. 18.

“To help fund this project, we will utilize Livable Centers Initiative, or LCI, grants from the ARC,” said Community Development Director Patrice R. Williams.

Although this project will differ from the North Side Redevelopment Plan, many of the LCI efforts will come directly from the recommendations presented by APD. “We want to ensure that all of our planning efforts are strategic. So, while many of the projects that come from our studies might technically fall under separate plans, they are all meant to coincide and connect with one another,” Williams added.

While many of the projects from APD’s redevelopment plan will be ongoing, the LCI project on Dallas Highway will be a six-month process. For more information on the North Side projects, visit the City’s website at www.DouglasvilleGA.gov or follow the City of Douglasville on all social media platforms.

Graphics courtesy City of Douglasville