City Center Master Plan and Livable Centers Initiative Update
City of Sandy Springs, Georgia, Sandy Springs, GA
Creating a vibrant, new center for one of Georgia’s newest cities
Located just outside Atlanta, Sandy Springs became an independent city in 2005. Despite its population of nearly 100,000 residents, it lacked a true center. Goody Clancy was selected to help transform a 200-acre, car-dominated area into a walkable, mixed-use City Center and to update an existing plan for a broader 566-acre district. Supported by the community after an extensive engagement and education process, the plans:
- Are grounded in a market analysis that revealed unmet housing, office, retail, and hotel demand
- Provide a framework for a City Center of pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use buildings that frame green streets and parks, including a three-acre City Green, served by nearly two miles of off-street walking and biking paths that will link the City Center to area neighborhoods
- Were accompanied by a new zoning code for the area that draws from form-based and conventional zoning approaches
IMPLEMENTATION
- The plan led quickly to implementation, with efforts to develop several hundred new housing units initiated within months of the plan’s completion
- Ongoing public and private efforts have focused on new streets, parks, creation of a new city hall, and redevelopment of grayfields into buildings and civic spaces
