Northlake Leader is Governor's Pick for Interim State Schools Chief

44,000 petition signatures needed for access to November election

by Tom Doolittle

William (Brad) Bradley Bryant has been tapped by Governor Purdue to fill the State Schools Superintendent job recently vacated by Kathy Cox. Cox heads to do nonprofit work.

Bryant, who was apponted to the State School Board in 2003 by Purdue, had recent high profile roles in representing the governor and DOE with two failing county school systems--in 2008 serving as one of two liaisons between the state and the troubled Clayton County Board of Education after the district lost its accreditation.


The lifetime Northlake area resident and education advocate from now-closed Henderson High School was a DeKalb School Board member and/or chairman from 1990 to 2002. Bryant attended Northlake's Henderson Mill Elementary School and was in Henderson High School's first 8th grade class upon the school opening in 1968. The future public servant graduated from Washington &Lee University in Staunton, Virginia and earned a law degree from Mercer University. Bryant also served as president of the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Georgia School Boards Association and the National School Boards Association Southern Region


The Republican plans to gather signatures to run as independent for a full four-year term, he said. Cox resigned after the state qualifying deadline, so Bryant cannnot run as a Republican.

Cox's sudden resignation split the superintendent's race wide open. Vying for the GOP nomination July 20 are John D. Barge and Richard Woods. The three Democratic candidates are Beth Farokhi, Joe Martin and Brian Westlake.

Attend Re-Imagining Shallowford This Weekend June 19

8:30 registration & coffee; 9-noon meeting, St Pius High School, 2674 Johnson Rd NE, Atlanta 30345



The May 22 meeting was a good beginning; on June 19 we dig deeper. We began to form a Vision of our "village"; a subgroup is coalescing the many visions into one Vision for review on June19. We will also review a summary of the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) exercise. Then participants, in small groups, will talk about how that Vision Statement breaks down into details, like what it means in terms of land use, transit, parks, etc. We'll end with a "Road Map" to implementation of the Vision.


May 22 wrap-ups posted at www.northbriarcliff.org: SWOT exercise output summary & photos.

Sponsors: TABASCO Coalition (DECA & NBCA) & Commissioner Jeff Rader. Facilitator: Davis Fox.

More info: tabasco@northbriarcliff.org

Commuter Rail Spurs Smart Growth

Northlake "Station"? One day.
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2010/05/26/report-atlanta-macon-commuter-rail-could-spark-smart-development

The rail line could jump start and change land-use patterns surrounding the stations, bringing walkable streetscapes and mixed-use development — two features that young, mostly single people and couples are increasingly seeking when they look for a place to live. Aging residents could also benefit from this type of environment because they wouldn't have to drive to go shopping or could connect to transit. Throw in the fact that the train stops could revitalize the downtowns of cities along the routes,

Georgians for Passenger Rail, which began with the mission of connecting universities between Athens and Atlanta with train service, has changed priority to the Atlanta-Macon route due to the $88 million federal "earmark" from 2004.

Shallowford “Village” Effort Moves Forward Without ARC

by Tom Doolittle

A 1960's Suburban Strip Center and gas station at the Frontier Road neighborhood gateway can be revitalized for more "town-like" activity at Shallowford and I-85

What's Next

2nd Vision Exercise
St. Pius High School
June 19, 2010
8:30 to Noon


The group that is trying to add the first level of planning (a “vision”) to revitalize about a half-mile radial area around the Shallowford Road/I-85 intersection was not able to persuade county officials to apply for an ARC Livable Centers Initiative grant in 2009. So the TABASCO Coalition (Transform and Beautify Along the Shallowford Corridor) is moving forward with participative workshops on its own.

It’s not as if the group hasn’t tried for planning funds. County planners did submit an application to the ARC for Shallowford within its “Community Choices” program in March. However, as North Briarcliff Civic Association member Beth Nathan put it, “We were told that our project was larger than what they wanted to take on”, after a month’s review. They also met with the Georgia Conservancy’s Blueprints program in 2008 and 2009.

The first “Re-Imagining Shallowford” vision session was held at St. Pius High School on Saturday, May 22. The private school is located within the proposed boundaries of the neighborhood planning area. The vision session was attended by about 40 people who had an opportunity to provide ideas and discuss areas of agreement and disagreement. A smaller group of six now moves forward to coalesce what was said in a concise mission statement, which may include naming the area.

Chances for future ARC funding may be bettered due to activism by a county commissioner, Jeff Rader. He is a former ARC executive and a transportation professional. Further supporting, one of DeKalb’s ARC board representative Davis Fox is leading the “re-imagining” effort. The process will conform to the ARC’s workshop guidelines so that the area can qualify for future transportation design and construction funds.

The “D-word” for many long-time suburban single-family dweller is density. The notion of a mixed-use, live/work/play and essentially any re-development immediately invoked a question about “higher” density among session participants. Subsequently, in a subsequent meeting designated to hammer out a “mission statement”, it was agreed that a village might not change the number of residences per acre and in fact, has as much of a chance to decrease it. The opportunity, says Davis Fox, is to use the same acre for more compressed (higher buildings) units so that more greenspace can remain.


What’s a Neighborhood Center? Smaller than a Town Center
So-called “character areas” arose from the DeKalb Planning Department’s most recent view of the next natural progression of land use development—into pod-like pedestrian-friendly “nodes” where mass transit could more effectively serve the most people moving from node to node—and probably living there, rather than traditional suburban single-family subdivisions far from work, shopping and services. DeKalb’s newest update of its comprehensive land use plan, says “(neighborhood centers) should complement the character of neighborhoods and the location of commercial areas should reduce automobile travel, promote walkability and increase transit usage.”

Three scales of “character” are identified in the two year old latest comprehensive land use plan—the largest of which is a high-density city-like regional center, such as the Northlake Mall area and Perimeter Center; a medium density “town” center, including Tucker and Druid Hills Road/Executive Park and the most “village-like” type, the neighborhood center, which includes Shallowford. According to DeKalb’s comprehensive plan “The intent of the Neighborhood Center Character Area is to identify areas that can serve the local neighborhood’s needs for goods and services.”

Shallowford can in some ways be viewed a Northlake area gateway, as are several others: Lavista/Tucker, Embry Hills, Chamblee-Tucker (corridor), Oak Grove/Lakeside and US 29/I-285.

With its progressive Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) started in year 2000, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has put its stamp of approval on plans that can be generated from the “bottom up”, by nearby citizens, business groups and institutional entities. The Northlake LCI was the first in DeKalb, a grant of $450,000 to plan and design streetscape improvements along Lavista Road near Northlake Mall. Northlake Community Alliance, Inc. was formed by a combination of residential and business interests, foremost being managers of the three of the largest commercial property owners in the area, Northlake Mall, Northlake Business Park and the colloquially named “Best Buy Shopping Center”.

At the time, the county comprehensive plan did not support the development of a higher-density area there, thereby jeopardizing any notion of live-work-play. County planners played catch-up and in 2008 and formally adopted more than a dozen live-work-play character areas throughout DeKalb. Apparently, the number of character areas can also evolve, depending on where commercial property developers feel higher-density is marketable-or land is “underutilized”. The new neighborhood center at Druid Hills and Briarcliff Roads was added to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan after the Sembler Company of St. Petersburg, Florida unsuccessfully proposed a high-density development that would promote similar projects on all four corners of the intersection. Executive Park is also now its own “town center” in conjunction with parts of Buford Highway.

Rader said it is best for local interests to initiate plans for creative re-development and re-vitalization. “The idea is to get ahead of any development proposals so that they can be merged with what the neighborhood has prescribed.”