11 design submissions received for property

Avondale Estates created a process map last month for arriving at a definitive development plan regarding the four city-owned acres on North Avondale Road.

As of this week 11 people have told Downtown Development Authority Chair Sam Collier they will submit design plans for the area just west of the Tudor Village.

Collier said the designs will get posted on a bulletin board at City Hall during a special called work session June 12. No names will be attached to any design, or as Collier said, “We don’t want the name influencing anybody’s thinking.”

Each person submitting a design has to answer five questions describing their concept and taking no more than two pages total. Those questions include asking what challenges one sees in developing the four acres, and what commercial uses would be most effective.

Collier points out that the city doesn’t plan on choosing one winning concept, but will assimilate elements of each into a single overall design. By September, he said, the city hopes to have an actual design to take to a developer along with the potential costs.

“That land is important,” Collier said, “because it’s centrally located. Right now it’s a big hole. Developing it will not only fill a gap, it also sets a tone for everything that’s built around it.” BILL BANKS FOR THE AJC