Second Century Avondale

08/25/2022

Second Century Avondale as a group is defunct, but the impact of our advocacy for community-informed, vision-driven downtown development (per the City's Master Plan) is especially tangible in our new Town Green. The importance of a Town Green was a huge priority in the educational events Second Century Avondale sponsored and the citizen involvement that the group advocated for. Three cheers for Avondale Estates, vision becomes reality!

DeKalb County city was recently shortlisted as one of America’s “top family friendly cities and towns”

02/28/2020

Come out tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and join neighbors at the first Public Session regarding park planning!

When: Saturday, February 29, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Presentations at 4:15 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.
Where: The Lost Druid, 2866 Washington Street

That's two opportunities to hear and see what's going on with this park planning process. Additionally, the event will be live streamed here on Facebook! Get informed, get involved to make Avondale's town green the very best reflection of our good community that it can be.

Check out other engagement opportunities in the pdf linked below.

02/20/2020

If you haven't already, please mark your calendars and plan to attend!

The response rate to the the survey have been incredible. We hope that you'll be able to join us to start discussing the park portion of the Town Green on February 29.

Learn more about this project at https://www.avondaleestates.org/2430/Plan-a-Park-Process

02/20/2020

All, please take just a few minutes to participate in this survey about the Town Green!

01/31/2020

From AE e-News:

BOMC Approves Public Engagement Process to Plan/Design New Park

A unanimous vote by the Board of Mayor and Commissioners has paved the way for the park portion of the proposed Town Green. After having already selected site Solutions as the design firm, the BOMC approved a design plan that includes a public participation portion and schedule.

Concept #9, which was designed by architect and local resident Sheri Locke and was selected by residents from the 11 submitted in 2017, is the foundation for this effort. However, there are still decisions to be made to ensure the Town Green project is something everyone can be proud to call a part of Avondale Estates.

The public will be invited to join staff and design team experts at upcoming public workshops and online to be a part of the process of designing this part of the future of Avondale Estates.

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01/21/2020

Really encouraging survey results that align very well with the Downtown Master Plan (DMP). Hope you participated in the survey and will continue to participate in the public input process. The next "Shape Avondale Estates" Planning Workshop event is February 26. Mark your calendars now!

Shape Avondale Estates Survey Results

01/10/2020

A reminder of next Thursday's public input session re: AE's downtown zoning code rewrite follows. Please be a part of this process!

Make Your Voice Heard to Shape Avondale Estates

When: Thursday, January 16 at 6 p.m.
Where: City Hall

The next planning workshop to weigh options for the rewrite of Avondale Estates' zoning code will be Thursday, January 16 at 6 p.m. in City Hall. Even if you haven't attended a session in the past, please attend to learn more about this process and be a part of a solution to Shape Avondale Estates.

In addition to a presentation, Thursday's workshop will include:

- A review of the results of the online survey
- Discussions about open space and land use options
- An opportunity for dialogue about the zoning code rewrite.

Learn more at www.AvondaleEstates.org/ShapeAvondaleEstates.

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11/19/2019

Calling all citizens! We urge you to attend this Wednesday night's Shape Avondale Community Open House #1 from 6-8 p.m. at City Hall. It is a great opportunity to participate in what our downtown will become.

Why? Shape Avondale's webpage makes it clear:

"Public participation is the foundation for any planning effort; and therefore, variety in involvement opportunities ensures active and widespread participation. This is especially true with zoning regulations, which impact a wide-variety of stakeholders including residents, business owners and visitors. Rewrite processes are notorious for low community interest, due in part to the traditional lack of visual appeal and procedural monotony.

Recognizing these important needs and conditions, the planning process welcomes and seeks input from the broad spectrum of users and interests to inspire consistent and meaningful feedback throughout the process. In addition, the public involvement team will make special efforts to engage those populations who are often underrepresented in the planning process."

11/04/2019

Important steps towards development of the city-owned 4-acres including the town green will be formalized this week. We encourage you to attend:

BOMC Special Called Meeting
Wednesday, Nov 6, 5:30 p.m., City Hall
Purpose: to review Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Fabric Developers, LLC regarding the development of the town green and the adjacent mixed-use development

Where are we in the process? The city and Fabric Developers have been 'going steady' since last spring's RFQ response. Once the MOU with Fabric is signed, we will be 'engaged'.

Here is a link to the MOU: https://www.avondaleestates.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/2423?fileID=2147

The City will post the final version of the MOU that will be discussed – and possibly voted on – as soon as it comes through from lawyers. For your convenience, we'll do all we can to post a link to that here as soon as that comes through.

There should be robust conversation before a vote happens, so we urge you to become familiar with the MOU document and to attend the meeting if you can. It is very exciting for the development specifics to be outlined and especially to see the park is acknowledged as integral.

This is one of the spots in the process where the public needs to engage so that we, the city's residents, understand fully what our city-owned property will ultimately become. The content and functionality of the park and surrounding commercial development will be based on what we agree to in the MOU.

If you want to look back further, last spring the city published a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for development teams interested in working with the city on developing the city-owned 4-acres. Fabric Developers, LLC was the sole respondent to that RFQ. Fabric's focus on and success with placemaking is well aligned with AE's Downtown Master Plan vision. So while receiving just one response to the RFQ was not optimal, SCA believes the fit for the city's vision with Fabric's qualifications is very good.

See Fabric's response here: https://www.avondaleestates.org/DocumentCenter/View/2716/Fabric-Qualifications-for-City-Owned-4-acres

(PS Apologies re: the draft graphic - the initial version of this post was published before the city had the final MOU online. However, FB won't let me edit the graphic.)

09/17/2019

Hello all - those of you on our email list got this missive this morning. For others, heads up that this Thursday night's Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Planning Session is designed for public input. We encourage you to attend. For more info, read on!

Hello neighbors, For anyone who has interest, ideas or concerns about what downtown Avondale might look like 5 or 10 years from today, we strongly encourage you to attend the City’s Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Planning Workshop #1 this Thursday, September 19, at City Hall, 6 p.m. As you probably kn...

09/03/2019

Hello Second Century peeps - a small plug for one of our own. Won't make it a habit as we encourage you to make yourself familiar with all the BOMC candidates, not just Dee. But did want you to see this as it includes Dee's campaign announcement and link to her website.