Sunday, September 5, 2010

Evermore CID Wins Grant; Keeps Hope Alive of Redeveloping Olympic Tennis Stadium At Stone Mountain

February 11, 2010 by Jamie Ward
Filed under Community Improvement Districts, Evermore

The Evermore CID wants to potentially use the former Olympic tennis stadium as a redevelopment catalyst for the transformation of the commercial area. With Stone Mountain serving as a backdrop, the area off Park Place Boulevard serves as the entrance to the CID.

SNELLVILLE — The effort to eventually transform the former Olympic tennis stadium at Stone Mountain got a pleasant jolt in the right direction Thursday from the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The good news came when the ARC awarded the Evermore Community Improvement District with a $40,000 grant to allow it to further study a possible multi-modal mixed use center in the Park Place area, located on the Gwinnett County side of Stone Mountain, in and around the former Olympic tennis venue.

“A number of developers and retailers have shown renewed interest in the area, just from hearing about the possibilities that are being explored,” said CID Economic Development Director David Stedman. “When businesses and developers hear about the vision we have for the area, people get excited.”

Last month the CID agreed to move its headquarters to the pro shop at the tennis stadium to show how committed it was to exploring redevelopment options for the currently unused facility. The stadium’s current owner, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, had planned to tear down the stadium this year but later balked at the idea when budgetary problems arose. In May, Gwinnett Countysigned a $1-a-year, 50-year lease to operate 15 outdoor tennis courts surrounding the stadium and its 24.5-acre site on Bermuda Road. The plan was to have a park there. Gwinnett County agreed to let the CID pursue its current plan of action as long as it was clear no money would come from the county to fund such an effort.

With the CID now planning to equally match the ARC grant, that equals $80,000 going toward exploring design options in conjunction with a multi-modal transportation hub that could be potentially used to link downtown Atlanta, the city of Decatur and the U.S. Highway 78 commercial corridor known as the Evermore CID.

“We’re totally overjoyed,” Stedman said. “This is a great first step in the overall comprehensive plan which is hinged on getting good information. We need ideas that makes sense.”

CID Board of Directors Chairman Forest Adair and board member Kenny King have both said they hope the proposed restoration and transformation of the former Olympic tennis stadium into a multi-use facility could be a catalyst for revitalization and development of that entire area.

“But it must be done in the context of transit oriented purpose design that improves connectivity and promotes green development,” Adair said. “We’re grateful to ARC because this grant will be used to determine the viability of these concepts, as well as identifying the action steps we need to be taking.”

The CID commissioned a preliminary study late last year that showed the stadium could generate as much as $106 million in economic impact over a 10-year period. Now, said CID Executive Director Jim Brooks, the organization will apply the ARC’s grant to study the broader context of transit oriented development. A past traffic circulation analysis showed the area had numerous pockets of congestion. And while the completion of the $60 million dollar widening and median project on U.S. Highway 78 will serve to help the flow of traffic, “the use of a multi-modal transit hub would serve to eliminate key bottle necks, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a boon for area businesses,” Brooks said.

“Connectivity drives redevelopment and there is federal funding for this,” Stedman said. “It would also give people added flexibility.”

Stedman said one option which will be explored is possibly having a park and ride lot where shuttle buses or some other “urban circulatory system” were used to move people from store to store and area to area up and down the corridor. Additionally, more buses from a “bus rapid transit system” would serve as connectors between downtown Atlanta and the city of Decatur.

“People could park once and then ride the corridor or all the way to downtown Atlanta. It could eliminate total vehicle miles travelled which reduces greenhouse gas emissions,” Stedman said. “And it’s cheaper than building roads. Rubber tires make more sense than concrete.”

He added that the CID doesn’t want to add to the traffic congestion prevalent on US 78, but rather wants to show they’re making “an effort to improve the market dynamics of the area in a fundamental way.”