A new mall?

If you live elsewhere in metro Atlanta, the news is as shocking as evening gridlock on Ga. 400. But Camp Creek Marketplace, a huge new shopping complex in East Point, is something to celebrate for many in south Fulton County.

Retail hasn't been the strength of the southern county, where big-box stores left just a decade ago in search of a stronger market. But business is coming back.

Consider these signs: Along Old National Highway, near I-285 and just across from Hartsfield International Airport, a Boeing Co. subsidiary is building a flight training facility, something that the hospitality industry around the airport is looking forward to.

This summer, College Park completed the Georgia International Convention Center, a stylish $95 million complex that sits just a walk from the city's downtown. Subdivisions have opened in Union City, Fairburn and Palmetto.

South Fulton is undergoing a real estate renaissance after missing much of the real estate boom during the 1990s that enabled north Fulton, Gwinnett and Cobb counties to sprawl.

But south Fulton wants none of the traffic headaches that the Northside suffers from. So it's planning for growth. For example, the Sandtown Community, just outside I-285 and near I-20, is master-planning the area. A civic activist group in the Chattahoochee Hill Country section is pursuing a plan to preserve 40,000 acres of rural land while designating three spots that allow dense housing.