The Buckhead Community Improvement District, in partnership with design and engineering firm Stantec, recently received the 2018 Outstanding Planning Document award for their Lenox Road Corridor Plan, according to a press release. The award was presented at the Georgia Planning Association annual fall conference on Jekyll Island.
Every year, GPA, an official chapter of the American Planning Association, hosts an annual conference where the organization recognizes local communities and regional commissions for their work to make Georgia a better place to live. The Outstanding Planning Document Award focuses on a specific planning deliverable that goes above and beyond the traditional planning document in terms of communication, graphics, storytelling and overall quality of thought and delivery. The focus of this category is on the quality of a document that is created in the planning process. This document is a culminating document or report of significance as opposed to a singular exhibit used partially through the process.
According to the qualifications of the award, the Lenox Road Corridor Plan was selected as GPA’s Outstanding Planning Document this year because of its comprehensiveness, quality of thought, analysis and character, along with several other qualities.
The plan was created after the Buckhead CID found a need to enhance Lenox Road, a heavily traveled corridor that lacks appropriate pedestrian amenities. The plan was developed by Stantec and focuses on improving the pedestrian and bicycle network along Lenox Road with expanded sidewalks, multi-use trails, sidepaths, new streetscape improvements to mirror the aesthetics of Peachtree Road and operational improvements at the GA400 interchange to allow for safe pedestrian/bicycle crossings.
The plan was part of Buckhead REdeFINED a program designed in 2016 that includes projects to improve Buckhead over the next 15 years. Due to the corridor’s complexity, the plan is divided into three “Character Areas,” including Piedmont Road to GA 400, GA 400 to Peachtree Road and Peachtree Road to East Paces Ferry Road.
