CLARKSTON: City aims to showcase its multicultural heart

Clarkston actually does have what it calls a downtown, and no, it’s not the area around Georgia Perimeter College. That’s just outside the one square-mile city.

Downtown Clarkston is a collection of 1950s-ish strip buildings on Market Street and East Ponce de Leon Avenue, across the train tracks from City Hall.

The buildings are boring, but the area is alive with a steady parade of residents of the incredibly diverse town, about one-third of whose populace is foreign-born.

They head to businesses with exotic names: Abyssinia Cafe, Numsok Oriental Market, Shewit Eritrean Restaurant, Fatma Halal Meat and Grocery, Saigon Video.

City officials want to transform this area into a trendy metro destination. They got major ammunition this month when voters overwhelmingly approved a new tax allocation district to attract development and jobs to their little downtown.

“This is the best-kept secret in DeKalb County,” said Councilwoman Rosemarie Nelson, who pushed for the new district for two years, “and we don’t want it to be a secret anymore.”

Nelson has big dreams for the area: a central park and sidewalks lining both sides of Market Street; new buildings with retail, restaurant, entertainment, office and residential uses.

And yet, “We still want it to be a quaint town,” Nelson said. “We would like for Clarkston to maintain Southern charm.”

Make that Southern charm with an international flair. Since the 1990s, Clarkston has been a magnet for refugee resettlement.

“The city stayed dormant for a long time and then it started bursting at the seams with all the different nationalities coming in,” Mayor Lee Swaney said. “A lot of people didn’t know what was happening.”

Now the city of 7,500 is ready to capitalize on its new reality with a comprehensive plan, updated codes and a set of recently completed design guidelines for a town center. The city is working with the Atlanta Regional Commission and will hire consultants to determine how the city should grow. And now it’s got a tax allocation district, or TAD.

Cities and counties across Georgia have used TADs to revitalize underdeveloped or blighted areas by tapping future increases in property tax revenue to finance bonds that help pay for new construction.

“Everything’s laid out for developers,” Councilwoman Karen Feltz said. “As far as small cities go, we’re ahead of the curve.”

Consultants also will help the city figure out how to showcase the buried gems of its downtown area —- from its professional offices and international groceries to places to experience Vietnamese, Eritrean and Somali nightlife.

“With good marketing,” Nelson said, “you know people would patronize those businesses.”

 SHANNON PEAVY / Staff
Map locates Clarkston, Ga. in relation to Atlanta and Decatur.