Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett said she’s concerned about the new mixed-use developments roughly a half-mile outside the city’s northeast boundary. In fact she and fellow Commissioner Tony Powers had plans to meet with DeKalb Commissioners Jeff Rader and Kathie Gannon.
The quartet will likely discuss how the city and county can better coordinate current future development.
Counting three current projects it’s anticipated that between this year and fall 2018, 1,545 apartments will open along the city’s northern perimeter within a quarter mile of each other.
Garrett said the re-development of that northeast corridor isn’t a surprise, but city officials expected it would happen in pieces over a longer period of time.
“We’re putting more of a focus [in Decatur] on pedestrians and bikes and getting people out of cars,” Garrett said. “But you look up [at the northeast corridor] there doesn’t seem any way to get in and out of those developments except with cars. I will say they will significantly impact Decatur traffic.”
All three projects cover tracts that have been part of Decatur’s proposed annexation maps in the past. But Garrett re-iterated the city currently hasn’t “formally figured out a map,” so it’s impossible surmising how these new developments will influence annexation.
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