Dunwoody was an infant Atlanta suburb when the Spruill family sold their farm to provide a spot to build Perimeter Mall. No one could have imagined what a large working farm from the mid-19th century would look like 50 years later.
Dunwoody is at the heart of the Perimeter Center market which grew and expanded over time with little forethought to congested arteries and traffic. If separated from Atlanta, it would be a bigger urban center than Charlotte, Birmingham, Jacksonville and most other cities in the Southeast. There was no initial urban plan or even a government set up to manage the growth. It just happened.
Today, the burgeoning urban business development is attracting major companies like Mercedes-Benz and huge developments by companies like State Farm; projects and developments entitled long before Dunwoody was incorporated are coming out of the ground and becoming reality.
One thing we must plan for today is a way to make our city much more navigable. We can’t let traffic choke our growth. Solving our region’s congestion is critical to improving quality of life in our communities and business centers.
While we inherited a multitude of issues associated with new residential, retail and office developments on the horizon, part of why we became a city was to protect our neighborhoods and retain our city’s small-town feel.
Dunwoody is fortunate. We are a superb residential community situated in the vicinity of a business-friendly economic center. We have excellent executive housing, access to transit, are adjacent to great hospitals, and home to restaurants and shopping that are the envy of the southeast.
However, large suburban cities and huge residential populations to the north, east and west, place Dunwoody at the “thin part of the hourglass.” Business and office centers to the south bring the sands of traffic to Dunwoody and the Perimeter, daily slowing thoroughfares and increasing commutes.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and the state recently took action to reduce freeway congestion in the area through the billion-dollar investment in the I-285 and Georgia 400 interchange. This addresses a large-scale traffic issue important to the entire northern arc, as well as the Perimeter market.
Now Dunwoody is following the state’s lead. Just last week, we announced a potential connector road to streamline the flow of commuter traffic which effectively triples the entire population in the Dunwoody Perimeter every Monday through Friday.
Our solution comes in the form of an east-west connector road coming off of I-285 West, going underneath Ashford Dunwoody Road and running three quarters of a mile to eventually connect with Perimeter Center Parkway.
The new connector would help open access points to proposed commercial and residential developments now being constructed in the Perimeter. It also would activate a domino effect, relieving congestion off of an overcrowded north-south Ashford Dunwoody Road and expand options for vehicles entering the Perimeter market.
And it’s not just about vehicles. The solution also offers a multi-use path with direct bicycle and pedestrian connections from other office areas (such as Ravinia) to the Dunwoody MARTA station and points west. We are creating solutions to alleviate surface-street bottlenecks and promote access to public transit, pedestrian and non-vehicular transportation alternatives.
Improved access into and around the heart of the Perimeter area will help promote a flowing, grid-like network of street and pedestrian trailways connecting the future commercial and residential development.
Potential solutions such as this connector don’t come together without the help and cooperation of area business leaders, CIDs, government agencies, and local municipalities. We need to be in lockstep as these projects develop, otherwise we’re only tackling minor issues and not addressing the whole.
This is merely a first step, but it’s a crucial one. It’s time we turn opportunities and obligations into something extraordinary.
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