The primary tasks for the Norcross Town Center Study, beginning November 2011, include public involvement, study development, and project deliverables. The final product will be Norcross Town Center Plan, which documents the results of the overall work effort, the study process, relevant findings, and recommendations into a summary document.

The 9-month planning process action items are:

• Initiate planning process

• Review and analyze existing conditions

• Establish vision and goals

• Explore opportunities and alternative concepts

• Review Draft Plan

• Present Final Draft Plan

• Complete planning process summary document

APPROACH: PLACEMAKING

Placemaking is about creating vibrant, successful communities that have a high sense of identity and livability.  It integrates the elements of land use and housing, mobility, community identity and economic development at the appropriate scale and suitable location within a community. It’s about implementing policies that strive for economic and social sustainability- not for ten years, but for the next generation and beyond. It’s about ensuring that new facilities support the anticipated influx of residents and businesses and provide connections to community resources. It identifies sites for social gathering and small businesses, and augments the existing transportation system with a multi-modal network to provide accessibility and mobility for all.  It is the very notion of the Town Center as a place where people and businesses thrive that we believe is essential for the quality of life in the City of Norcross.

By employing a Placemaking Approach, the following areas of emphasis will be addressed by the Pond Team during this process:

• Sense of Identity: strengthening the character of the Town Center-as well as the ‘brand’ - to thoughtfully reflect the goals of a location that offers more services and more options for living. Facilitating the community in determining the unique resources, and then creating a vision that promotes these as essential to quality of life and for business retainment/ recruitment, so as to be incorporated into future policy.

• Quality Centers of Activity: redevelopment must be appropriately located and scaled, offer daily services and be of the highest quality to be supported by the City’s residents and desirable to the development community. It must consider employment opportunities that will attract diverse skill sets and generations. Further, the guidelines for future growth must not be complicated, yet clearly articulate the vision of the plan.

• Places to be Social: social activity is the life line of a community. From casual conversations along a sidewalk to spring festivals, creating different types of open and civic spaces is essential for the continued livability of the community, and provides key recreation and environmental amenities.

• Living, Complete Streets: providing mobility for all users within the public realm will make the Town Center safer and more inviting for non-motorists, will improve accessibility, increase efficiency and allow greenspace to become a part of the street itself.

• Housing throughout Life: housing diversity means providing different generations and lifestyles options for those within the community. Maintaining a balance between places that will retain the current residents (who have invested in the community for years), while attracting new residents who will complement its diversity and sustainability.

• Connecting Resources: providing trails for recreation and mobility, advocating innovative stormwater solutions, and protecting our natural resources. These are just a few ways that the natural system can be more thoughtfully integrated into this planning effort.

• Lifelong Communities: the elements that make high quality, pedestrian-oriented centers are the same that create communities for residents throughout the life-cycle; data shows that the housing and amenities sought by the “millennials” are the same as those sought by the “baby-boomer” generation. These groups will comprise the greatest shift in demand within the housing and commercial markets over the next twenty years; creating places that attract options for all generations and particularly the “creative class” will sustain economic viability over time.