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things like a new food hall kind of facing King Street, mixeduse buildings on both sides of the street, the historic chapel with green space edition, uh, and then having the investment of the Jono Mile on King Street itself. And King Street today, uh, is a really great connector, but it's not living up to this opportunity. Uh, despite being one of the the the only north south corridors that are walkable through downtown, the walking experience on King Street is a little bit lacking today. you've got a good sidewalk, you've got some tree canopy, um but you don't have consistent sidewalks on both sides of the street. Um luckily in the image here, we're showing the First Baptist Church on the left and then the parking lot on the right. You control both sides of the street. So, this gives you a lot of leeway into how you influence development here and then what types of investment you can do. So, if we were to rethink King Street when the investment of the Jono Mile, you know, mixeduse um um retail on both sides of the street, what that can look like is a completely different corridor that really highlights more of what Smyrna can be. So, you know, a a really generous uh 12 to 15 foot path with landscaped edges on both sides of the street, really great tree canopies, of course, jonquilles because of course, and then great signage, wayfinding, lighting, um you know, opportunities for businesses to front um kind of ground level retail, that great tenanting mix that we talked about, and then having balconies um and you know, residential on both sides of the street, creating eyes on the street and making a little bit more of an active corridor. So mixed use is great. You know, as a planner, of course, we appreciate that, but we also have to acknowledge that downtown is in the middle of a residential area and it's surrounded by residential.

We heard a lot from the community that they wanted to make sure that any future redevelopment doesn't feel like an intrusion of multifamily or an intrusion of density in the surroundings. they wanted a blend that really gradually built up to the density. Uh so one of the things that we do in our concept is to show kind of that gradual um density um as we move into um sing the single family neighborhood surrounding downtown. So if you look at the the graphic you see some town homes or some flats facing Steven Street or Reed Street. uh a little bit of a a green space in between any multifamily and the the town home uh frontages and it's really to create that gradual uh blend into the existing residential uh character of the areas around downtown and really bring some of that neighborhood feel to that edge and bring it that highquality architecture. And I do want to be kind of very uh clear about the fact that people expect highquality architecture from this development. Um, this is a pivotal redevelopment for you all and as such it needs to look and feel like a highquality redevelopment. People told us that they'd like to see a balance of for sale and for rent housing like I mentioned something that does include apartments, but crucially the opportunity for town homes, condominiums, things that they the community wants you all to work with the development uh uh you know developers later on in the process to figure out a good mix. But all in all, people told us that they are more comfortable with density, more comfortable with change if that the quality of architecture matches that of what is currently in downtown and kind of hits the moment for what downtown can be.

So, I'm going to pause for a little bit and talk about what folks told us about this concept and then we'll talk a little bit more about connectivity and mobility. But in our third community meeting, we talked with 150 Smyrna residents and they gave us uh feedback on what they liked about the concept, how we can continue to change or improve it. And then we asked them uh to rank it from 1 to 10 on how closely it matched their vision for the site. What people liked about the concept, there was actually uh quite a bit. So people told us they liked the walkability of it, that they really enjoyed the Jono mile and the connectivity, the green spaces in particular. There's a lot of support for the plazas and open spaces. The concept that had a mix of uses, especially since it had retail and dining as a key element, people really enjoyed that. Um, people really liked the idea of a food hall or an event center. Um, the fact that there were a lot of different uses and there was not a singleuse development. Uh, and a ton of support for the chapel being the highlight of the redevelopment and the chapel edition. However, uh you know, with any type of redevelopment, you are going to have um some apprehension for change and there's going to be some challenges that you all will work with a development partner to overcome. People are somewhat uneasy with the density of residential, especially since this is a new addition to downtown. There's some concerns of how this addition can impact traffic. Um, you know, people are, you know, concerned that this will impact their ability to access downtown. People told us that they like to see more mixed use elements. Even if you have things like a hotel, they'd like to continue to have ground level retail.

And of course, people uh really like the green spaces and they would like to see more green spaces. Uh, and I have a little bit of uh to show on that here in a minute, too. And of course, parking and accessibility, the location of parking. These will continue to be concerns and things that you all have the power and the ability to negotiate with the development community to make sure these are welldesigned uh so they are complimentary to the downtown and don't overwhelm your transportation network. When we asked folks what they thought about the preferred concept on the ranking from 1 to 10, originally we asked this in our second public meeting when we had three concepts and those ranked about four, five out of 10. Um, we were really glad to see that the preferred concept rent uh significantly higher at seven out of 10, which is a really positive uh thing to see as part of a process like this. We also asked folks what they thought about King Street. People told us that they love the the walkability, the outdoor dining, the Jono Mile um on things that they'd like to see uh improved. They told us that they'd like to see more of what's already there. So, more bike parking, um you know, more space for outdoor popups or dining. And then there are still some concerns about how does this work during rush hour. And there are some design elements that you all can consider. But of course, King Street is not uh meant to be an arterial road. It's a kind of a low stress street to for walking and biking through your downtown. And connectivity is something that we'll continue to hear about.

And you know, this is a conceptual um design, but this is something that we want to make sure, you know, as you all work with a developer to ensure that you continue to see the site as an extended an extension of your downtown and something that remains well connected. And you do this by creating internal streets, by creating alleys, by well placacing your parking so it has multiple access points and by continuing what is a great strength of your downtown which is the fact that it has such a great interconnected street grid. Uh I mentioned green space a couple of of um slides ago and you know one of the things that you know people really liked about the concept was the green space and one of the key plays in connectivity is having a system of green spaces that connect folks from your market village down to the village green. The chapel green like I said is one acre but overall we're actually creating about two new acres of green space through the site redevelopment. Uh compared to the village green that's about three acres. you know, we're about twothirds there. Um, however, we're breaking it up into smaller pieces because these are smaller, more intimate greens. You already have the big event lawn that you can host your big events. You already have your landmark green space. The purpose of these green spaces is to create more intimate neighborhood moments, uh, places where you can work with a development community to have, you know, your development create great little courtyards, pocket parks, uh, neighborhood greens, things that feel special and unique. And all of this works together in what we think is an improvement to your downtown circulation both for um walking and for driving. So as you consider redevelopment, one of the the key strengths in your downtown is that it already has a connected street grid.

You have streets that go through you um you know what you want to maintain is um a street grid where you don't put all of your inbound and outbound trips to one single road. So you don't want to have a superb block type of development and you funnel all your traffic to Atlanta road. You want to make sure you have internal streets and internal alleys that connect folks from your from Concord and Atlanta down to, you know, through your redevelopment and uh well placed uh through um to your parking structures. Parking, you know, as we see it has to be accessible from two different locations. Has to be visible but screened so it doesn't feel like you're just driving through a parking district. I don't know about you all, but when I visit a great place, I don't really remember how easy it was to park. I remember how great the space was, but I do remember if it was really tough to park. There's a little bit of a balance. But the main element here in a mixeduse development is the fact that, you know, it's not encouraging you to drive, it's encouraging you to walk. And that's one of the the key drivers here in in our concept is the idea of the Jono mile. the fact that you're having a mix of uses. Uh, and all of this is to encourage folks if they're driving to drive and park once and then walk through your entire downtown. And you can do that if it's a good environment. You know, feasibly if you come in and visit the site, you could park in one of the parking garages here and it is a five-minute walk to the village green. Similarly, if you're parked northern on downtown, five minute walk. What doesn't encourage that walking is if you have a poor pedestrian experience where that's not an intuitive walk or if the walking experience is not great.

If you do have a great uh mixeduse development, you can see that you know about 30% of anticipated trips can be non-motorized because you've got residents, you've got office visitors, you've got visitors from on the hotel. You know, all of those folks won't necessarily need to drive in uh to access some of these businesses as well. Lastly, I do want to talk about a couple of your key streets that you want to make sure you invest on. Um, one of which is Church Street. Uh, as an east west connector, um, toward Atlanta Road, you know, Church Street will, you know, see a lot of infield development with the site. Um, and it will also see potentially some stress in your transportation, especially as you get closer to the intersection with Atlanta Road. You want to consider some of this traffic and you want to continue to have a great walkable church street to take some of those elements on King Street that I mentioned and make sure they're incorporated along um Church Street so it continues to feel like a walkable road and not like a southern edge. You don't want your downtown to end at Church Street. You want it to feel like it's a great connector. And lastly, um, from the very first meeting, people told us about not having an old downtown and a new downtown. The easiest way to feel like you have a dated an old portion portion of downtown is by not investing in some of your um more mature portions of your of the district. And that is really West Spring Street. You have a really great corridor with restaurants, businesses, and people who have been there uh quite a bit of time. you know, how do we make um the West Spring Street feel like it's better connected to the new investments on the south?

And it's really uh there's an opportunity here to refresh the streetscape, bring a little bit more life. Um you know, our understanding is that some of the streetscape is actually toward the end of its lifespan. Uh so you'll have to uh invest in the streetscape soon regardless. And there is a real opportunity here to make it a more usable space both for events and for daily use. As we were chatting with folks as part of this process, they told us that it feels unsafe, especially with kids playing in the median. There's not enough space on the sidewalks. Um, you know, with cars moving through. There's a real opportunity to make it feel um like a better street and still have more safety. Um, our vision for West Spring Street narrows that median from 22 feet to 4 feet. you can still have a great landscape uh middle uh with some lighting and you know signage, some great landscaping and then you take that excess um you know distance and you apply it to both sides of the street and you expand the sidewalks on both sides and perhaps bring some of the character of the Jono mile through the heart of West Spring Street and make it feel connected uh to the investments happening elsewhere on the site. When we shared this with folks they really enjoyed uh this vision for West Spring Street. People told us that they like the idea of having more outdoor dining. Um, you know, revamping Market Village, having wider sidewalks. Um, we did hear comments about pedestrianizing West Spring Street. Ultimately, um, you know, in our own expertise, uh, we think that actually will be detrimental to some of the operations on West Spring Street. You do have businesses that depend on road access on West Spring Street uh, for their servicing. There's no alleys there.

Um so you know this solution really allows you to keep things like on street parking um outdoor dining and still have the street function for the businesses that are there. Folks told us that it very much matched the vision for the site about for the for the corridor about eight out of 10. So we heard quite a bit uh from the community through this process toward the end of the third phase. You know, some of the things that I want to leave you all with as we as you all move toward um you know, working with a development partner is one, retail and restaurants. That is crucial. We heard this over and over again. Folks really want to see that type of uses in in the redevelopment. Number two, housing and having a balance of housing. People really want you all to work with the development community to have uh for sale products and for rent products as a balance. Three, traffic and parking. That will continue to be a concern. Um, you know, that's something that you all can ensure is well designed uh so it doesn't overwhelm your transportation. And fourth, you know, people really want to see investments like the Jono Mayo and the green spaces as part of this. This is what brings life and character to the development so it doesn't feel like it's generic or could be anywhere in the metro area. This is something that will really make it feel like it's only here in Smyrna. So with all the inspiration, um I do have to leave you with a little bit of an action plan to bring the inspiration and make it a reality. So the last few uh pages in the plan are what we're calling the action plan. This is your implementation section. It is a little drier than the rest of the plan.

There's more words. Um but this is really important for us um and for you all to take this vision into make it a reality. So, one of the first things that we are recommending is for you all to work um with a development community to select a development partner. This can look uh in many ways. The way that we are recommending it is through an RFQ, an RFP process, a request for qualifications followed by a request for proposals. Uh this is a process where you issue an an RFQ to find uh qualified developers that have shown the experience and you know kind of that proven track record of doing this type of development. and then from a narrower list you issue a single RFP to those um short-listed um development partners to give you their vision for the site. We have been very forthright through this process that with the community that the development that one day will happen on the site will not look exactly like what's on these concepts. In fact, we expected you know the developer will come in with their own quals. They'll come in with their own vision. you know, your job as council, as city staff, is to align these two into a vision that fulfills those community priorities that we heard through this process. And these are incredibly important as you think through an RFQ and RFP. You want to make sure that these are incorporated into the scoring or how you pick and evaluate development partners. Uh and that's you know prioritizing local businesses providing a mix of businesses having high quality architect architecture and public facing facades having a mix of residential product types and different residential scales having a development that includes for sale and for rent products and then ensuring that a meaningful amount of green space feels open and welcoming.

It's really important that you don't end up with things like interior courtyards that are only accessible for residents. You want to make sure that the design feels like you have all of these great little spaces that are to the public benefit of Smyrna residents and visitors to downtown. And the action plan to accomplish all of these things uh has four parts. Uh I'll go through one each one at a time. The first one is to establish design and community expectations. These are the kind of the nerdy planning things that you all can do right away to help, you know, set the the tone for the redevelopment. things like updating your of urban design standards, adopting design guidelines for the site, aligning the site's zoning which is um you know representative of the development that used to be and not representative of the development that you want there to make sure that that is up todate and through it the process maintaining a transparent and open communication with the community because they you know you've built this plan and this vision on this foundation of engagement. You want to continue that and one of the ways to do that is through your advisory committee which we've met with four times and have been briefed throughout this process. Work with your pro your project champions. You know all of these folks will be really crucial to m ensuring that there's not just momentum but support for this plan moving forward. The second element is to advance your public realm and infrastructure readiness. So you know we we've shown you a conceptual alignment for the Jono mile. can, you know, work with design firms to confirm that alignment. Kind of refine your visions for King Street, West Spring Street, and the Chapel Green. Uh, identify some, you know, public realm improvements you can get to work right away.

Kind of look at mobility and safety upgrades on your key corridors. I'm thinking, you know, intersections with Atlanta Road and then assess your utility and infrastructure to make sure that any future redevelopment, you know, will will you are well informed on the needs of any future redevelopment for the site. The last two implementation action items are really development focused. So first prepare that solicitation like I mentioned through the RFQ and RFP process. Before you do that and this is something that city staff is already doing. It's share that redevelopment vision. You are not in a procurement process. You can openly talk to the development community and get feedback right away. In fact, they are calling uh as I am aware and they're even calling me in some instances to learn information. So you know use this to your benefit. You can also retain a real estate advisory firm to act as your representative and guide you through the solicitation process. And then you issue your RFQ, your RFP. And then you work um you know with your partners to select that development partner. And after you selected a development partner, you want to collaborate with that developer to turn that vision into long-term redevelopment. So first establish a clear partnership through anou coordinate, you know, the p the delivery of public realm elements that we've discussed. you know what should come first to uh faith for a phased in development. Um work with a developer to ensure the mix of housing types that you all want and expect and will be feasible for that developer. And then you know as you work through a development process you know think through what incentives what things you can do to support local businesses and community serving businesses to be part of the redevelopment mix. And lastly, longer term, define some of the responsibilities for maintenance, programming, and activation of your open spaces.