originally published March 26, 2008

There’s a golden opportunity out there to take advantage of: we’ve got a new ACC Comprehensive Land-Use Plan, full of new ideas to improve the community, and three pieces of infrastructure are up for maintenance. A little extra investment might take simple repair work and make any of these a great project to kick off the community’s newfound direction.

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About that Comp Plan: One goal from the new comp plan is to “allow for boulevarding.” Boulevarding refers to building streets with a central row of trees down the middle. Rather than having the usual three-lane versus four-lane discussion, “boulevards” ought to be a third possible option. Another focus of the new comp plan’s Growth Concept Map is a network of corridors and gateways, linking our neighborhood centers together. The plan’s Future Development Map creates some new categories too, such as Corridor Residential and Corridor Commercial. These corridors tend to be arterial streets, most of which are rather formidable to pedestrians at the moment. Also, a long-term goal of the comp plan is to explore the process of acquiring state routes within Loop 10, with the goal of creating safer, more attractive streets. Once those state routes are acquired, they ought to be upgraded to boulevards.

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Fresh Slates: The three streets coming up for roadwork would all make good candidates for boulevarding. Hawthorne Avenue between Broad and Oglethorpe is up for repaving, and both North Avenue and Cedar Shoals Drive are slated for resurfacing this summer, which means they’ve triggered the discussion about possibly three-laning them. At first glance, Hawthorne might not seem like a gateway corridor, but remember that when the Navy School is made into a new medical school, the ride into town from Atlanta will be from 316, with a left onto Hawthorne through this area, and then onto Oglethorpe. Its current three-lane design has left many frustrated, so a boulevard design which increases capacity, but also enhances aesthetics and safety, could make sense.

North Avenue is another corridor where a boulevard might be a good compromise; the area has seen a lot of growth, and has also been discussed as a possible receiving zone for TDRs. It also crosses the Greenway in a way that is unattractive and not particularly safe if you’ve ever tried to cross it. North Avenue is already five lanes for most of its length, so replacing that center turn lane would be a simple way to transform the street with no further right-of-way acquisition.

Cedar Shoals has been talked about, specifically by ACC Commissioner Andy Herod, as a corridor that could use some streetscaping; since the will is already there, this one could be a good one to test out, especially on the commercial end near Gaines School Road, which is fast becoming a mixed-use corridor.

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A Simple Comparison: What good would all these new boulevards do? One city worth looking to is Savannah. Although laid out on a grid, rather than our more rambling street system, Savannah has an interesting system of streets: arterial streets tend to be divided, with on-street parking and shady live oaks rather than grass or concrete for the median. What if Prince Avenue’s center turn lane was replaced with a row of dogwoods, allowing those signature trees to define that entry into Athens? These major collectors in Savannah are spaced fairly evenly throughout the city; one street worth noting is MLK Boulevard, which is currently undergoing its own streetscape improvements to extend that boulevard character.

There’s no reason Athens can’t have its own network of beautiful boulevards. In most cases, the right-of-way is already there. Ripping up a center turn lane to plant trees, or turning a concrete or grass median into a tree-lined one, are simple solutions that begin to establish the corridors we said we wanted in the comp plan. The Atlanta Highway or Oconee Street (near the bypass) could easily be transformed with a line of trees down the middle.

If we took this idea to our main street, the potential for transforming Athens in a big way seems too good to pass up. Commonwealth Avenue in Boston is an example of what West Broad Street could become. Between Hancock Avenue and Epps Bridge Road, West Broad could accommodate such a feature, transforming it from a seven-lane highway into a world-class avenue. Currently, the road is approximately 120 feet wide from sidewalk to sidewalk, based on aerial photos, with an approximately 160-foot right-of-way. Without expanding the right-of-way, the city could build a 70-foot wide park down the middle, with three lanes of traffic on both sides, and wider sidewalks. The result is new green space, no loss of travel lanes, and a fantastic gateway into the city. (This stretch is currently GDOT-maintained, so the county would have to take it over.) Whenever it’s time to take the plunge and take over this stretch of road, we ought to seriously consider whether we meant what we said about gateways and corridors, green space, and encouraging alternative transportation.

Numerous studies tout the benefits of street trees, including slower traffic, longer lifespans for pavement, cooler temperatures, and increased revenue and property values. Dan Burden’s “22 Benefits of Urban Street Trees” is a good place to look for more information.

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Real Trees Matter: College Station Road, Epps Bridge Road and Lexington Highway near Southeast Clarke Park are steps in the right direction, but it’s important to plant real street trees, not crape myrtles. Crape myrtles don’t count; they don’t provide shade or any of the effects that, for example, an oak might. Additionally, at the moment these corridors are as far-flung as the bike lanes they include; some connectivity of the boulevard corridor system would make the effect that much greater.

With three opportunities on the table, it’s time to consider something different for our streets, and a new way of streetscaping might be in order. The cost is higher, but so is the payout. Maybe we only try one of these three for now, just to see what such a project might do for Athens, but with them all on the table, this community ought to do something new.

Kevan Williams