Folks sure are fired up about the new downtown parking deck all of a sudden. I’d like to go ahead and defend it, though, while everyone else is grandstanding about austerity, fiscal responsibility and the deck’s inevitable ability to destroy everything in downtown Athens.

What We Have: What we have in Athens is a pattern of satisfactory buildings which get the job done, but don’t have a lot of flash or creativity to them. This proposed mixed-use-parking-deck-building is not that bad. It won’t be the biggest or ugliest building downtown; those honors still belong to 909 Broad. There are aesthetic issues with the proposed deck, but it will be palatable. Ultimately, it can be expected just to blend into a homogenous background filled with other, similar brick-and-tan buildings.

It won’t be the tallest building, either; it’s about the same size as most new construction in town. To put this in perspective, in the Midtown and Buckhead districts of Atlanta, there are 30-story buildings backed up to single-family neighborhoods. The deck-to-be and the restored Georgia Theatre, as proposed, are two mid-sized buildings which don’t have too much conflict in terms of scale. The view from the Theatre’s proposed rooftop garden may be a little limited by the building wrapping around it, but it will be an urban space, and it will still work just fine.

Athens is quickly taking on a Parisian feel, with buildings limited to six to nine stories in height. That is larger than the smaller warehouses and storefronts of Athens’ youth, but appropriate for a small city that’s developing and growing into something more mature. It would be nice to see something bold, perhaps on the scale of Savannah’s Ellis Square redevelopment, which buries a parking deck under two blocks, re-creating an historic square with new mixed-use buildings adjacent. There’s also a pedestrian mall that thrives and bustles nearby (but don’t tell anyone around here). It’s probably too late for something like Ellis Square here, but a façade that’s more like the LEED deck built in Santa Monica, CA could be cool, and still doable at this stage in the game. Just replace brick with more interesting materials.

What’s important to remember is that regardless of the angle of the drawings posted on Clayton and Lumpkin streets, we see the city from about five feet up, and our eyes will be on what’s happening primarily on the first floor. We ought to build the deck because it will do a lot to bridge the two ends of downtown by filling in a big hole in the street-level retail. That improved vitality and walking climate will add a lot to the vitality of Athens. One of the reasons for downtown’s parking issues is the perceived distance from parking to retail destinations. Downtown is surrounded by fields of parking, and that’s what makes the walk feel so oppressive. Filling in the majority of this block will remedy some of that. This little bit of energy injected into downtown could be enough to sustain its growth until the economy picks back up.

Downtown’s Future: The big question is what happens next for downtown, and what the next round of SPLOST might do for our central business district. The number of county-owned decks will rise to four after this new one (with the College Avenue, courthouse and Classic Center decks). These are spaced fairly evenly across downtown, and should cover our needs pretty well for a while.

In the meantime, the city should sell off its other surface lots along Dougherty Street on the north side of downtown and let them turn over for redevelopment; there are acres of city-owned land just sitting there, and the spaces those lots provide can be absorbed by the decks. The requirements for residential parking downtown also need to go away. Anyone who needs a parking space for their apartment downtown can rent it in a deck. That might encourage more walkable urban residential development downtown. True urban parks and plazas might be a good use for that space as well, and an opportunity for something bold. Regardless of commissioners’ desire to create a great legacy for downtown, we may only get something satisfactory this time around. Maybe the next round of SPLOST is the place for something more.

Meanwhile: Don’t forget the addition to the Classic Center that’s being proposed for the next round of SPLOST. If it’s picked as a project, it would be the biggest expense on the list after the jail. It would also likely bring with it a new privately developed hotel that’s waiting in the wings. When that new SPLOST list is created, the criteria which have defined the deck should define these new exhibition halls for the Classic Center as well as any other public projects downtown. Street-level retail is a must, if we want to keep Foundry Street from becoming a dead zone which acts only as a service drive for the Classic Center. The current pieces of the Classic Center aren’t that bad, but they certainly don’t do much in terms of their built form to enliven downtown, regardless of the patrons they bring in.

Athens needs to keep moving forward, and the short-term view that folks are taking on this deck—and the tennis center—may unduly color the discussion over potential new SPLOST projects for downtown. Also worth remembering is that this deck is the manifestation of a countywide planning process which calls for a dense core surrounded by rural land. Building up is part of the deal. Let’s keep evaluating what we’re doing downtown, because we’re asking all the right questions, but let’s also recognize when the answer doesn’t warrant such a huge fuss.

Kevan Williams

athensrising@flagpole.com