PRESBYTERIAN PARK IMPROVEMENTS: FROM HIDDEN GEM TO SCENIC RETREAT

The Carrollton Presbyterian Church generously partners with the city to allow public use of their roughly two-acre wooded property downtown. Presbyterian Park features an impressive canopy of old-growth trees, an unpaved walking path, and a playground. This beautiful but easily overlooked park could benefit from enhanced maintenance. The conceptual park plan above shows the existing features and amenities formalized, with elements like a continuous paved pathway, restored natural stream, preserved tree canopy, and improved parking area. New sidewalks proposed along Cliff Street and at the parking lot to the south help tie the park to the remainder of downtown. Positioned at the base of the hill where downtown developed over time, this site includes a central low-lying area that collects water. This design transforms that space into a landscaped stormwater retention basin. While much more informal, this concept takes inspiration from Old Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta, where a similar basin serves as the focal point of the park. A circular deck and boardwalk promenade offer a serene location for relaxation and enjoying nature.

Presbyterian Park is an attractive amenity with a small creek and lush canopy of trees. The park features a number of signs and park elements that could be updated to meet the standards of other city parks. This image shows a tree fallen in the park in a low-lying area that can collect rainwater.

Proposed

This concept transforms an underutilized resource into a vibrant downtown park. In the low-lying turf area, a combination pond and stormwater retention basin create a new focal point for the park. A circular deck seems to float over the pond, and a semicircular boardwalk offers a great wildlife viewing opportunity. The sloping hillside and deck could be used for a variety of programming, including outdoor worship services at the church. The foreground of this image shows the degraded stream bank restored and lined with native plantings. Signage shown matches the examples used in other parks.

PRESBYTERIAN

PARK AND CITY HALL PARKING:

Enhancing Accessibility And Visual Appeal

Existing

This large rear parking area services Presbyterian Park, Carrollton City Hall, the police department, and other adjacent public buildings. Much of the paving in the area is tired and the layout is confusing and inefficient. No trees, planted bump-outs, or sidewalks break up the wide expanse of paving. Excluding the gated area at the public safety building, the existing lot includes approximately 156 parking spaces.

Proposed

This concept brings attractive street trees, accessible sidewalks, and other amenities to this public parking area. The lot layout has been made more efficient where possible, with excessive paving dedicated to new sidewalks and other features. The parking layout shown in the masterplan on page 10 includes 143 parking spaces in this area with reductions made for required ADA striping, simplified internal travel lanes, and amenities such as landscape beds and sidewalks. If designed with stormwater management in mind, all of these green infrastructure improvements should be developed to capture and slow surface lot runoff.

While many wish to live in the city, housing supply is limited and expensive. Voices from across the community noted that housing prices in the city are prohibitive and demand for decent midrange housing far outstrips supply. A 2021 housing study commissioned by the city identified the demand for 159 additional housing units in Carrollton annually over the next decade, including a mix of approximately 76 single-family detached units, 34 townhome units, and 49 multifamily units.

Developing more housing downtown, particularly through mixed-use development, could support downtown growth and improve walkability. More than any other use, attracting housing to a downtown creates the 24-hour population necessary to support the diverse array of retail, dining, and entertainment options community members desire. A permanent population living downtown guarantees a constant customer base for downtown businesses and brings new stability to existing downtown restaurants and retail. Developing more housing downtown could help provide the ample foot traffic necessary to both support downtown’s existing businesses and create demand for options that residents want, like a small grocery store.

Unlike many towns of a similar size, Carrollton already features a number of upper-story apartments and downtown lofts. Growing the diversity of downtown housing options could help create an even more vibrant downtown hub. In conversations with community members during step one of the RSVP process, residents, industry leaders, and local developers cited the demand for housing at various income levels and saw a particular need for housing catering to young professional workers. These workers are critical to keeping Carrollton’s varied industries thriving, but all too many are being priced out of the market.

Just west of downtown, the University of West Georgia graduates approximately 3,000 students annually. Keeping even a small fraction of this educated workforce in town after graduation could yield tremendous economic benefits for the community. Above and beyond recent graduates, the university employs over 2,000 professors, faculty, and staff. In conversations with UWG faculty during step one of the Carrollton RSVP process, employees noted that most of this educated workforce must commute from surrounding communities due to the lack of attainable housing in Carrollton. Demand for housing is so great that a waitlist exists for faculty dorms.

Carrollton has a number of tools available to grow the quantity of housing available downtown. Options like townhomes, upper-story apartments, historic renovations, and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) could bring a more diverse housing supply to in-town neighborhoods. To address the demand for housing, Downtown Development Authorities in cities like Madison have successfully developed compact workforce housing that blends seamlessly with surrounding historic residences. While most of the easily developed land around downtown has been built on, a number of vacant lots remain in residential areas surrounding downtown. Local leaders should work with developers to help bring housing options to these properties. In conversations during step one of the RSVP process, local developers expressed a desire for clear building standards and incentives like reducing or eliminating tap fees to help encourage infill housing development in the area.

Many local developers and citizens may be unaware that the city approved a tax allocation district (TAD) earlier this year. TADs offer Georgia cities the gold standard of economic development incentives. A TAD redirects property tax revenues to invest these funds directly in the improvement of a specified area. Carrollton’s TAD comprises the entire downtown area, Maple Street, and surrounding corridors.

Local leaders rightly view the TAD as a visionary tool to enhance downtown and the surrounding area. According to the plan approved by the city, Carrollton’s TAD will encourage redevelopment of “outmoded, suburban mall and highwayoriented commercial land uses” to bring new life and vitality to the area surrounding downtown. Carrollton’s local leaders and citizens deserve accolades for approving this transformational tool. This incentive, more than any other, will pay dividends for downtown and bring the vibrant, walkable downtown development residents wish for.

With tools like Carrollton’s TAD, developers have the potential to build the vibrant downtown infill and housing options the community desires. To realize this vision, the local government must ensure that the city’s regulations allow for the type of downtown development residents seek. Carrollton’s code and vision must be aligned to make its residents’ desired future a reality. Local leaders should carefully review requirements like parking minimums within the downtown area. Other communities have successfully attracted desirable downtown mixed-use development through the use of in-lieu fees. Rather than requiring parking spaces at new development, these modest fees allow developers to count nearby public parking spaces and on-street parking downtown, maximizing the available land for tax-paying businesses and housing while helping create more walkable new development.

Larger publicly owned properties, including the approximately 2.5 acres at the prominent corner of US-27 and Alabama Street, offer prime locations for mixed-use infill development. The fine-grained mix of uses seen at Adamson Square helps explain why this space is an active and inviting destination. In a mixed-use downtown area, a nearly limitless variety of retail, office, and service uses may harmoniously occupy the same stretch of pavement. Above these ground floor destinations, lofts and upper-story residences give 24-hour life and a consistent supply of foot traffic for downtown businesses. These uses feed off of one another and work to create a more vibrant and economically resilient area. Mixed-use infill housing that takes advantage of vacant lots and underused in-town properties has tremendous potential for filling voids at the edges of downtown Carrollton and boosting the overall vitality of the area. Leasable ground floor spaces on mixed-use buildings would also offer new locations to expand the variety of downtown business and entertainment options. Attracting new mixed-use development and increasing the downtown housing supply would encourage more residents to live within convenient walking distance of shops, restaurants, and amenities in the heart of the city. This proximity would reduce vehicle trips, expand foot traffic, and create a more vibrant downtown area.

The renderings and plans that follow are intended to assist local developers and community members in visualizing potential mixed-use development scenarios on specific downtown parcels. Any development that occurs at the highlighted sites will likely vary significantly based on various factors, including zoning regulations, market demand, and budget constraints. These concepts merely seek to show how vibrant, mixed-use development could take shape on properties around downtown.