Design Charrette: Chattahoochee Hill Country, GA
Final Model Sustainable Village Plan formulated through the Chattahoochee Hill County charrette process
Just southwest of Atlanta, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan regions in the United States, lay gently rolling hills, pastoral vistas, and historic properties. Called the Chattahoochee Hill Country, this largest tract of undeveloped land in a highly-prized real estate environment faced immediate development from a road connection that threatened the area’s long-term preservation. Large landowners and prospective developers formed the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance (the “Alliance”) in 2000, and produced a Comprehensive Land Use Plan to preserve greenspace while creating areas of concentrated, mixed-use, and pedestrian-scale development.
After completing the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the Alliance's next order of business was the development of a master plan for a Model Sustainable Village. This involved the creation of three cross-functional teams of stakeholders who were challenged to design their own versions of a sustainable village in just a few days. Think “Best of Show” won? No, because that’s not the way this design collaboration, called a “charrette,” works. This case summary briefly describes how this charrette resulted in a publicly-supported Model Sustainable Village Plan that could be fast-tracked to implementation with a high degree of community satisfaction.
Any party with an interest in an initiative.A term typically applied to real estate development projects that combine residential and commercial or retail components.
