UGA Professor Pitches Proposal to Plan Downtown Athens, Ga.

Jack Crowley wants to develop and design a master plan for downtown Athens. He really, really wants to do it.

Why?

Because then the 20-year resident of Athens might “be granted citizenship,” and because designing a plan for his adopted hometown would be “an honor,” he said.

Crowley is the former dean of, now a professor in, the UGA College of Environment and Design. As he told a packed room yesterday at a special meeting of the board of the , he’s also a landscape architect, a professional planner, a licensed real estate broker in two states and an Oklahoma transportation commissioner.  

So he understands planning, design, transportation and real estate.

He spent about 40 minutes laying out why the ADDA should engage him to do a downtown plan. People have been talking about such a plan for years, but nothing has been done.

The cost is right: he wouldn’t charge the ADDA a dime. The local government didn’t allocate any funds for such a plan in the 2012-2013 budget, focusing instead on other services, projects and programs. Free fits the county budget.

But Crowley would need about $30,000 to pay four graduate assistants and to cover the costs of enlisting the help of the , paying for supplies and paying for related technology.

Crowley brought with him a notebook thick enough to stun an ox. It contains the plan he designed for Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In creating a plan for Athens, he would follow some of the same steps he did in Tulsa, such as meeting regularly with property owners and other stakeholders to figure out what they want downtown to become. He said that over 18 months, he talked to 3,000 people.

What he won't do? A market feasility study. Nor will he set the limits of downtown, determining whether the boundary stops at Pulaski or goes to Pope, goes all the way to the river or ends at Thomas Street, includes North Campus or ends at Broad. That's for people in downtown to decide.

The ADDA board is going to review the Tulsa plan, which is also on line, come up with a list of concerns and questions, and then meet on July 17 to vote on whether to accept Crowley's proposal.

Athens Patch will let you know what the board members decide.