Developers plan to transform Executive Park, metro Atlanta's first suburban office park, into a live-work-play community that includes a 12-story office tower, a hotel and several multi-family units with ground level retail clustered around a small park.
The project, known as The Park at Druid Hills, is planned at the highly congested intersection of North Druid Hills and Briarcliff roads in north-central DeKalb County. It's also near a proposed mixed-use development from the Sembler Co. that has drawn heated opposition from neighbors who worry the project would be too dense and generate too much traffic.
But the Executive Park make-over was greeted warmly by most of the residents who gathered Tuesday night to hear the developer's plans. While the traffic impact remains a concern, residents complimented the plan for striving to create an inviting, walkable environment that features new parks, multi-use trails, and significantly less retail space than originally proposed.
"I was very impressed with the attention to keeping the higher density away from the neighborhoods," said Jim Smith, who leads StandUp DeKalb, a community group that formed to oppose the Sembler project. "So far, from what I've seen, I'm impressed."
Some residents remain skeptical. Jonas Werzberger said he worries the project will create a setting similar to that in the Perimeter Center, the bustling and traffic-choked business district that straddles Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.
Werzberger said he has friends who live in that area "who can't get out of their development. I want to be able to get out of my subdivision."
By PAUL DONSKY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/30/08
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