Avondale Hires First City Planner

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Avondale Estates has hired its first city planner and economic development director, to help realize its dream of remaking its downtown.

Keri Stevens began the new job on July 13. Her first job will be to bring Avondale’s comprehensive plan up-to-date, while also reviewing plans for its lake district and Tudor Village downtown.

The small city has been working for nearly two years on how to best lure small shops and high-end housing and offerings that have taken off in neighboring Decatur.

Stevens has experience with both small and historic cities on that front. She most recently was a senior urban planner with Pond and Company, handling project management and work on a mixed-use overlay district for the city of Griffin.

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Retail Project Back on in Avondale

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A project that will remake the bulk of downtown Avondale Estates -- and give it its sole grocery store -- is back on.

A proposal to bring condos, shops and a Publix grocery store to a four-block area of the small DeKalb County town has been stalled since 2009, when the developer was unable to get funding for the work.

Century Retail recently told city leaders it has obtained the required re-financing and will present a timeline of the work later this summer.

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Avondale to host Movies @ The Park this Weekend

Avondale Estates will host an outdoor movie this Saturday night in Willis Park.

The movie this Saturday is “Night at the Museum” this will be the first one in a summer series of movies and concerts co-hosted by the Avondale Estates Business Association and the Avondale Community Club.
The first 100 families will receive a reusable bag full of promotional material from Avondale Estates Businesses. Everyone is welcome. Willis Park is located on Dartmouth Avenue, right next to the Avondale Swim and Tennis Club. Please check the website for more details.

Movie begins at 8 p.m. Saturday at the park, location is Dartmouth Avenue. It's free.
more info @ http://avondaleestatesbiz.com/

Waffle House Museum Open Saturday to Public

Decatur, GA
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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If you've always wanted to how the Waffle House got its start, order up.
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The original DeKalb County location was refurbished in 2007. Inside, the restaurant and museum house more than 54 years worth of all things scattered, smothered and covered.

On Saturday, it's open to the public for three hours. Here's your chance to see the history behind the 24-hour spot for hashbrowns, cheese ‘n eggs, bacon and waffles.

Hungry yet?

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Avondale Estates annexation foes fear: ‘They want to run us out’

Mayor defends city’s quest to claim, clean gritty area
By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Vi Nguyen’s small voice is growing loud with anger and fear.
The Vietnamese immigrant has spent 13 years building up Decatur Auto Tech in the gritty little commercial district between Avondale Estates and Decatur.

There was a time when much of DeKalb County had pockets like East College Avenue: clusters of used-car lots, auto shops, gas stations — worn at the edges but not run-down. Unlike the rest of the county, though, the 1-square-mile strip is sandwiched between two cities, one that spent the past decade gentrifying and one that wants to spend the next decade doing the same.

Decatur, of course, transformed itself into a quaint walkable town of fancy boutiques and trendy brewpubs. Avondale, often overlooked as Decatur’s smaller, less-improved neighbor, wants to refine its Tudor Village downtown and spiff up the strip that leads into town.
To do that, it would annex most of the East College tract and create a continuous line of prosperity from one city to the other. And that’s what frightens Nguyen.
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ART "B" QUE AVONDALE ESTATES JUN 13 09