Reposted from the Athens Banner-Herald.

Photoshopped renderings of Oconee Street have been an entertaining diversion, but speak to the misinformation surrounding one of the most important civic discussions Athens has ever faced. The development of the Armstrong & Dobbs parcel will, for better or worse, have a tremendous impact on downtown Athens. With so much at stake, Athenians deserve an informed discussion.

According to the website set up by Selig Enterprises (www.seligathens.com) to provide information about its plans for a mixed-use development anchored by a Walmart in the eastern edge of downtown Athens, the company “look(s) forward to working with the greater Athens community to develop a project that is good for downtown, good for Athens, and good for the region.”
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Reposted from the Athens Banner-Herald, by Blake Aued

Like many Athens residents, filmmakers Dan Jordan and Bryan Redding are transplants who think their adopted hometown is like no other place.

So when they heard in November about a proposal to build a Walmart on Oconee Street that they say will ruin downtown’s charm, they decided to make a mini-documentary urging residents to fight it.
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Reposted from the Flagpole, by Kevan Williams

Why Wait?: I’m extremely wary of Athens-Clarke County commissioners’ decisions to absolve themselves of any responsibility to be proactive with regard to the Selig project, opting instead simply to wait for the results of a traffic study by Selig’s engineers. While the projected impacts of the Selig proposal do need professional analysis, a hobbyist traffic engineer like myself should be able to anticipate the effects of the project at least to the appropriate order of magnitude. In the continued absence of Selig’s study, that’s what I’ve attempted to do. Fellow trip generation enthusiasts should visit www.sandiego.gov/planning/pdf/tripmanual.pdf and play along at home.
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