Client:
City of Alpharetta

Project Status:
Official GDOT plans are being modified to reflect the vision

Project Overview:
• A community-based visioning process
• A context-sensitive solution for design resulted from several roadway design options

• 2013 Georgia Planning Association – Outstanding Planning Process for Alpharetta’s Envision Main Street

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ENVISION MAIN STREET

Main Street (State Route 9) plays an important role in the daily life of Alpharetta. Even as the surrounding community has grown significantly, portions of the corridor recall when the area was still rural. In an effort to accommodate perceived needs, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) proposed a widening plan that was met with swift outcry from the community. City leaders, however, quickly recognized that it was not enough to just protest a plan unless the community had a vision for what they wanted Main Street to be.

In response to the GDOT project, TSW was retained by the City to lead the visioning for the redesign of Main Street, including: developing a project website as the main project communication tool; conducting stakeholder interviews from a cross-section of the community; developing a visual preference survey to better understand what improvements were appropriate for the corridor; and facilitating several visioning sessions designed for stakeholders to share their ideas and concerns, and to gather feedback.

From the visioning process, TSW worked with stakeholders to explore several roadway design options, and finally settled on a context-sensitive solution that provided bicycle facilities, sidewalks, landscaping, and roadway capacity in response to different locations in the City. The plan was submitted to GDOT and met with favorably. Official GDOT plans are now being modified to reflect Alpharetta’s vision.