Blueprints Presents Plan for Lithonia's Revitalization

Residents packed into Lithonia First United Methodist Church on November 21 to see our Blueprints program’s final recommendations for the redevelopment of downtown Lithonia. Students from Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, led by Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, spent the past several months studying the city and brainstorming ways to promote short- and long-term growth.

Long-term recommendations centered on turning the city’s long-dormant granite quarry, located just north of downtown, into a regional attraction. The students’ presentation called for turning 60 percent of the quarry’s land into greenspace complete with bicycle/pedestrian trails. The other 40 percent would see both single-family and multifamily residential development at a walkable scale. This plan also recommends preserving some industrial equipment in order to capture the quarry’s historic use. Other long-term redevelopment recommendations included introducing a form-based zoning code to the city, taking advantage of a potential expansion of the MARTA system, and connecting downtown Lithonia with the nearby PATH trail.

The students also suggested that downtown Lithonia be transformed into a 24-7 destination. Plans called for bringing back the area’s original street grid, which would mean demolishing the City-owned part of Lithonia Plaza and rebuilding part of Stone Mountain Street, then lining it with Main Street-style retail and residential space. In addition, a new city hall and a community center would be built downtown, which would help turn the area into a destination.

Temporary installations in downtown Lithonia will increase activity and expose more residents to the redevelopment ideas. Until a permanent PATH connection is built, temporary bike lanes and signage can be created to direct cyclists from the PATH trail to downtown and to the amphitheater. Students also built a prototype of a temporary seating arrangement that could be placed in front of downtown businesses to encourage patrons to enjoy their coffee, newspaper or lunch along Main Street.

Lithonia residents are free to use or discard any of the proposed ideas, but the important thing is that they now have a plan to help them take control of the future of their city. The final step of the project is the Blueprints report, which will be drafted by the Georgia Conservancy’s Blueprints staff. The final report will be unveiled at a public meeting in early 2012.

“I am very pleased with the ideas the students presented and especially pleased with these immediate, creative action items they have drafted,” said Katherine Moore, Blueprints Program Manager with the Georgia Conservancy. “Of all the plans developed for the city in recent years, I feel this one stands the best chance of giving Lithonians a way to take control of the future of their city as well as some immediate, attainable actions that can be taken to help build on the momentum brought by this project.”

The Georgia Conservancy would like to give a special thanks to our partners in the Lithonia Blueprints project: Alcoa Foundation, American Institute of Architects (AIA) – Atlanta, Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance and the City of Lithonia.

Click the photos at the bottom of the page to see more photos from the event.

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Blueprints is not the only exciting thing taking place in Lithonia right now. Recently, the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Livable Communities Coalition recognized the Arabia Mountain Heritage Area, in which the City of Lithonia is located, with its 2011 Great Place Award. The Georgia Conservancy and its past board members, including current Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance Chairman Kelly Jordan, have a long history of preserving Arabia Mountain, and we are happy to see the Heritage Area rightly recognized as a regionally significant resource.

In addition, AIA - Atlanta and its partnering organizations have adopted Lithonia’s historic Women’s Club as its 2012 service project. Built in the late 1920s with locally mined granite, the building served as Dekalb County’s first library and is currently owned by the Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance. The AIA – Atlanta service project will include a detailed evaluation of the building and the development of a report that will indicate steps needed to upgrade the building for public use. These services are being provided to the Alliance at no cost.

The Georgia Conservancy is proud that all of these steps are being taken to ensure a bright future for the historic city of Lithonia – a little-known gem with tremendous potential.