Change takes for(&*())ever: Repatterning suburban development and Gwinnett County, Georgia

ABC photo by Byron Small.

I'm on a list where someone sent this article, "Planning firm with transit expertise selected to lead Gwinnett Place revitalization" from the Atlanta Business Chronicle, about the redevelopment planning for a decrepit mall, and I didn't think it was particularly interesting, although I guess it's new and special in Gwinnett County.  From the article:

The years-long dream of transforming the former Gwinnett Place Mall into a modern retail center and transit hub is one step closer to reality. The Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (CID) selected planning firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) to lead the revitalization strategy and craft a master plan for the site, which has seen decades of decline. 

The redevelopment of Gwinnett Place reflects a trend of mall owners across the country reinvesting in or reimagining their retail spaces. It also comes as Gwinnett braces for massive population growth. The county is projected to reach 1.5 million residents by 2040, surpassing Fulton County. 

In April, the project received $275,000 in grants from the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Livable Centers Initiative. The funding will go toward redeveloping the mall and studying how the county could turn it into a hub for bus rapid transit along Satellite Blvd.

My initial reaction was no big deal, but (1) I suppose any step forward towards repatterning in the suburbs should be celebrated. 

(2) But how does this ever go from one off initiatives at a particular decrepit place to a regularized program across a community or county?  ("Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces"," 2020)

I am a city person, so I don't track suburban stuff as much as I should, except in the DC area and I am beginning to get a handle on the Super Sprawl of the Salt Lake Valley. 

(3) Is there any suburban jurisdiction that has a real ongoing program of repatterning away from sprawl?  

It's almost impossible because  automobile centric land use and transportation planning is the dominant planning and development paradigm.  Little outposts of urbanism don't have much effect on the whole.

(4) I know about the Montgomery County effort in White Flint and they are for intensification but I wouldn't call it a regularized countywide program. Same with Tysons Corner in Fairfax County, Virginia. 

The Fairfax effort is a big deal, but the scale is off and it's not like they are creating walkable communities ("Short term vs. long term thinking: transit, the Washington Examiner, Fairfax/Loudoun Counties vs. DC," "Tysons (Corner) 10 Years after the plan to make it more walkable: the necessity of implementation mechanisms," "Brief follow up to intra-district transit proposal for Tysons: Toyama City Compact City initiative (Japan)").

(3) It's not like this concept of repatterning suburban business development towards walkability and mixed use is new stuff, the relevant "Ten Steps" publications by the Urban Land Institute are 15 to 20 years old. THAT'S OLD. The White Flint and Tysons efforts are approaching 15 years old.

-- Ten Principles for Reinventing America’s Suburban Business Districts, 2002
-- Ten Principles for Reinventing America’s Suburban Strips, 2001
-- Ten Principles for Rethinking the Mall, 2006

2.  Bus rapid transit is not light rail on wheels.  But it's better than regular bus.  And maybe better than a traffic-engorged commute.  Another thing the article says is how great BRT is ("'If we can do BRT, we should': How public transit could transform suburban Atlanta malls"):

Gwinnett County residents, like many other suburban communities, want alternatives to spending long commutes in their cars, said Joe Allen executive director of the Gwinnett Place CID. The future BRT system will include permanent stations and dedicated lanes, he told Atlanta Business Chronicle in August. "It’s really going to be light rail but with rubber tires,” Allen said.

A short BRT line is under development in Atlanta ("MARTA on schedule with Summerhill BRT in Downtown ATL," Saporta Report).

Fancy bus shelters for Atlanta's BRT.

There's no comparison, especially in the US ("BRT: long haul service in the US versus comprising a "transit network" in South America," 2014, "Route 7 BRT proposal communicates the reality that the DC area doesn't adequately conduct transportation planning at the metropolitan-scale," 2016).  Although new BRT buses can be more sleek than old light rail vehicles.

WRT the article: BRT isn't faster than light rail usually, even with dedicated lanes.  It is cheaper.  But ridership is usually significantly less.  And bus service, even BRT, doesn't seem to have a lot of multiplier effect when it comes to land use development and intensification.

But I think it's fine as one element in a complete network of transit services.