District 3 Westside Revive

This project was completed prior to JFG Cities. Images are the property of Perkins&Will. Text is adapted from the final project report.

Proposed plan at the confluence of the Atlanta BeltLine Westside Trail, MARTA Green Line, Proctor Creek, and Maddox Park where a large area of vacant and abandoned land is destined to be dramatically transformed in the coming years.

Westside Revive establishes a district-wide planning framework for Atlanta’s Council District 3, an area spanning more than 4,800 acres on the city’s west side. The plan moves beyond project-by-project thinking and instead outlines a shared, community-informed strategy to guide long-term growth, reinvestment, and neighborhood stability across the district. As a comprehensive vision for District 3, this effort represents a first for the area.

Many Westside neighborhoods have experienced decades of limited investment and population decline that trace back to mid-twentieth-century planning decisions. In recent years, however, large-scale initiatives such as the Atlanta BeltLine and Proctor Creek have helped redefine how planning is approached in Atlanta, showing how coordinated goals and inclusive processes can support meaningful community change. The development of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the surrounding redevelopment accelerated the need for a unified plan that considers the district as a whole. Westside Revive responds to this long-standing gap by providing a clear and timely roadmap for the future of the Westside.

Approach: Planning for the district was organized around a neighborhood-based engagement approach that balanced local priorities with a broader district-wide perspective. To support this structure, the area was divided into nine planning subareas, which shaped both outreach and plan development. Subareas 1 through 5 received the most detailed level of analysis, while Subarea 6 was addressed through the Westside Land Use Framework Plan adopted in November 2017. Additional planning initiatives informed the work in Subareas 7 through 9.

Community involvement was a central component of the District 3 planning effort. The process included thirteen public workshops, numerous interviews with key stakeholders, and outreach that connected with more than 10,000 residents and participants across the district.

The public engagement effort was structured around a Quality of Life Index that grouped community priorities into seven broad themes, ranging from housing and access to jobs to education, environmental conditions, health, safety, and civic participation. This approach allowed residents to evaluate both what was missing and what was already working in their neighborhoods. The resulting input shaped planning recommendations across multiple areas, including land use and development patterns, housing policy, and transportation investments.

The planning team relied on a blended research approach that combined numerical analysis with community-based input across each category. Data was collected through GIS mapping as well as a comprehensive online survey that allowed responses to be geographically tagged within a grid-based platform. In the example below, the map illustrates how three separate data layers are stacked and analyzed together within each grid cell to reveal broader patterns and relationships.

1) Proximity to parks (calculated using GIS);

2) Tree coverage (open data from the city);

3) Survey answers to the question of how satisfied community members are with their local parks.

Each category was treated with the same rigor and helped the team gain an in-depth understanding of the district. Learn more about the survey here.

Each subarea had two workshops. In the first one, general information about the neighborhoods was gathered. In the recap, the planning team presented land use and transportation ideas to the community, followed by an exercise where participants place

Each subarea was supported by a two-part workshop series. The first session focused on collecting baseline information about neighborhood conditions and community priorities. During the follow-up meeting, the planning team shared preliminary land use and transportation concepts and invited participants to respond through an interactive mapping activity. Residents placed images representing different development types onto a large-scale map and provided feedback. These images and comments directly informed the subarea framework plans, including recommendations for future development character areas.

Development Character Areas: To respond to current conditions and identify opportunities for future growth, the plan introduced a development classification framework that organizes common living and working environments found across District 3 into a set of distinct development character areas. This system is intended to describe place types rather than serve as a future land use map. The nine classifications reflect different combinations of building density, use, and physical form that already exist or could emerge within the district.

The development character areas include Single-Family Stabilization and Infill, Twin, Row and Courtyard Housing, Multistory Multifamily, Neighborhood Centers, Area Activity Centers, Regional Urban Core, Industrial and Innovation Space, Community Facilities, and Heritage Resources.