Design for Optimal Growth

At the beginning of our public process to create Atlanta City Design, we engaged a demographer to evaluate Atlanta’s potential for growth. Our interest was determining an optimal goal for population growth in the context of what the region’s growth is projected to be by the Atlanta Regional Commission. We asked Chris Nelson from the University of Arizona to prepare a report on this topic. Dr. Nelson presented his findings at a public session at Atlanta’s Central Library on September 1, 2016.

Atlanta City Design is intentionally and happily not a comprehensive plan. It is a concept design for the growth of the city; an active proposal for shaping the city in its own image. Therefore, this matter of optimal growth is essential. It is the growth we aspire to for it enables us to achieve the design of the city we want to become. This is different from the Atlanta Regional Commission’s population projections which are made to a specific year. This is not important to Atlanta City Design. The point with this technique is to design for the optimal population, regardless of the period of time this takes. For the purpose of this concept design, whether it takes 20 or 50 years is inconsequential.  

Here is Dr. Nelson’s report presented in September 2016.