In June 2005, residents of Sandy Springs overwhelming voted for incorporation; the first new city in Georgia in almost 50 years. The City utilizes a public-private partnership model for operations. Aside from public safety (police and fire) and the City Manager’s executive staff, contracted firms provide all general City services. The success of the privatization model in Sandy Springs continues to attract attention from cities around the U.S. as well as around the globe.
The City’s residential population is near 100,000, with a daytime population swelling to more than 200,000 due to the heavy concentration of businesses located in Sandy Springs, including UPS, Newell Rubbermaid, First Data, AirWAtch, Cox Enterprises, Intercontinental Exchange, Vertiv and Mercedes Benz North America.
Following a yearlong, public-involved planning process in late 2012, the Sandy Springs City Council adopted a Master Plan to develop the City’s downtown area.
The goals for the project includes the creation of a unique, vibrant, walkable City Center, which incorporates mixed-use development introducing new dining, high-end residential living, and amenity retail and entertainment options. The project also will create an appropriate setting for a new civic/cultural center that will contain multiple uses such as city offices, meeting space and a performing arts facility. In addition the City block will encompass a green space network to accommodate a variety of activities.
In January 2013, the City Council approved a Phase I Implementation Plan to develop a master block containing civic facilities, a performing arts center, green space, retail and residential facilities. In 2014, Rosser International was selected as the architect for the civic properties. Jb+a, Inc. was selected to design the City Green and other outdoor spaces. Carter/Selig Enterprises was selected as the Master Developer and will also develop the retail and residential portions of the master block. In January 2015, Holder Construction Company was selected to oversee construction for the Civic facilities.
It is hoped that the 15-acre master block development will serve the entire community as a place to gather, to relax, to be entertained and a location in which to reside, in addition to its location as the site for city business, becoming “everyone’s neighborhood.” It was also anticipated that the program will spark redevelopment all along the Roswell Road corridor, which has begun with a number of redevelopment projects already in the works.
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