Chattahoochee Hill Country Supplemental LCI Study

Chattahoochee Hill Country is a newly-formed city in southern Fulton County, Georgia. Rural in nature, the Hill Country is the result of a broad-based community plan that envisions a limited number of villages and hamlets being created while preserving the remainder of the Hill Country as the undeveloped agricultural area as it is today. A Transfer of Development Rights mechanism was created by the county that is in use today to ensure that the hamlets and villages purchase land "credits" in order to build the higher densities needed in the respective nodes.

Market + Main was hired to take the Hill Country plan and turn it into reality through a zoning overlay district. The project was conducted through a Supplemental Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) grant awarded to the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance. The new zoning regulations utilize standard regulations and bonus incentives to create new communities with large preserved open spaces and compact mixed use centers. The zoning ensures compact hamlets and villages are created by requiring urban design elements, including: sidewalks, street trees, yards, building heights, uses, the creation of new streets, and parking criteria.

The first of these hamlets and villages is the Serenbe community. Market + Main's overlay district has ensured that these communities are pedestrian-oriented with sidewalks, hidden parking, front porches, and outdoor dining that activate the streets through detailed urban design criteria that create the attractive facades and storefronts of the community.