The 'City Design Project' Aims to Make Atlanta an Intentional City

Two of the highest-profile planners in the city of Atlanta, Tim Keane and Ryan Gravel, have teamed up to lead a creative visioning process that could help lead Atlanta to a new era of planning and development.

1 minute read

May 24, 2017, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Piedmont Park Atlanta

Piedmont Park, in Atlanta. | ciapix / Shutterstock

An Atlanta magazine article by Thomas Wheatley profiles the work of Atlanta Planning Commissioner Tim Keane and urban designer Ryan Gravel (famous for thinking up the idea for the Atlanta BeltLine) in making Atlanta a more intentional city.

"For the past 17 months, he and Ryan Gravel…have been working on something called the City Design Project, a kind of overarching vision for how the city should look and feel in the coming decades," writes Wheatley. "Over the next year, Keane and Gravel say, the project will start to take shape as its findings guide plans covering transportation, urban ecology, and housing—as well as the multiyear overhaul of the city’s zoning code, which has not been updated since the early 1980s."

Wheatley describes the findings and organizing principles behind the City Design Project, and teases the remaining question of what it will take for the process to bear fruit in the Atlanta of the future.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017 in Atlanta

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Wastewater pouring out from a pipe.

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage

Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

April 13, 2025 - Inside Climate News

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Black and white photos of camp made up of small 'earthquake shacks' in Dolores Park in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees

More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

April 15, 2025 - Charles F. Bloszies

People walking up and down stairs in New York City subway station.

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving

Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

April 18 - Scientific American

White public transit bus with bike on front bike rack in Nashville, Tennessee.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan

Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

April 18 - Bloomberg CityLab

An engineer controlling a quality of water ,aerated activated sludge tank at a waste water treatment plant.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding

The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.

April 18 - Smart Cities Dive