South DeKalb needs an upgrade in both housing stock and design. One idea that could jump-start this new era of housing design could be taken from an existing successful model: Serenbe

Serenbe (ser-en-be), located in Chattahoochee Hills, is a bespoke, high-end master-planned community located at the edge of Fulton County, in Chattahoochee Hills, bordering Coweta County. Its model is vital to attracting new residents, implementing new residential concepts and commercial designs, increasing population density, and, most importantly, attracting new dollars.

Since its first unit was sold in 2005, Serenbe has been the reference point for the slew of master-planned mixed-use residential and commercial districts popping up across metro Atlanta.

Since Serenbe’s arrival, suburbs and exurbs across the metro have borrowed from varying portions of its design and development patterns to create their projects, ranging from Trilith in Fayetteville to Avalon in North Fulton and The Gathering in Forsyth County. They are all exurban, master planned communities, and varying aspects of Serenbe’s design prowess are integrated within their projects.

These projects are anchoring a new era in exurban economic and residential growth. South DeKalb sorely needs this to meet the standards of 2020s and 2030s development.

Serenbe’s success as a luxury development is partly due to its utilization of many tenets of “new urbanism,” an architecture and design philosophy focusing on walkable, well-designed mixed-use communities.

A Serenbe in South DeKalb would likely face hurdles: a current glut of cash from large financial firms driving up prices, a looming recession, and the controversy inherent in proposing a radical new real estate development project in an undesirable portion of Atlanta. It would include design concepts outside the traditional suburban model, at a price point much higher than the current residential homes in the area. However, this significant, innovative, and advanced housing model is needed in South DeKalb, which hasn’t seen new ideas or growth in decades.

South DeKalb is experiencing a prolonged, steady decline in all areas. County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson has already stated that one of her priorities is building more housing for the overall county and revitalizing South DeKalb. A new project like Serenbe would be a win-win for all parties, including long-term residents who’ve missed out on the last few new development cycles and younger, wealthier residents who want more modernized developments but can’t find any. It would bring in local tax money that the county and school system desperately need. It would also finally turn the tide on the exodus of retail and commercial development in DeKalb.

But if there were a Serenbe-type project, where would it go? There aren’t many places with 100 or more acres. Serenbe sprawls across more than 1,500 acres in South Fulton, with design standards that aim to use only 30% of its site for commercial and residential uses, leaving the rest of the space as an integrated “green” community. It’s a community made of forests, pathways, and smaller, walkable streets, the type of thing not seen anywhere in the county.

Due to very few available places to build a massive planned community, there are only two ways to do so now: purchase an existing undeveloped area or purchase a declining but existing commercial area to build a new urbanist-inspired community like Serenbe.

‍

The best bet would be to purchase undeveloped land currently on the county’s eastern end in places like Stone Mountain, Lithonia, and Arabia Mountain.

Someone has already proposed a development like this, but the idea hasn’t gained traction.

In 2022, Maxie Price of Maxie Price Chevrolet and zoning attorney Michele Battle of Battle Law, P.C., released initial plans for a Serenbe-inspired development on 650+ acres in Arabia Mountain in east DeKalb called South River. The South River project directly refers to the river that runs through the county’s southern end. The project would take a page from the Serenbe playbook, focusing on 1,000 residential homes within the existing forest alongside walking trails, meadows, walkable streets, over 500,000 square feet of new commercial buildings, and accompanying businesses. The plan would build upon the infrastructure of the nearby Arabian Mountain State Park, the bike lanes of PATH, and the county waterworks system.

The plan, during its initial 2022 unveiling, brought the usual NIMBY complaints about the need for wider streets and the proposed heights for potential apartments.

Listening to those concerns would increase the plan’s costs and make it unsuccessful due to low density. It’s this type of NIMByism that CEO Johnson and the county commissioners would likely need to push through to get the project done.

Serenbe is not for everyone; it is an enclave for wealthier residents and customers. Still, the design elements can be used in multiple locations and on various incomes.

Currently, nothing like that is happening in South DeKalb. It’s time to go bold.

Even without exploring the full extent of Serenbe’s design choices, many places within South DeKalb could benefit from the same principles of mixed housing types, small yards, smaller streets, and walkable paths throughout.

‍