The City of Sandy Springs Planning for the Next Ten reached a major milestone with the approval of the draft plan by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Atlanta Regional Commission. The Next Ten initiative was a collaborative and iterative planning process which began with a visioning exercise in June 2015 and continued throughout 2016 involving the community with a series of public and stakeholder meetings, mobile and community workshops, an interactive website, and ongoing dialogue with community members. 

In notifying the City of the approval, Jon A. West, Senior Planner, Local and Intergovernmental Programs with Georgia’s DCA said, “The document Sandy Springs has produced is truly exceptional. It’s demonstrative of a superlative commitment to excellence in our field.”

The City submitted the draft Comprehensive Plan and four Small Area Plans to the DCA and ARC on December 28, 2016.  A comprehensive plan outlines the framework for development, recognizing the physical, economic, social, political, aesthetic and related factors within a community, looking long-range, usually 20 years or more.  The plan provides guiding principles for growth and development. With the DCA and ARC approval, the plan now goes before the Sandy Springs City Council for adoption. 

While a comprehensive land use plan provides guidance, development regulations provide the legal code to support the vision.  A framework will be presented to the community on March 20, 2017 with an Open House at 4:00 p.m. and official meeting beginning at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall (7840 Roswell Road, Building 500, Sandy Springs, GA 30350). Following the public overview, the City’s planning staff will host informational meetings in each of the City’s six districts to details plans and answer questions related to the district.  The City also plans to host Drop-In sessions each Wednesday in April for residents to come in to City Hall to review the proposed zoning and ask questions.

“This has been a long process, but in shaping the city’s future, we wanted a deliberate progression which was fueled by community input. I encourage all to participate.  While the end result provides the structure for city leadership in making decisions, the time to influence those sets of rules is through this development process,” said Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul.

A complete schedule of all meetings related to the development code will be release later this month.