20 People to Watch - Tim Keane

The city’s planning commissioner wants to find out Atlanta’s design DNA


There are three things people often mention when they talk about Atlanta Planning Commissioner Tim Keane: his clothes (sharp), his hair (perfectly tousled), and his opinions (candid and many). It’s rare and refreshing to hear a city official express opinions and call out the Atlanta’s past planning mistakes.

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Since coming to City Hall from the top planning job in picturesque Charleston, S.C., the 51-year-old Charlotte, N.C., native has zipped across the city to speak to community groups and advocates and hold one-on-ones with residents about Atlanta’s problems and potential. Everywhere he goes, he says — it doesn’t matter if it’s a “church on the Westside or a meeting at Midtown” — people want to talk about the need for quality design and architecture.

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“It’s not just architects who are talking about this,” says Keane, who rides his bicycle or takes MARTA to work from Midtown nearly every morning. “It’s everybody. We should have higher expectations about design. And I do think the mayor does. It’s just, what does that mean? And how do you get there?”

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First on Keane’s list is a herculean effort that’s already underway and long overdue: reforming the Bureau of Buildings, the City Hall office where time stands still if you’re looking to get the city OK to build a fence in your backyard or a 40-story building in Downtown. He’ll also have to oversee the mega-projects that are in the works and could change the city for generations to come, including Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, Turner Field and its surrounding parking lots, Fort McPherson, and — arguably the most impactful of all — Underground Atlanta.

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While that’s happening, he’ll oversee a complete rewrite of the city’s zoning code, which hasn’t been tweaked since the early 1980s. Time is of the essence to make any changes that could take advantage of the current when-will-it-end? real estate boom.

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At the core of all this, however, is revamping the planning department. The agency has largely been relegated to pushing paper and stamping permits. Responsibilities that traditionally went to the planning department were taken on by (or given to, it’s hard to say) ad hoc committees, community improvement districts, Invest Atlanta, or the Atlanta Beltline. He wants the department to be proactive when it comes to design, to start to think and act big, and to lead in its role to help Atlanta find its design soul.

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“What makes Atlanta different from other cities? What expectations should we have about design that are unique to Atlanta? Let’s identify what the Atlanta DNA really is, as messy as what it might be,” Keane says. “It’s not going to be Paris. It’s not going to be Charleston. But let’s figure it out.”

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One potential way to do so is through a citywide design project that he’s kept under wraps, but will reveal in January. The initiative is “about the city getting control of its future, physically,” he says. “It’s not just density and urbanism. It’s also nature. For this city to be a great place to live in with twice the people it has now, it’s got to be parks, conservation areas, and the design of streets.”

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Yes, twice the number of people — as in 1 million Atlantans. Although the Atlanta Regional Commission forecasts the city’s population to increase by only about 250,000 by 2040, Keane is urging Atlanta to aim higher.

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“We shouldn’t be backing into what our population should be,” he says. “We should be saying this is going to be a real city, a big city, and how do we become that while not in any way damaging what makes it a unique place — which is the neighborhoods. That can be done. But it’s going to require a lot of thinking that people might not be used to.”