New Plans for Doraville GM Plant

By Martha Dalton

Atlanta – Doraville city officials presented a proposal for the abandoned General Motors plant to the city council this week. The plan would turn the site into a mixed-use development, which city leaders hope will bring jobs to the area. WABE's Martha Dalton reports.

The Atlanta Regional Commission funded a study of the site to come up with ideas for revitalizing the area. Luke Howe is Doraville's manager for the project:

"It's about keeping it a major employment center, adding some homes, particularly mixed-income housing clustered around the MARTA station, and creating public space."

The biggest challenge right now, Howe says, is finding a developer to invest in the plant. But if the city council approves the proposal when they vote in two weeks he says

"We can start doing peripheral work, like say the bike trails, so we can do things like that and kind of envelop the site with good, quality growth."

Howe says cultivating the surrounding areas could attract a developer. He says, depending on state funding, redeveloping the site could create as many as 21-thousand jobs.