Serenbe - 25 miles southwest of the Atlanta aiport

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Written By H. Pike Oliver

The settlement of Serenbe is found in the heart of Chattahoochee Hill Country about 25 miles southwest of the Atlanta airport and about 35 miles from downtown Atlanta.  According to their website (www.serenbecommunity.com), this 40,000 acres of rural Georgia is about the size of Napa Valley in California, and is one of the last undeveloped stretches of land in the Atlanta area. The founders of Serenbe realized that there was a short window of opportunity to create a community in a new and better way.  They used their largely untouched 900 acres to create an example--clustering development, preserving large tracts of open space and fostering a high level of design execution. [gallery link="file"]

Development commenced in 2004 and by April 2009 there were about 100 residences and some commercial space in place.  The non-residential uses are mostly art galleries, small specialty shops and restaurants.  The Inn at Serenbe is also on the property.  The Urban Land Institute sponsored a tour of Serenbe on April 22, 2009. About 50 photos taken during that tour are posted at http://bit.ly/EXWAF .

 
How?
H. Pike Oliver

H. Pike Oliver focuses on master-planned communities. He is co-author of Transforming the Irvine Ranch: Joan Irvine, William Pereira, Ray Watson, and THE BIG PLAN, published by Routledge in 2022.

Early in his career, Pike worked for public agencies, including the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. For the next three decades, he was involved in master-planned development on the Irvine Ranch in Southern California, as well as other properties in western North America and abroad.

Beginning in 2009, Pike taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in Urban and Regional Studies. He relocated to Seattle in 2013 and, from 2016 to 2020, served as a lecturer in the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington, where he also served as its chair.

Pike graduated from San Francisco State University's urban studies and planning program and received a master's degree in urban planning from UCLA. He is a member of the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

https://urbanexus.com
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