Seeing past the recession to plan for million of newcomes ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - It's not the best time to be a real estate developer. If you are, the Atlanta Regional Commission wants you to focus on your plans for when the economy rebounds.

If the estimate ring true, there will be at least 2 million more people in metro Atlanta by 2050. That's 41 years away from now. But, the ARC urges developers not to get bogged down in the current economic crisis and not think about where and how those people will live.

Developers heard from planning experts like Maureen McAvey from the Urban Land Institute. She cited studies showing why we drive. Results indicate 80 percent of the time we drive to run errands. That's why McAvey recommends area developers build upon the live, work and play theme when creating communities of the future.

MCAVEY: " and they will spend less time in their car doing daily things and for a lot of people spending less time in the car would be quite pleasant."

Stephen Arms is President of Marthasville Development. He and a partner are redeveloping the Hidden Forest subdivision. It's a live, work, play community in Kennesaw near Town Center Mall. He found advice from McAvey and others reassuring.

ARMS: "The strategy of sustainable and responsible property investing actually makes sense now and I think will make even more sense in the future."

All Arms and other developers have to do is survive one of worst economic storms on record. Arms hopes his redevelopment project will start in 3 months.
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