Buckhead CID Selects New Executive Director
Jim Durrett leading promoter of smart growth development
(August 14, 2009)

ATLANTA, Aug 14, 2009 – The Buckhead Community Improvement District (CID) announced today the selection of Jim Durrett as its next executive director. Durrett will succeed Scotty Greene, who announced his retirement last month following 10 years in the position. Durrett takes over on September 1, 2009.

Durrett is Executive Director of the Livable Communities Coalition, a not-for-profit organization formed in 2005 to promote smart growth development in the Atlanta region. A subcommittee of the Buckhead CID's board selected Durrett following a national search. The full board will formalize the selection at its monthly meeting on August 25.

"Jim's selection represents Buckhead's continuing transformation from a suburban to an urban, mixed-use, vertically developed area, with public infrastructure to support it," said David Allman, chairman of the Buckhead CID board.

Durrett serves on the steering committees of the Atlanta region's Mixed Income Communities Initiative and the ULI Atlanta Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. He also chairs the advisory committee for the Georgia Council on Aging's "Georgia for a Lifetime" initiative to address the needs and impacts of Georgia's aging population.
Previously, Durrett served for five years with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) as Executive Director of ULI's Atlanta District Council.

"I have worked with Jim for 10 years and look forward to a successful transition," said retiring Buckhead CID Executive Director Scotty Greene. "With the next phase of the Peachtree Boulevard transformation underway, Jim is the right person to lead the CID as it moves on to new tasks."

The Peachtree Boulevard transformation is the enhancement of a 1.7-mile stretch of Peachtree Road in Buckhead into a more livable, walkable, bikable and drivable promenade. The Buckhead CID completed Phase I in October 2007 and recently received funding for Phase II. The transformation was the catalyst for the creation of the Buckhead CID in 1999.

Allman says in the next 10 years, the CID will broaden its focus to cover public safety, cultural amenities, aesthetics, strengthening ties to neighborhoods, and expanding the CID to include the Buckhead Village and the Piedmont Corridor south through Lindbergh.

"Given Jim Durrett's understanding of how to connect the pieces in a healthy, sustainable community, linking land use and transportation," Allman said, "we are confident we have made the right choice."
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For comment, contact Jo-Anne Carlson, 404-842-2686.