The vast majority of the more than 200 folks who attended a public hearing on the downtown Athens master plan want College Square closed at least part of the time.

Fifty-seven percent said they would close College Avenue from Clayton to Broad Street permanently, like in Boulder, CO, while 35 percent want to revamp it to make it easier to close to traffic part of the time, like in Burlington, VT. Only 8 percent wanted to leave it open.

The question was just one of several vexing ones UGA College of Environment and Design professor Jack Crowley and his team of college students asked the Classic Center crowd to address Tuesday night. "We've heard, 'I'll kill you if you close it,'" he joked. "We've heard, 'I'll kill you if you don't close it.'"

(Click here to see the survey results and read all 2,227 comments gathered at the meeting.)

Participants were given keypads and paper forms to punch in their favorite concepts, with the results shown on a screen almost immediately. By far the most popular ideas were a commuter rail line to Atlanta and a train through campus, which won 90 percent and 94 percent support, respectively.

Of course, those rail lines would cost millions of dollars that we don't have. But Crowley told the audience to reach for the stars and not to worry about feasibility for now. The plan is intended to guide downtown Athens' growth through 2030, and two future rounds of SPLOST or other, now-unknown sources could provide funding between now and then.

Another hot-button issue is the idea of a new entertainment and retail district along the North Oconee River east of downtown. Most people in the audience—80 percent—would opt for limited development, like in Eugene, OR. Only 7 percent wanted urban development like San Antonio, and 14 percent wanted a natural riverfront like Ft. Collins, CO.

Transit was another much-discussed topic. If downtown had a circulator, 61 percent favored rubber-tired trolleys and 26 percent wanted streetcars on rails, while 23 percent said it's not needed at all.

Other poll questions involved the audience choosing one priority from among several options. On what type of housing they most want downtown, 42 percent said urban professional, 20 percent said family, 18 percent said workforce, 13 percent said empty-nester, 4 percent said student and 3 percent said senior assisted-living.

When asked where they most want to see greenspace, 34 percent said converting Jackson Street into a trail to the Lay Park, 33 percent said the block surrounding City Hall, 20 percent said the rails-to-trails project parallel to Oconee Street, 8 percent said the Pulaski Creek greenway and 7 percent said a new park. While Jackson Street—the only new idea—was popular, others, still smarting from Hancock Avenue's closure for the Classic Center expansion, argued for not closing any more streets at all.

During another portion of the meeting, participants tossed off thousands of ideas, issues, likes and dislikes about downtown that rolled down the big screen like a stock market ticker. A few of the most common ones included access to the river, more greenspace, a community center, improved taxi and transit systems, developing vacant lots along Dougherty Street, easier access to Lay Park and the Lyndon House, more trees and shade, sanitation, a kayaking outpost, food carts, more activities for kids, teens and families, a grocery store, and rooftop rain gardens and solar panels.

Crowley said he'll use the input from the hearing and 1,000 other interviews and surveys to write a draft of the master plan that will be ready in February or March. "We're about to start the phase where we're working on the plan itself," he said.