Sandy Springs business owners have until Friday, August 14, to tell the city what they want their corridors to look like over the next two decades.

The city opened two online surveys at planthenextchapter.org on Tuesday, July 28, as part of its "Next Chapter" Comprehensive Plan update, which will guide zoning, land use, and economic development decisions citywide from 2027 through 2047. A separate Recreation & Parks Master Plan survey is also open through the same deadline.

The stakes are concrete for Roswell Road shop owners, Perimeter Center employers, and anyone working near MARTA stations or Powers Ferry Landing. The current comprehensive plan includes four small area plans focused specifically on those corridors, and the update will reshape what gets built, where density goes, and how the city invests in infrastructure around them.

As we reported Tuesday, July 28, the city is also hosting two in-person public meetings later in August: Monday, August 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Church of the Redeemer, 5185 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, and Thursday, August 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sandy Springs Police Headquarters, 620 Morgan Falls Road. Both sessions will feature the same presentation and interactive activities.

But the online survey closes three days before the first meeting, making it the only option for business owners who can't attend an evening session.

The city hired consulting firm Rhodeside & Harwell under a $1.1 million contract to lead the update, Appen Media reported. City staff expect to bring the finished plan to City Council for adoption in June 2027.

The comprehensive plan process comes as Sandy Springs grapples with questions about growth, housing costs, and how its commercial corridors function. Council member Andrew Chinsky said at a June 26 City Council meeting on the Transportation Master Plan that the city's population of roughly 105,000 has declined over the past five years because it is too expensive for people to live here. He explicitly referenced the comprehensive plan update as the vehicle for addressing denser housing and walkability.

"I would love to see one of our goals for a transportation plan to enable new housing to be built so that new families can move here and buy into Sandy Springs," Chinsky said at the June 26 meeting, as Appen Media reported.

Regional forecasts project Sandy Springs will grow to approximately 118,000 residents by 2050. The city is home to roughly 132,000 jobs, making the plan's land-use decisions especially consequential for the Perimeter Center employment corridor.

Anyone who completed the earlier closed, invitation-only survey should not retake it, the city said. All project materials will be posted at planthenextchapter.org as the process continues through January 2027.