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It was a blight on Atlanta's landscape, but where others saw a wasteland, Alex Garvin saw promise.

He included the active rock quarry west of downtown Atlanta in his plan for a network of parks interlaced with the Beltline transit proposal. Within months, the city endorsed his vision, offering $40 million for the property. Now, it is slated to become one of the largest new urban parks in the country.

 The New York planner spotted the Bellwood Quarry during a helicopter flight over the city. He takes to the air to see the big picture whenever he accepts a new commission.

Garvin recently flew over metro Atlanta again. This time, he was working for two members of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners who want him to untangle a gridlocked quadrant of north DeKalb. Commissioners Jeff Rader and Kathie Gannon asked Garvin to devise a scheme for 500 acres around the intersection of Briarcliff and North Druid Hills roads, before a wave of redevelopment overtakes the area.

Rader, a professional planner elected to the commission last year, said he expects several developers to seek changes of the zoning on their properties so they can squeeze more buildings onto the land. That would drive up the land's value, he said, so the developers should help pay for the improvements to surrounding areas.

"If we're going to effectively write you a check," Rader said, "then what's the public going to get out of it?"

It will be up to Garvin to recommend the improvements.

He has spent most of his adulthood teaching planning as an adjunct professor at Yale University and working in New York City government. He is perhaps best known for his 1996 book on planning — "The American City: What Works, What Doesn't," an analysis of 250 projects in 100 cities.

Garvin said in an interview that he has been most influenced by the work of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., the 19th-century planner who is credited with founding American landscape architecture. Olmsted helped design New York's Central Park and wove scenic natural areas into the fabric of communities across the country, including Druid Hills, with its ribbon of linear parks.

Garvin , 66, is being paid $315,000, plus up to $50,000 in expenses, to develop a master plan and zoning proposal for north DeKalb. He is to consider large private parcels and surrounding public areas, such as roads and parks. He is scheduled to unveil his plans this summer.

The photos he snapped during a recent helicopter ride over the area revealed a dense tree canopy and even denser traffic — hardly a surprise when he presented the finding during a slide show in April. But his fresh eyes allowed the outsider to see something that most around here ignored — the sullied and lonely streams that run through the area. He recently suggested one likely proposal: a pedestrian path along a stream that links two large sites where massive redevelopment projects are anticipated.

Garvin's work in north DeKalb was precipitated by developer Sembler Co.'s acknowledgment last year that it was eyeing 100 acres of publicly held land at the intersection of Briarcliff and North Druid Hills roads. The company signed a contract to buy a lease on most of the property, which contains public housing the county owns. The rest of the site is owned by the county school system, which has made no commitment to sell.

Nearby residents fear the redevelopment will flood the area with cars. Garvin was hired to temper the proposals, but some residents note warily that he is being paid through the Livable Communities Coalition, a group that was born out of a Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce task force on growth.

"They're a group dominated by developer interests," said Don Broussard, a former DeKalb County planning commissioner who lives in north DeKalb.

The coalition's board does include developers, such as Cousins Properties. But it also comprises elected officials, civic associations and the Georgia Conservancy.

Jim Durrett, the coalition's executive director, said re-development of the area is inevitable. Durrett, who was Rader's election campaign chairman, said the 20-month-old coalition must maintain a "squeaky clean" reputation for transparency and a lack of hidden agendas. He said he asked more than two dozen businesses, property owners and neighborhood associations in and around the study area to help pay for Garvin's contract. But, Durrett said, 90 percent of the money raised so far has come from the major commercial land owners and developers in the area.

Still, Durrett said he is confident Garvin's integrity will win people over.

In perhaps his most public role, Garvin was hired in 2002 as vice president of planning, design and development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a nonprofit created to plan the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. The project has been mired in controversy, and Garvin resigned after 15 months. He said it was the toughest job he ever held.

Garvin started his current firm, Alex Garvin & Associates, in 2004. The office, with a staff of eight, has worked on a handful of projects around the country, including plans to turn a huge but little-used park in Shelby County, Tenn. into a regional attraction.

On that project, his diplomacy built "bridges" between groups with differing interests for the 4,500-acre Shelby Farms park, said Mike Carpenter, a Shelby County commissioner. Garvin is paid by a foundation that is among one of three constituencies, Carpenter said, yet he has maintained neutrality between those who want to preserve the park and others who want to develop it for trade shows.

"If there's common ground, he'll find it," Carpenter said.