A citizen committee studying the future development of an 89-acre industrial parcel in the West Village isn’t close to making a recommendation to the city council.

But Thursday night they learned quite a bit about the concept of New Urbanism from a representative of John Wieland Homes, which owns the tract.

Architect Michael Medick of John Wieland said one of the ideas behind New Urbanism is providing a wide variety of housing products co-existing in one area. Some ideas he proffered included townhomes, zero lot line development (where neighbors can build and landscape up to the property line).

As for the railroad tracks, Medick suggested that townhomes themselves could be used right along the railroad tracks to buffer the remainder of the tract, which he said has been successful in other communities.

The railroad tracks play a key role in large part because of the nearby location of a rail siding which is used by CSX Railroad to park trains for up to 48 hours. Although the city has convinced the railroad to invest on landscaping to buffer the area, the 89-acre parcel borders the railroad track and Ga. Highway 74.

Another railroad issue is the wish from CSX to close the existing at-grade railroad crossing directly across from south Kedron Drive, which Wieland needs to make the community more mixed-use in nature with office and retail uses in addition to residential uses.

But any residential development on the tract will require a rezoning from the City Council as the parcel is currently zoned for industrial use.