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JUNE 2019 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Community | 15
said the city’s study of congestion pricing
came up during his recent “summit” with
leaders of the Midtown Alliance and Cen
tral Atlanta Progress, and their reaction
was negative, with one suggestion that it
might be unconstitutional.
“I don’t think it’s doable. I don’t think
it’s practical. I don’t think [that] when
they think it through they’ll recommend
it,” Massell said of the city study. “I re
spect the effort to reduce traffic” and that
many commuters come from Cobb, he
added, but at the same time, “It’s a labor
force. They work here.”
Transit improvements
In a presentation on commuter-ori
ented transit, Patterson noted that Buck-
head already had some great assets, in
cluding two MARTA rail stations, and
more on the way, such as bus routes, the
Clifton Corridor light rail to the Emory
University area and possibly a rail exten
sion to Gwinnett County. “Most parts of
Atlanta would love to have our transit in
frastructure,” he said.
The missing bit is a connection to
Cobb. Commuter buses currently run
from Cobb to Downtown and Midtown
MARTA stations, but none go directly to
Buckhead, which Patterson called “com
pletely crazy.”
Among the items he and Norwood dis
cussed with Cobb officials was routing
a proposed new bus rapid transit line -
meaning large-capacity buses use some
type of dedicated lane - proposed on
Cobb Parkway so that it would come to
Lindbergh Center Station.
Norwood revived talk of a Buckhead
subway line last year. At the meeting, Nor
wood cited the idea of using airport funds
to help pay for it, citing the precedent of
New York City’s AirTrain to John E Ken
nedy International Airport. She heard
that idea from Ferdinand Levy, a retired
Georgia Tech economics professor and
Buckhead resident who says he helped to
propose that funding mechanism while
working as an airport consultant.
Affordable housing
Housing relates directly to Buclchead’s
traffic congestion because people who
work in the neighborhood but can’t af
ford to live there have to come from else
where, often by private vehicle. More
affordable housing could mean more peo
ple commuting within the neighborhood
rather than through it, or even walking to
work.
The BCN is tallying the numbers of
apartments, condos and townhomes in
the neighborhood, and suggesting some
could be made affordable to local work
ers via developer tax incentives and pre
ferred-renter deals where landlords give
breaks to employees of certain local em
ployers.
The BCN effort largely echoes an af
fordable housing study underway by
the Buckhead Community Improvement
District and Livable Buckhead, though
with more of an anti-development spin
in its presentation. That BCID and Liv
able Buckhead effort came out of a mas
ter plan’s findings that, as of 2016, 98%
of Buckhead employees commuted there
from outside. Housing capacity was
found to be a major issue, with 10 times
more jobs than households in the neigh
borhood, and while many units are be
ing built, most are luxury projects un
affordable to the roughly 40% of area
employees who make less than $50,000 a
year. The executive directors of the BCID
and Livable Buckhead attended the BCN
meeting, but did not speak.
Sam Leneaus, a real estate agent work
ing on the BCN housing issues, said he
counted 58,274 existing “attached” units
(meaning two or more in one building)
in Buckhead, with 2,702 units under con
struction and another 3,069 proposed. He
suggested the data is an argument against
approving more multifamily housing out
of concern it would cause traffic.
Instead, the idea is to make some of
those existing units affordable to local
workers through the incentive programs.
“We’re not suggesting Section 8 housing,”
Leneaus added, referring to federally sub
sidized public housing.
One resident was concerned that
apartment buildings lower local property
values, while Kim Shorter, a board mem
ber of NPU-B, asked, “Are we sure we have
an affordable housing problem in Buck-
head?” and suggested that some people
simply choose a “Cobb County lifestyle”
instead of a “Buckhead lifestyle.”
Norwood said that affordable housing
is a major city government issue and that
Buckhead has to do its part. The current
method of offering developers density bo
nuses for a “tiny piece that is affordable”
isn’t working, she said. “The beauty of this
is, it’s not a mandate at all. It’s an opportu
nity,” she said.
Private traffic plans
A review of privately funded traffic
improvement plans was another meeting
topic. It ranged from the massive North
Buckhead Neighborhood Master Plan,
completed in 2015 at a cost of $25,000, to a
new effort in Tuxedo Park that could cost
up to $40,000.
One audience member said she’s new
to Atlanta and did not understand why
citizens had to privately commission traf
fic studies. “It seems like we just need to
ask the city to do its job better,” she said,
drawing knowing laughter from the
crowd.
Norwood said one reason for the dis
cussion was the BCN might help coordi
nate and fund such studies, including on
a large scale. “But as far as getting the city
to do its job, that is really aspirational,”
Norwood said.
Mentioning that she is a former elect
ed official, but not that she lost the 2017
mayoral election to Mayor Keisha Lance
Bottoms, Norwood added that she hasn’t
seen a change in the city’s willingness
to do such studies itself in the past 18
months. “The reality is, there are oth
er parts of the city that get huge studies
done,” but Buckhead doesn’t get them,
she said.
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