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reporternewspapers.net JULY 2019 • VOL. 13 — NO. 7 Buckhead Reporter A DUNWOODY SALUTES AMERICA WITH ANNUAL FOURTH OF JULY PARADE See pull-out section pages 15-18 ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT PBS to air local singer’s documentary ps COMMENTARY GDOT chief: ‘Benefits of express lanes are proven’ P10 COMMENTARY Reporter wins 15 Georgia ®|§j| Press awards P10 im o Podcast Check out our podcasts and Facebook Live Streams Buckhead Reporter is mail delivered to homes on selected carrier routes in ZIPs 30305,30327 and 30342 For information: delivery@reporternewspapers.net SL# uuxied VO ‘eojuo|A| aivd a6eisod sn SSMH03 aislysyd yaiAioisno ivisod MARTA plans to bring improvements to Buckhead by 2025 PHOTO BY JOHN RUCH A new amphitheater takes shape on the hillside in front of Garden Hills Elementary School as part of a $750,000, community-supported field renovation project. For more about the project and the fundraising effort, see the story and photos on p. 30 ► Highway-capping park may be renamed ‘Hub 404’ BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net Buckhead's highway-capping green space plan, long known as the “park over Ga. 400,” may be dubbed “Hub 404” as part of a rebranding as a major fundraising effort be gins in September. The new name, referring to the center of metro Atlanta’s 404 phone area code, is in tended to reflect the larger ambition of the park, says Jay Gould, the new board chair at a nonprofit group that aims to raise the es timated $175 million to $200 million need ed for the project’s private funding. Cur rently known as POG 400, the nonprofit would take on the new name as well if its See HIGHWAY on page 14 BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net Buckhead will have significant MARTA bus service improvements in place, and rail connections to the Atlanta BeltLine and Em ory University in design stages, by 2025 un der a tentative “sequencing” plan approved by the transit agency’s board June 13. The roughly five-and-a-half-year time line is general and subject to change, but shows that MARTA wants to get a relatively fast start on its long-awaited “More MARTA” expansion plan. Focused on transit projects within the city of Atlanta, “More MARTA” is funded by a half-penny sales tax approved by voters in 2016 and expected to raise $2.5 billion over the next 40 years. The sales tax will not pay for all of the de sired projects, leading to controversy about how to prioritize them. MARTA has said it will seek other public and private funding sources as well. One Buckhead-area project that was ap proved as part of “More MARTA” does not appear on the sequencing list: a bus rap id transit line on Northside Drive. MAR TA spokesperson Stephany Fisher said that project was not selected for the first five-year expansion plan but remains on the list for later. The proposed sequencing of other Buck- head-area projects includes: Operational by 2025 Arterial rapid transit bus service on Route 110 on Peachtree Street/Road between See MARTA on page 19