The limbo of Five Points MARTA; South Side Trails Bonanza; Alpharetta Density

DOWNTOWN— In a month when Atlanta’s aging infrastructure has already made national headlines, MARTA’s timeline for updating the outdated Five Points station, the nation’s largest transit hub and the agency’s busiest, appears to be in limbo. Axios Atlanta first reported that Mayor Andre Dickens submitted a letter to MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood requesting that MARTA’s planned $230 million downtown overhaul project be halted until until an ongoing audit of the agency is completed at the end of July.

MARTA announced in May that the Five Points station would be closed to street-level access and its bus routes would be rerouted to other downtown stations starting in July. These changes are expected to last 18 months, or approximately until the end of 2025.

Dickens’ letter says he has read preliminary audit findings regarding 2016 sales tax and MARTA spending — the primary funding mechanism for the Five Points project — and is seeking additional details. Early findings suggest that MARTA may have to repay more than $60 million to the More MARTA program, and Dickens noted that the city has “identified other priorities that need to be considered before moving forward,” which could be a reference to the new BeltLine rail stops along the project. MARTA rail lines, as Axios reports.

MARTA’s goal is to transform the downtown transit hub of the 1970s into a vibrant downtown, with better transit connectivity, improved customer amenities and increased safety, with benefits such as common spaces, public art and sections for urban agriculture. The station sees about 12,000 daily entries and exits, and about 4,500 transfers between buses, or from buses to trains, each day, according to data provided by MARTA.

(UPDATE: Monday June 10, 6:59 p.m. — MARTA officially responded to Dickens’ letter.)

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SOUTH SIDE—Good news for southern multi-use trail enthusiasts: The Atlanta Regional Commission and four communities near the Atlanta airport have raised an additional $14.9 million in federal funding to help create an ambitious trail system of 31 miles, now officially dubbed the Flint River Gateway Trails Network.

ARC officials and the four communities – Clayton County and the cities of Hapeville, College Park and East Point – collectively applied for and received funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program. The same initiative secured $50 million in funding from the U.S. DOT in March, bringing the current total to nearly $65 million.

According to ARC officials, who are leading the work to plan and administer the Flint River trail plans, the money will be used to map and design more than half of the network and to construct portions of the trail (totaling 3.2 miles) which will ultimately connect the BeltLine to the Tri-Cities and Clayton County. Each jurisdiction will be responsible for overseeing the construction of its own trail segment.

“Essentially, we took some of the trails already planned in the area (like the one the city of Atlanta is building from the BeltLine in southwest ATL to East Point) and realized we could connect a 31-mile contiguous trail system. “wrote ARC spokesperson Paul Donsky in an email to Urbanize Atlanta.

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ALPHARETTA— In north suburban news, the Alpharetta City Council unanimously approved a project expected to be the densest yet in the North Fulton County city’s central business district, member of the board hailing the company as setting a new standard. The four-story project by Atlanta-based Place Maker Design is expected to take shape on a one-acre parcel at 55 Canton St., about two blocks northwest of Alpharetta’s Town Green at City Center, as reported by Appen Media.

Plans call for 36 for-sale condos and 7,000 square feet of street-level retail space, with these commercial spaces limited in Alpharetta to uses such as clothing boutiques, cafes, bakeries, grocery stores and florists.

The project will include an underground parking structure, but that will not meet Alpharetta’s minimum parking requirements, so Place Maker Design will have to pay an in-lieu parking fee of $94,500. According to the media outlet, municipal authorities are authorized to use these fees to develop new public parking lots.

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