With major developments brewing on large-scale sites all over the city, the Saporta Report examined the impact of one similarly massive project of yore: Atlantic Station. The findings suggest that folks around Turner Field, Underground Atlanta, the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center and Fort McPherson might have reason to fret. After all, no one likes a friend who sits on a debt for more than a decade. Since the construction of Atlantic Station back in the early 2000s, Atlanta owed the Ansley Park Civic Association $428,085 for ill-effects related to the 17th Street bridge, the website found. And that's not including an extra $266,480 for streetscape projects meant to abate some damage caused by increased traffic. With the City Council voting to pony up the money just last week, the report looks at what city officials promise to do to protect neighbors of imminent developments, and how good they might be at delivering.
The concerns stem from the precedent Atlantic Station's development might have set. When the 17th Street bridge — the gigantic yellow banana spanning the Connector south of the Brookwood Interchange — was constructed, the developer of Atlantic Station promised to compensate the Ansley Park Civic Association for the increased traffic in their neighborhood spurred by the mega mixed-use development. While bureaucracy has a way of slowing things down, waiting 11 years for payments to be processed smacks as ludicrous. And maybe it should serve as a warning to other neighborhoods as they negotiate with the city to offset the impact of development. Otherwise, they could be stuck with an I.O.U.
·Atlantic Station deal shows need to monitor urban renewal projects [Saporta Report]
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