Frequently Asked Questions
1. Isn't the parking deck a done deal?
Mayor Shirley Franklin and a majority of the Atlanta City Council approved the parking garage and Friends of Piedmont Park is highly disappointed that the parking deck will in all likelihood be constructed. However, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Piedmont Park Conservancy, and the City of Atlanta made all sorts of commitments about the parking deck, and they must be held to their promises.
The parking deck will be a permanent and ghastly blemish on historic Piedmont Park. But, at their own cost, the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy:
� Must deliver the promised amenities associated with the parking deck and the overall plan for Piedmont Park
� Must keep the parking deck safe at all times and keep the parking deck free of crime, drugs, prostitution, and other unlawful activities
� Must ensure that the safety of park users is not compromised by vehicles using the parking garage and the related roads to and from the parking deck
� Must ensure that the parking deck does not interfere with people's enjoyment of Piedmont Park
2. Where would the Atlanta Botanical Garden parking deck be located?
Click here for a map of where the deck is currently planned.
Here are some other maps from the Piedmont Park Conservancy.
North Woods Reclamation Map:
http://www.piedmontpark.org/announce/NWmapINFO.html
ALT-A (large image)
http://www.piedmontpark.org/pdf/7--DrawingA.pdf
ALT-A (small image)
http://www.piedmontpark.org/pdf/DrawingA-8x10.pdf
3. Does Friends of Piedmont Park oppose new parking for Piedmont Park?
Friends of Piedmont Park supports parking for people who drive to Piedmont Park, as well as better access to the Park for all park users. Click here for our FoPP Position. But new parking should be added at the edges of the Park to minimize vehicular traffic in the Park. The proposed parking deck would be in the interior of the Park, bringing thousands of cars into the Park. Also, we believe that any new parking must be combined with other solutions to improve overall accessibility to the Park.
The many flaws of the proposed deck have received a lot of attention, but they sometimes conceal another important reality. All this effort, attention, and money has gone toward building a facility that will serve the needs of only a very few patrons and special guests of the Atlanta Botanical Garden and would do nothing to help the thousands of Atlantans who need to get to the Park during special events. The Atlanta Botanical Garden would be able to reserve at least half the deck for its private use at any time, and so the parking will meet the needs of those going to private parties at that location. But most Atlantans will be left with the same challenging realities they now face when tying to access the Park during popular times, and no effort or thought has gone into meeting their needs.
4. Does Friends of Piedmont Park support increased accessibility to Piedmont Park?
FoPP supports better accessibility to Piedmont Park for all park users, not just a privileged few. Click here for our FoPP Position. The parking deck is not a sensible or logical way to meet the needs of the broad public. The best way to improve overall accessibility is by using a combination of methods including; (a) new parking at the edges of the Park, (b) using existing parking facilities at times of peak demand, (c) focusing on access via the upcoming Belt Line, (d) improving MARTA services to the Park (both bus and rail), and (e) enhancing pedestrian and bicycle access.
5. Have the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy evaluated whether the parking deck would create public health and safety risks?
We do not know the answer to that question. Using Georgia's Open Records Act, Friends of Piedmont Park requested documents and studies risks from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Piedmont Park Conservancy, and the City of Atlanta relating to public health and safety risks associated with the parking deck.
Both the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy refused to provide us with their documents on this issue. The City has not yet responded to our request.
6. What companies will the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy use to build the parking deck and how were they selected?
We do not know the answer to that question. Using Georgia's Open Records Act, Friends of Piedmont Park requested documents from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Piedmont Park Conservancy, and the City of Atlanta explaining what selection processes had been or would be used to choose the firms that would be hired to build the parking deck.
Both the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy refused to provide us with their documents on this issue. The City has not yet responded to our request.
7. Will the parking deck reduce conflicts between park users and motor vehicles?
No, the parking deck will make an unacceptable situation far worse. One of the major justifications for the parking deck was that closing the Park Drive entrance to the Park would reduce the number of conflicts between pedestrians and cars. While that danger is unacceptable and should have been addressed by the Piedmont Park Conservancy years ago, the parking deck does not solve the problem. In fact, the deck would make the hazards worse because it merely moves the problem to a new location, while significantly increasing the number and locations of conflicts between park goers and cars.
The proposed road to the parking deck from Monroe Drive (near the Combined Sewer Overflow) would physically separate the Park's new picnic area from new Park amenities, including the Boundless Playground, formal gardens, community gardens, orchards, and new outdoor classroom. The parking deck road would also cross the Beltline at grade, and every user of the Beltline--whether pedestrian, jogger, cyclist, skateboarder, or roller blader--will have to dodge the thousands of additional cars heading to and from the parking deck.
8. Would the Atlanta Botanical Garden parking deck reduce the amount of public green space in Piedmont Park?
Yes. The parking deck would decrease the amount of green space in Piedmont Park and would make the remaining Park less enjoyable. The Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy have claimed that the parking deck would increase green space, but this claim is deceptive and disingenuous. For instance, they improperly counted land within the Botanical Garden that would not be open to the public, inaccurately accounted for paving related to the new roads, did not include continued paving at the Park Drive lot, and failed to consider that 12 acres of mature woodland no longer be open to the public. When these corrections are made, the amount of green space open to the public would clearly decrease if the parking deck were to be built. Also, it should be mentioned that even if it were true that some green space were being added as a result of the parking deck, this addition would be completely overwhelmed by problems caused by the new roads though the Park with the resulting traffic.
9. Is it true that the proposed road from Monroe Drive to the parking deck would also be used to serve vehicles at the planned new commercial /residential development at Amsterdam Walk?
We do not know the answer to that question, but we have heard that there have been discussions regarding that possibility. Using Georgia's Open Records Act, Friends of Piedmont Park requested documents from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Piedmont Park Conservancy, and the City of Atlanta about the possibility of using the parking deck road for traffic going to Amsterdam Walk.
Both the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy refused to provide us with their documents on this issue. The City has not yet responded to our request.
10. Don't neighborhoods surrounding the Park support the parking deck to get cars off the streets?
As information about the parking deck was shared with the public, more and more groups opposed to it and urged the City to develop a better solution. This included the Morningside/Lenox Park Association, the Virginia Highland Civic Association, and the Midtown Neighbors' Association, all of which abut the Park. A total of over fifty neighborhood, civic, and other groups voted against the deck, after hearing presentations from both sides of the issue. For a list of the groups that opposed the parking deck at the time a majority of the Atlanta City Council endorsed it, click here.
11. Will the parking deck generate revenues that the Piedmont Park Conservancy can invest in the Park?
The original financial analysis developed by the Atlanta Botanical Garden says this is not the case. In the Fall of 2004 the Atlanta Botanical Garden developed a five year financial analysis which shows that at a parking fee of $3, the parking deck would lose $39,400 in Year 1, would lose $17,900 in Year 2, and would make only $6,400, $33,800, and $24,100 in Years 3, 4, and 5.
12. Will people pay to use the parking deck when they visit the Park?
To cover the deck's debt service and ongoing operating expenses, the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy announced that they plan to charge approximately $1.75 per hour to use the deck, and probably more during large public events. (This would be the first and only public park in Atlanta to charge for parking.) Some people will pay that amount. But far more people will continue to park nearby for free and walk to the park. The parking deck will be largely underutilized much of the time (when free parking is available in surrounding neighborhoods) and then totally overwhelmed on spring and fall weekends and during large special events.
13. Who is going to pay for the $16+ million parking deck?
A private donor, believed to be Ms. J.B. (Dottie) Fuqua, has agreed to donate approximately $12 million for the parking deck. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is also actively campaigning for additional donations. And, despite the Atlanta Botanical Garden's repeated insistence that the parking deck is a purely private initiative with absolutely no public involvement, on November 19, 2007 the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the City of Atlanta Development Authority issued $48.5 million in bonds on behalf of the Atlanta Botanical Garden expansion project, including the parking deck. Click here to read the AJC article.
14. Will other improvements to Piedmont Park be implemented if the parking deck is not built?
The expansion of and improvements to the Park planned by the Piedmont Park Conservancy are not tied to the parking deck and will occur even if the parking deck is not built. In fact, the Piedmont Park Advisory Committee developed an alternative plan which did not include the parking deck but which did include the other elements in the plan endorsed by the Piedmont Park Conservancy Board.
15. What would the Atlanta Botanical Garden do if the current proposal is disallowed?
They would need to consider other options. Friends of Piedmont Park would encourage the Atlanta Botanical Garden to revitalize the plan the Botanical Garden developed and gained approval for in 2000 from the Atlanta City Council and the Mayor. That plan provided for a parking deck at the site of their current parking lot just off Piedmont Avenue. We would hope they would build that parking facility completely underground.
16. What's wrong with the Atlanta Botanical Garden building a parking facility to serve the needs of those who stage private parties and events there?
We don't oppose their building such a facility for those purposes on land they already occupy. But the Botanical Garden's parking deck would denude over an acre of public green space and would need a whole new road that bisects the Park. Friends of Piedmont Park supports the Botanical Garden's original idea of building an expanded parking facility deck on the site of their existing lot, a proposal that was specifically approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2000. Such a facility would not result in the loss of more than 75 trees on a wooded hillside and could use existing roads for access. If built underground, the space currently used for parking would become available to the Botanical Garden for other uses.
17. How can I get involved and voice my opposition to the parking deck?
Mayor Shirley Franklin: mayorfranklin@atlantaga.gov
City Council President Lisa Borders: lmborders@atlantaga.gov
District 1, Carla Smith: csmith@atlantaga.gov
District 2, Kwanza Hall: khall@atlantaga.gov
District 3, Ivory Lee Young Jr.: ilyoung@atlantaga.gov
District 4, Cleta Winslow: cwinslow@atlantaga.gov
District 5, Natalyn Archibong: narchibong@atlantaga.gov
District 6, Anne Fauver: afauver@atlantaga.gov
District 7, Howard Shook: hshook@atlantaga.gov
District 8, Clair Muller: cmuller@atlantaga.gov
District 9, Felicia Moore: fmoore@atlantaga.gov
District 10, C.T. Martin: cmartin@atlantaga.gov
District 11, Jim Maddox: jmaddox@atlantaga.gov
District 12, Joyce Sheperd: jmsheperd@atlantaga.gov
Post 1 at large, Ceasar Mitchell: ccmitchell@atlantaga.gov
Post 2 at large, Mary Norwood: mnorwood@atlantaga.gov
Post 3 at large, H. Lamar Willis: hlwillis@atlantaga.gov
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