BYLINE:    DOUG ABRAMSON
DATE: September 13, 2005
PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
EDITION: Home; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: A19

I don't hate cars.

In fact, I own one and use it all the time. I need to make that clear because the many Atlantans like me who oppose obliterating an acre of public land in Piedmont Park to build a parking deck for Atlanta Botanical Garden patrons are being portrayed by professional spinmeisters as car-hating, know-nothing, nature nuts.
The truth is I'd like everyone who wants to enjoy the region's crown jewel park to be able to get there easily. I'd like to see many people arrive on foot, public transit or a bike.

But many people will need to drive. So where do they park their cars on those dozen or so days a year when the existing nearby parking is inadequate?
The debate is framed by public relations folks employed by the Atlanta Botanical Garden as a simple choice: build an 800-car, six-story parking deck in the heart of the park, or do nothing and force park visitors to scramble for on-street parking in adjacent neighborhoods.

This summer the conversation about the parking deck took a public hiatus. But as fall approaches, the formal approval process is starting that could forever replace a green hillside in the park with a giant concrete box.

No question, building a big garage is one way to accommodate parking and facilitate the botanical garden's quest to become a major regional tourist attraction along the lines of Stone Mountain Park. But we should at least acknowledge that it doesn't make sense to frame this as a question of building a fee-based garage on public land or doing nothing.

In fact, there are many possibilities. And there is no science that suggests the botanical garden solution is the best. Here are just some of the options:

-As proposed, partially conceal the deck in what the botanical garden calls a "useless" hillside to provide the best access for its special events. While this is a convenient solution for garden patrons, it requires forever marring the interior of the city's most treasured public park with a huge concrete structure.
-Put the deck in Storza Woods, the forested area adjacent to the current garden visitors' center. The garden leases this section of Piedmont Park from the city and has threatened in public meetings to build a deck in that forest if it can't secure approval for building it in the interior of the park.
-Build an underground deck at the site of the garden's existing parking lot, a location the city of Atlanta approved five years ago. The garden has said that boring tests revealed bedrock that makes this plan expensive, but it has refused to comply with our open records request to release those test results.
-Identify mass-transit opportunities. Allow more on-street parking on Tenth and Piedmont. Improve pedestrian and bicycle access. Use existing parking lots around the periphery of the park and possibly add some small ones. This could be done after a comprehensive transportation study of the area that includes incorporating the many transit and parking options created by the proposed Beltline.

I think I prefer the last option. But it would be just as irresponsible for me or Friends of Piedmont Park to declare that this is "the solution" as it would be for the parking deck proposal to move forward without an honest and comprehensive look at the other viable alternatives