Page BYLINE:    DOUG ABRAMSON
DATE: May 17, 2005
PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
EDITION: Home; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: A11

The Mayor's Task Force, charged to review the highly controversial proposal for a parking deck in Piedmont Park, has concluded its task. Not surprisingly, the panel endorsed the deck.

The reason for the task force was unclear since the city's long-standing citizen advisory system -- the neighborhood planning units -- were in the process of reviewing the proposal. To date, 17 of 18 NPUs and a total of more than 40 civic organizations have voted to oppose the deck.

Friends of Piedmont Park, established in 1979 by the late Atlanta architect Ike Saporta and other prominent Atlantans, is one of the earliest citizen park-support organizations in Atlanta. We spearheaded the opposition to the concept of the ill-advised parking deck, but were excluded from membership on the task force even though the proponents of the deck -- the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy -- each had been named to the group.

Friends of Piedmont Park has consistently worked for 26 years to protect and preserve Atlanta's central park. In fact, it was FoPP that provided its corporate and nonprofit tax status to the Piedmont Park Conservancy. It was FoPP that actively participated in establishing the original master plan that brought much-needed rejuvenation and improvements to Piedmont Park. It was FoPP that initiated the idea for a conservancy to support Piedmont Park.

FoPP successfully fought using Piedmont Park as a carnival site during the Olympics, and opposed the construction of a sewage treatment plant in the meadow on 10th Street that is now a beautiful part of the park. The result of then-Mayor Maynard Jackson's decision to move that treatment facility provided Atlanta with the additional acres of the Halpern and West Lumber sites, land now included in the North Woods Expansion Plan.

Unfortunately, the task force rubber-stamped the parking deck rather than independently considering the policy implications of converting priceless public parkland into a for-profit parking deck in the interior of Atlanta's historic park. The task force failed to demonstrate a genuine commitment to finding common ground to resolve what Mayor Shirley Franklin calls a "deeply divisive issue."

There are reasonable and acceptable solutions to Piedmont Park's traffic, parking and accessibility issues besides the proposed parking deck. But the task force did not independently assess the other options and ignored the question of whether the proposed site is the best location for a parking deck. Furthermore, the task force did not address why the botanical garden cannot build an underground parking deck on the site of its existing parking lot in accordance with the plan approved by City Council in 2000.

FoPP and others that oppose the parking deck are motivated solely by a commitment to the park and to the city, not by lucrative salaries, construction contracts, fees for public relations and lobbying and campaign contributions. We are dedicated to improving Piedmont Park for all who use the park today and for future generations.

The parking deck is not a done deal. The plan must still be approved by the City Council. We hope that during that process people across the city will continue to insist that more far-sighted and progressive solutions be adopted.

In doing so we hope they will remind the public officials that park users want a full and fair say in what happens to their parks and that our public parks are not for sale. We also hope Mayor Franklin and the City Council will pay close attention to the viewpoints that truly matter -- those of voters and taxpayers through their NPUs, the official voice of the citizens of Atlanta.