DATE: October 10, 2005
PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
EDITION: Home; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: A12

The proposal to build a parking deck in Piedmont Park isn't dead, but recent reviews it has gotten from members of a city advisory committee may help put this misbegotten project out of its misery.

The Atlanta Urban Design Commission had been studying a controversial plan being pushed by the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Piedmont Park Conservancy to build a six-story parking structure on a one-acre parcel inside the park.

Proponents of the deck claim its 800 spaces would help relieve some of Midtown's weekend and event-driven traffic jams caused by patrons who circle neighborhood streets in a frustrating search for parking.

Under the proposal, the garden would pay the $16 million construction costs and share the parking revenues with the conservancy. Some of the fees could be used to offset the costs of much-needed maintenance to the century-old park, often described as "Atlanta's backyard."

While the intentions of both groups are good, their reasoning doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Their promises to tastefully drape the deck with greenery don't help much either.

There's just no escaping the fact that even a vine-covered parking deck would still encourage more visitors to drive to the park instead of walking or using some other form of transportation. Don't be fooled; more cars always mean more traffic congestion.

Besides that, there are plenty of little-used, privately owned parking decks nearby that are more than adequate to handle the demand. Providing shuttle service between those lots and the park makes far more sense.

Although no formal vote was taken at a meeting of the commission last week, a slim majority voiced opposition to the deck.

"The park needs more accessibility for people," said commission member Richard Laub, one of four commission members who disapproved of the parking deck. "But my feeling is, it does not need more accessibility for cars."

The Atlanta City Council will eventually vote on the deck proposal but is under no obligation to follow the recommendations of the design commission majority. For that matter, city officials could also ignore the 16 out of 24 neighborhood planning groups who have already voted against the plan.

They could dismiss those objections, but they shouldn't. There are simply better ways to address this problem without paving another slice of paradise for a parking deck.