Thread ATL

The City of Atlanta's sad inability to follow through on a promised crosswalk for a deadly section of Peachtree Street gets covered in a new post from Propel ATL.

BACKGROUND:

In 2021, the City launched a Shared Streets project near Peachtree Center which narrowed the roadway of Peachtree, slowed traffic, and improved pedestrian safety.

In March 2022, Mayor Dickens killed the project following pushback from property owner Richard Bowers, returning the roadway to a four-lane, car-centric configuration and allowing the crosswalk to fade.

On February 11, 2025, Pradeep Sood was fatally struck by a truck while using the faded, mid-block crosswalk to cross Peachtree. Following Sood's death, the city paved over the faded crosswalk. Later, Sood's family filed a $12 million negligence lawsuit against the City.

Atlanta City Council passed multiple resolutions urging the Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) to reinstall a safe mid-block crosswalk, and it appeared one was on the way.

STATUS UPDATE FROM PROPEL ATL:

Originally, the City's plan called for a raised crosswalk near 225 Peachtree Street.Then plans changed to a standard crosswalk. Then the project was paused altogether.

After an open records request, Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) could not identify who made the decision to change or pause the project. There is no documentation or justification for the project being stalled.

Propel ATL will now "meet with Downtown residents, businesses, and other stakeholders to identify opportunities to build support for a safer, more people-focused Peachtree Street."

https://www.letspropelatl.org/missing-crosswalk-peachtree-street-update

MEANWHILE:

You can stand at 225 Peachtree on any day and watch people walk across at this natural spot for a crosswalk where none exists. It's a common-sense desire path outside of the densely developed north entrances to Peachtree Center MARTA Station, but it's a deadly one due to the City's lack of movement.

Thanks much to Propel ATL for the work and the information.

Department of City Planning completely reversed course from their 2024 recommendation of denial for a data center adjacent to the West End MARTA station and has now recommended approval. Links to the previous recommendation, this recommendation, and some quickly prepared fact sheets are below.

This is a draft from a coalition of neighbors opposed to the data center. It is a draft but should be accurate but time is limited. Please read and take talking points from it.

Please attend the Zoning Review Board tonight wearing red and, time permitting, be prepared to speak.

Copy of 713 RDA Data Center Facts Draft 3 FACT SHEET: 713 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd and Z-26-06 The historic Ruralist Press Building, part of the 713 RDA complex that is highlighted in the National Register nomination for the Stewart Avenue Industrial Historic District. The district was listed on the Georgia Register of Historic Pla...

Thursday, July 9th, 6PM at City Council, the Zoning Review Board will be hearing the legislation allowing a data center adjacent to the West End MARTA Station. This is the only opportunity for public comment and speaking time is limited but we strongly encourage people to attend the meeting wearing red to show their opposition to the legislation.

After the ZRB, the legislation could move to the Zoning Committee as early as July 13th at 11AM and Full Council on August 3rd at 1PM. Public comment is not allowed at those meetings but wearing red to show your opposition is encouraged. It is possible that the legislation will not appear for the Zoning Committe until August 10th and Full Council until August 17th. We will keep everyone updated and please follow www.swarmatl.org and on Instagram and .bsky.social on Bluesky.

Again, this is the ONLY opportunity for public comment. Feel free to tag your council members and email them to encourage them to attend.

Many people are taking time off of work and losing wages to attend this meeting. Our council members should be present. Especially Antonio Lewis and Eshé Collins who sponsored this bill. If you are in their district, email or post and tag them.

SWARM Against the West End / Adair Park Data Center

Better late than never...it's good to see Atlanta being thoughtful about land-use and putting a moratorium on new self-storage facilities.

According to Rough Draft Atlanta, City Council approved a 180-day moratorium on storage construction, giving officials time to implement new land-use regulations.

Council member Dustin Hillis sponsored the legislation, saying it was needed to help create "vibrant commercial corridors, walkable neighborhoods, and affordable housing."

Let's see what they've come up with when the moratorium ends in six months.

Pictured: Beltline-adjacent dead space.

https://roughdraftatlanta.com/2026/07/08/atlanta-council-storage-moratorium/

Atlanta has no shortage of good ideas, though we sometimes struggle with follow-through. Take this example: these quotes come from an excellent 1999 plan that recognized the need to pair future growth with high-capacity transit, moving us away from the car-centric model...

Belt Line - Atlanta: Design of Infrastructure as a Reflection of Public Policy
by Ryan Austin Gravel
December 1999

"The route(s) and stations will be designed to connect to MARTA stations on the north, south, east, west and Proctor Creek lines. Some stations will anticipate future lines extended from the city to suburban destinations. Some stations will include additional programs like retail spaces, parks or entire new mixed-use districts. For example, a station at Boulevard would include an electric bus shuttle to Zoo Atlanta..."

"It must be clear, however, that this is not a transportation study. It does not justify light rail transit according to current ridership projections, but proposes that if the redevelopable territory associated with the Belt Line is handled appropriately, future population and employment growth on those sites will support it..."

"The Belt Line should accomplish more than just an improved system of public transportation. It has the potential to change the way we look at Atlanta, how we understand our space within the city and within the region."

---

Hopefully we'll follow through with putting rail transit on the Atlanta Beltline at some point. 27 years after these thesis by Ryan Gravel, it still resonates as a great idea for shaping a more sustainable style of growth in the city.

Urbanize Atlanta reports that an urgent care facility proposed for Cabbagetown will mostly consist of a large parking lot. It's a site plan you might expect to see on a suburban arterial, not in a city neighborhood near the Beltline.

Grady is proposing the development, which would sit at Memorial Drive and Estoria Street.

In the second image you can see the asphalt-heavy land use at existing Grady-owned sites near Cabbagetown. This new proposal is their chance to provide something better to the urbanism of the place.

Matt Bedsole, former Director of the City of Atlanta's Housing Innovation Lab, is rightly slamming the site plan on X, writing:

"One of the most bizarre and fiducially irresponsible Atlanta land use decisions in memory. And this is publicly funded! This is ideal for mixed use - affordable housing above a ground floor Grady facility. Instead, they’ll waste >$10M on mostly parking. What are they thinking?"

Well said.

Grady is largely funded through Fulton and DeKalb Counties. When we have a public stake in a project like this, we should reach high for public benefits.

Obviously, an urgent care center is good for the public, but this site could have a mix of uses that includes affordable housing. It could follow the lead of Mercy Care on DeKalb Avenue, which built mixed-income housing as an extension of its property.

GradyHealth:
When your proposed development for a city neighborhood could be lifted up and dropped down 30 miles away without needing to change anything, your design needs work. Act like it's a city.

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/cabbagetown-grady-unveils-parking-heavy-redevelopment-plans

If you'll pardon a wonky post...

A new paper co-authored by Georgia Tech planning students has some cool data about the way that good urban design promotes walking.

The authors studied several aspects of urban neighborhoods and found that one of the most positive influences on pedestrian activity is street-to-building ratio.

When the ratio between street width and building height creates a cozy and comfortable outdoor 'room', it makes people want to walk to places in their neighborhood instead of hopping in a car. When the ratio isn't comfortable, people tend to drive.

As an example of a bad street-to-building ratio -- imagine a place where small, one-story buildings line a massive 60-foot road. This is a street that feels too open and car-oriented, which deters walking. The environment will seem too barren and exposed to a pedestrian.

Meanwhile, a street with a sense of enclosure -- where the road-width is more narrow and buildings are taller -- can make a pedestrian feel welcome, even providing shade during the summer and windbreakers during the winter. Think of Broad Street in Downtown Atlanta as a good example, or the streets of Glenwood Park (pictured).

Obviously, there's a point of diminishing returns on narrowness and height, and details like active-use spaces, windows, doors, trees, and street furniture matter too. But in general, a comfortably enclosed space is ideal for walking.

From the paper:

"Our results show that higher building-to-street ratios substantially decrease the likelihood of driving and traveling beyond the 15-minute walkshed. Conceptually, visual enclosure reflects higher-order walking needs related to safety and comfort, as vertical elements frame the street space and create the perception of an outdoor room."

If you have access to Science Direct, you can read the paper here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670726004804

Authors:
Seung Jae Lieu , Subhrajit Guhathakurta

Title:
Why do residents still drive and travel beyond high-accessibility neighborhoods? Examining the challenges to the 15-minute city concept.

The Memorial Drive Greenway is holding another open house. Check it out and share your thoughts.

https://app.maptionnaire.com/p/3ey28utb3wz6

NOTE: the graphic has a mistake -- it's June 23rd.

Great news! At today's Westside Future Fund meeting Councilmember Byron Amos publicly committed to opposing the data center adjacent to the West End MARTA Station.

That aligns him with Jason Dozier, Matt Westmoreland, Liliana Bakhtiari, Thomas Worthy, Alex Wan, Dustin Hillis, Kelsea Bond, and Jason Winston in opposition to the legislation introduced by Antonio Lewis and Eshe Collins (Collins has removed her name from the legislation but has not made clear her position).

That's 9 votes on council in favor of long term, transit oriented, good urbanism development.

Thank you to everyone that has attended meetings, made phone calls, sent emails...

Send a thank you email to your councilmembers on the list above.