Author Archives: David Pendered

By David Pendered

A future Wal-Mart store and other civic projects are rekindling hopes for community renewal in a neighborhood west of the Georgia Dome in Downtown Atlanta.

The Wal-Mart is to open in the summer of 2012 in Historic Westside Village, a retail center located at 825 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It’s located across MLK Drive from the original Paschal’s restaurant.

Wal-Mart is expected to bring more than decent groceries, a pharmacy, money center and jobs to the community, according to Tillman Ward, a community leader who was born in the neighborhood.

By David Pendered

A new wrinkle emerged Thursday in the tense discussion about the fate of Fort McPherson – the contents of the confidential business plan that is to guide the fort’s conversion to civilian use.

The business plan is emerging as a contention because it has guided the redevelopment plan a state authority has approved for the fort’s land.

Over the past month, the redevelopment plan has come under fire from a non-profit group – Georgia Stand Up – that raises questions about whether the current plan will help or hurt the surrounding community.

Suddenly, the business plan that envisions construction of a biotech research facility near the center of the property is at the center of debate over how best to reuse a 488-acre site that the military is abandoning after more than 120 years.

By David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council has again rejected a proposal to extend the drinking hours at bars in the city.

The vote clears the way for an effort to tighten the city’s alcohol ordinances. The goal of that legislation is to make it easier for Atlanta to close businesses that habitually violate the city’s alcohol codes and escape closure through legal loopholes.

The council has considered extending bar hours periodically since 2003, when the hours were shortened following several years of violent outbursts that were linked to late-night drinking.

By David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council is slated to vote Tuesday on a proposal to extend the legal drinking hours at bars to 4 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays, and Saturdays until 2:55 a.m.

The council has been advised by its Public Safety Committee to reject the measure.

However, it’s a truism that the fate of any legislation is uncertain once it’s put before a legislative body. Especially a proposal that comes as a surprise after a holiday weekend – as is the case with this one.

By David Pendered

A new organization in Atlanta met Thursday for the first annual EcoFest Sustainable Development Opportunities Forum.

The event kicked off with a morning-long driving tour of the Beltline, the sweeping urban renewal project in Atlanta that embodies many ideals of the new organization. An afternoon slate of speakers talked about green business opportunities, green efforts at Atlanta’s airport and energy efficiency.

Verdant Elements, Inc. is a non-profit that intends to foster healthy lifestyles through sustainable development and environmental strategies, said VEI’s board chairman, Gregory Wilson.

By David Pendered

The state’s tollway authority is negotiating the planned relocation of Amtrak’s train station from Buckhead to Atlantic Station, the mini city on the western edge of Midtown.

The station’s proposed relocation was to be the first item discussed at a meeting convened today by Emory McClinton, a member of the state transportation board. The matter never came up.

“Gena [Evans] is negotiating it. That ‘s all I can say,” McClinton said after the meeting.

Evans is executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority. The agency is best known for collecting tollsa long Ga. 400.

By David Pendered

The state’s tollway authority is negotiating the planned relocation of Amtrak’s train station from Buckhead to Atlantic Station, the mini city on the western edge of Midtown.

The station’s proposed relocation was to be the first item discussed at a meeting convened today by state Transportation Commissioner Emory McClinton. The matter never came up.

“Gena [Evans] is negotiating it. That’s all I can say,” McClinton said after the meeting.

Evans is executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority. The agency is best known for collecting tolls along Ga 400.

Anyone who wanted to discuss Atlanta’s proposed comprehensive development plan at a meeting in a church Tuesday evening in Southwest Atlanta left gravely disappointed.

The crowd of more than 60 who crowded into a meeting hall at St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church wanted to talk about issues that nag them over the kitchen table every day.

Where’s the city’s plan to attract industrial jobs? Why does Atlanta plan to use property taxes to induce development when existing building have such high vacancy rates? Who’s looking after folks at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure?

Don’t even talk about redeveloping Fort McPherson once the military vacates Sept. 15. Some of its neighbors think the city’s already cut a secret deal with developers

By David Pendered

Metro Atlanta’s business recruiters intend to make a strong pitch to the international biotech community at a conference that begins today in Washington, D.C.

When the recruiters open shop, they will be swimming in the deep end of the biotech pool.

More than 1,700 companies are expected to be represented at the BIO International Convention, which runs through June 30. The event bills itself as “the world’s largest gathering of thought leaders and decision makers in biotechnology.”

By David Pendered

Four metro Atlanta politicians who are to lead the process of deciding which transportation projects to fund with a proposed penny sales tax have passed the first part of the task to regional planners.

The four elected officials voted Thursday to have the Atlanta Regional Commission cull their $23 billion wish list. The vote came soon after the top Transportation Department official working on the project admonished the elected officials to get to work.

“I recommend you pull your sleeves up and get working,” said Todd Long, GDOT’s planning director. “It’s coming quick. You’ve got to cull that list down.”

In short order, the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable voted 4-0 to have the ARC take a first pass at the wish list. The ARC is charged with cutting the wish list of transportation projects in half – from $23 billion to $11.5 billion – by July 7.

By David Pendered

Four metro Atlanta politicians who are to lead the process of deciding which transportation projects to fund with a proposed penny sales tax today passed the first part of the task to regional planners.

The Atlanta Regional Commission was charged with cutting the wish list of transportation projects in half – from $23 billion to $11.5 billion.

The Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable voted 4-0 to have the ARC take a first pass at the wish list.

By David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed welcomed the city’s new chief of economic development on Wednesday and suggested that the Atlanta Development Authority move to the building that once housed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

ADA President and CEO Brian McGowan attended his first ADA meeting since taking office about two weeks ago.

McGowan, who is fresh from service with President Obama’s administration, outlined his vision for furthering the city’s growth. He spoke after Reed’s comments about relocating the ADA.

Reed, who chairs the ADA board, said the ADA should consider moving to the former AJC building. The AJC donated the site to the city and it now is being converted for reuse by various city entities. About 150 city workers are now assigned there, Reed said.

By David Pendered

The state authority overseeing the conversion of Fort McPherson to civilian use doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills.

The authority expects to end its fiscal year this month owing a total of $145,207. The authority expects to end the year with a cash reserve of just under $25,000.

The shortfall represents about 9 percent of the authority’s $1.3 million budget. The figures are outlined in a budget report released Tuesday at a meeting of the Fort McPherson Local Implementing Redevelopment Authority.

“Everybody’s supportive, but money is scarce,” said Jack Sprott, the authority’s executive director.

By David Pendered

Atlanta faces a tough challenge as it prepares to absorb Fort McPherson on Sept. 15.

For starters, there are all kinds of strings attached once the military vacates the property – from federal requirements that it provide housing for the homeless to the immediate need for its protection by Atlanta police and fire.

Moreover, the city has to devise and adopt a master plan for this 488-acre tract amidst a fundamental shift in the economy. Atlanta and the state are supposed to woo redevelopment partners for the property at a time the region’s commercial and residential markets are moribund and showing few signs of recovery.

No wonder one fellow has suggested turning Fort McPherson into a park with a Civil Rights theme, according to Michael Dobbins, a former Atlanta planning commissioner.

By David Pendered

Any niceties that ever existed between Atlanta’s public housing chief and Mayor Kasim Reed’s strongest appointee to the housing board evaporated Wednesday.

The two sparred over just two aspects of the housing agency’s budget – the use of outside lawyers and a communications firm. But the real issue was an open challenge to Renee Glover’s ability to lead the Atlanta Housing Authority, as she has since 1994.

At stake in this contest are the homes and future living conditions for about 50,000 residents in some 20,000 households. Plus, there is a myriad of contracts to be awarded and paid through an annual operating budget of just over $256 million.

By David Pendered

Competing plans for redeveloping Fort McPherson are starting to take the stage.

One plan that will be presented Wednesday carries extra heft. It was crafted by Georgia Tech students who were overseen by Michael Dobbins, a former Atlanta planning commissioner and current professor of practice at Tech.

“The big policy issue presented by Fort McPherson is whether this 488 acre site, which is roughly four times of the size of Atlantic Station, conceives of itself as interacting with the rest of city or remaining an enclave,” Dobbins said. “All of the planning so far treats it as an enclave.”

By David Pendered

If you build a Beltline park, they will come – and trash it.

That has been the experience with a park that opened May 14 following a $4.5 million restoration. D.H. Stanton Park is located in Southeast Atlanta, adjacent to the city’s planned corridor of transit, trails, greenspace and development.

“It’s extremely disappointing and disturbing, what’s happening at Stanton Park,” said city parks Commissioner George Dusenberry.

By David Pendered

State transportation officials are working to improve the program that transports the poor, elderly and disabled from their home to health care in rural Georgia.

This effort doesn’t garner the high level attention of the companion program to ease gridlock and enhance transit in urban areas. The headline-grabbing transportation mobility program is to lead to a vote next year on a proposed penny sales tax to pay for upgrades in metro Atlanta and other regions statewide.

The rural and human services transit program serves mostly the poor, old, and/or disabled. It’s funded at about $138 million a year to provide a patchwork quilt of transit services, mainly to health care facilities.

By David Pendered

There’s no cause for either celebration or concern – Atlanta does not intend to reopen talks about allowing bars to serve alcohol later into the night.

Councilman Michael J. Bond said Thursday that he’s received calls from folks concerned about legislation he filed Monday. They think he may want to create a forum to extend pouring hours.

That’s not the case.

By David Pendered

A call for campaign finance reform in Atlanta has resulted in Mayor Kasim Reed saying contracts awarded this autumn for the world’s busiest airport will be clean.

Common Cause of Georgia has issued a report contending that lucrative airport contracts usually go to benefactors of city politicians. The way to stop that, Common Cause says, is stop airport vendors and their agents from pouring money into campaigns.

About four hours after Common Cause met with reporters on the north steps of City Hall, Reed’s office released a 912-word statement. The headline: “Mayor Kasim Reed Expresses Confidence in Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Management.”

One key paragraph reverses a previous decision by the city’s Procurement Department concerning secret issues.