Two neighborhoods around a Southwest Atlanta warehouse project are opposing its traffic study’s conclusions, saying the City should restrict its truck use and improve – rather than possibly remove – pedestrian access.
The Capitol View Neighborhood Association (CVNA) and Sylvan Hills Neighborhood Association (SHNA) expressed their concerns about Prologis’s 1400 Murphy Ave. project in letters written this week to the Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT). Both said the traffic study should be denied in its current form and get more input from the communities.
“Though we see our industrial land as an employment-rich asset, we cannot support job creation that explicitly conflicts with our neighbors’ safe access to their community and city,” wrote the SHNA.
“It is our hope that the [ATLDOT] Department may listen to our concerns and allow for a larger role for the community in any future discussions with the developer on potential roadway improvements in our neighborhood,” wrote CVNA President Zachary Adriaenssens, who says he is writing a similar letter on behalf of Neighborhood Planning Unit X (NPU-X).
Prologis is remaking the 32-acre site of a historic Nabisco snack factory into a warehouse and logistics complex. Its traffic study estimates the facility will generate 340 net new heavy-truck trips a day and 454 net new vehicle trips overall. To access the site, trucks would be directed through two intersections about a block away — Murphy and Dill Avenue, and Dill and Lee Street. Both intersections are known for tight turns that currently force trucks to drive the wrong way or onto the sidewalk.
ATLDOT requested a new, fuller traffic study following local controversy last year about the plan, as voiced in NPU-X meetings. Approval of that plan is the last step before an initial site-disturbance permit is issued. SaportaReport obtained the draft traffic study and related documents last month amid community concerns about an inability to review them.
The documents showed Prologis proposing a four-way stop and an unspecified truck-friendly turn at a key intersection. They also showed the developer rejecting ATLDOT suggestions for smaller trucks and ATLDOT officials repeatedly suggesting the removal of sidewalks to make room for the vehicles.
In response to the new community concerns about the draft traffic study, Prologis and ATLDOT restated their previous positions while offering little new detail. Prologis again emphasized another traffic-related concession and its work with MARTA on a station entrance on a corner of its property.
“Prologis continues to work with the City and ATLDOT to ensure pedestrian, bike and vehicular safety around this site, including increasing the turning radius at the Dill and Murphy Ave[nue] intersection, eliminating the truck entrance on Arden Ave[nue] and working with MARTA to improve access to the Oakland City Station,” said Prologis spokesperson Mattie Sorrentino.
ATLDOT’s response included noting that the project essentially can be built right under the industrial zoning. “We are working together to maximize the positive outcomes for the area,” the agency said in a written statement. “This parcel is zoned for the proposed use. ATLDOT is working to ensure its mobility for all users.”
The CVNA and SHNA letters share several common concerns and demands:
- Limiting the project to using small trucks only.
- Restricting truck turns at Murphy and Dill.
- Promising not to remove existing pedestrian infrastructure.
- Spending development impact fees locally to improve pedestrian, bicyclist and transit-rider access.
CVNA also called for at least restricting the project from heavy-truck traffic during peak travels and for delaying any traffic study approval until community groups can vote on their positions.
SHNA more forcefully called the project “incompatible with existing road infrastructure in the neighborhoods of Sylvan Hills and Capitol View.” The group also called for some big-picture changes to the street grid and the zoning code.
Roadway suggestions include reconnecting a long section of Murphy that is missing between Evans Drive and Victory Drive, suggesting that would allow trucks to access the road from Arthur B. Langford Jr. Parkway instead. Another suggestion is improving the intersection of Murphy and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard for better truck movements there.
SHNA also claimed the site is zoned industrial based in part on its direct accessibility to a railroad track spur rather than heavy-truck infrastructure. The group suggested that the City’s zoning code rewrite, which is underway, should consider making distinctions in industrial zoning categories between properties that are accessible by rail and by truck.
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