By John Ruch
The redevelopment of Southwest Atlanta’s 1400 Murphy Ave. site into a warehouse complex is being blasted as “shameful” by Neighborhood Planning Unit X (NPU-X) for the lack of a full traffic study and a report showing trucks cannot access it without driving on a sidewalk or the wrong side of the road.
NPU-X is holding a special called meeting on Oct. 20 to discuss the plan, where developer Prologis is expected to answer questions. Prologis did not respond to SaportaReport questions.
NPU-X also asked Mayor Andre Dickens to oppose the plan as proposed in an Oct. 10 letter that read in part, “Atlanta should not allow developments that admit they will degrade pedestrian infrastructure and safety… especially adjoining a MARTA station.”
The City press office did not respond to a comment request, and NPU-X chair Zachary Adriaenssens said his group also received no response to the letter.
Prologis is remaking the 32-acre site of a historic Nabisco snack factory into a two-building warehouse and logistics complex. NPU-X was among several community groups in Capitol View, Oakland City and Sylvan Hills that earlier this year issued several requests to Prologis. They included a mixed-use redevelopment, historic preservation, improved connections to the adjacent Oakland City MARTA station, and better sidewalks and other pedestrian amenities.
Prologis said no to the mixed-use concept. It also tore down the entire Nabisco building, though it allowed some elements of a historic lobby to be salvaged for reuse in Georgia Tech structures.
MARTA says it has been in discussion with Prologis about improvements to the Oakland City Station headhouse – the part of the station structure that does not include the tracks and platforms. MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher said Prologis contacted the transit agency on Sept. 28 about reviewing the designs of the improvements. “We responded on the same day with some times to meet,” she said. “However, we have yet to receive a response.”
Meanwhile, Prologis consultant Kimley-Horn last month filed with state and regional planning officials a traffic “memo” for the project that raised NPU-X’s concerns. Besides the issues with the scope of the study and the truck movements, NPU-X is also unhappy with a plan to place some parking lots for truck queuing, staging and overflow directly on the Murphy street frontage – “something that is unacceptable in Atlanta in the year 2022,” the group said in the letter to Dickens.
The memo estimates the facility would produce an average of 1,008 gross new daily vehicle trips. But it moves that number down to 908 with an unexplained assumption that 15 percent of employees would use “alternative modes” to get to the site.
Adriaenssens says NPU-X doubts the reliability of that number, especially given the lack of detail on improved MARTA station connections. He further argues the main reason for the assumption was getting the trip number below the 1,000 threshold that triggers a full traffic study in what is known as a “Development of Regional Impact” report.
The report notes that large tractor-trailer trucks would have trouble making the turns needed to access the site. Due to various truck restrictions on local streets, the entrance and exit would be on Murphy Avenue. Trucks would access that from Lee Street via the Dill Avenue underpass beneath the MARTA tracks. Most of those intersections have turning angles, or radii, that are too tight for the typical truck, the report says. That forces them to drive into the opposite lane or, in the case of turns from Dill onto Lee northbound, onto the sidewalk.
The report notes that the MARTA tracks make it impossible to create major changes to the turning radii. It also recommends enlarging the sidewalk at the Dill/Lee intersection.
The Nabisco factory also had truck traffic, and the turning issues affect current truck traffic from other sources. However, NPU-X argues that a facility directly planning truck traffic for an area that can’t handle it safely should not be allowed.
Fisher, the MARTA spokesperson, said the transit agency was involved in the report’s process and is aware of the turning issues and their proximity to Oakland City Station. “MARTA is always concerned with rider access,” she said.
NPU-X also argues that the streetfront parking lots for trucks may be difficult to legally challenge but are “shameful” as urban planning.
The Oct. 20 NPU-X meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. and can be accessed via Zoom.
Thanks for the report!????