ATLANTA — The Atlanta Beltline is pushing to select a path near Piedmont Hospital in Northwest Atlanta for a new section of the trail but some homeowners along one of the possible paths tell Channel 2 Action News they were given just 11 days to lodge any complaints -- a fraction of what other neighborhoods were offered.
Beltline officials told Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher they don’t dispute that.
The Atlanta Beltline is one of the city’s most popular public projects in recent memory, but the 22-mile loop using mostly abandoned railroad lines was bound to generate some opposition. It has done just that among some homeowners who live on Peachtree Memorial Drive. Their Townegate Townhomes complex backs right up to Peachtree Creek.
Powers said Townegate and four other HOAs along Peachtree Memorial Drive represent about 200 homeowners who would be affected if the Beltline chooses Corridor 7.
Martha Powers, a longtime resident of Townegate, emailed Belcher and brought along neighbors Doyle Crider and Dale Tyree to show him the property that is part of the proposed Corridor 7.
Belcher asked all three if they could welcome the Beltline into their backyards under any circumstances. All three answered, “No!”
Powers said she first heard of Corridor 7 on Jan. 20, and only because she’d signed up for regular email updates about the Beltline.
She was stunned at what she read and quickly spread the information she had, which wasn’t much.
There are four other HOAs along Peachtree Memorial Drive.
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“It (notice of Corridor 7) was not circulated among the 200 homeowners on the street, so I sent it out, and we put out flyers on the street that Corridor 7 was coming, and we should be concerned,” Powers told Belcher.
But details were scarce.
“All we had was a map, absolutely no information: designs, plans, input. And we were given 11 days in which to respond. Meanwhile, Corridor 5 and 6 were given 13 weeks,” Powers said.
In an email, the Beltline acknowledged that the proposed path near Townegate Townhomes was a late addition after the agency had hosted an interactive map about potential sites start in late October.
“In mid-January, an additional corridor option -- Corridor 7 -- was added to provide another avenue of study due to identified design and real estate right of way challenges in Corridors 5 and 6. The survey, originally scheduled to close on January 21, was extended to the 31st,” the Beltline said in statement.
The Beltline said it mistakenly thought that residents along Peachtree Memorial Drive fell within another community group with whom “we’d been in frequent contact.”
There is no effort to dispute the late notice on Jan. 20 that surprised and angered Martha Powers and her neighbors.
In a separate email, the Beltline wrote that it had made repeated efforts before the Feb. 1 deadline to contact Townegate management but to no avail, and that on Feb. 1 a Beltline real estate official came to the complex and found a roofer on site.
According to the Beltline statement, the roofer told the Beltline official she would relay a message to the complex’s management.
Powers, Crider and Tyree all tell Channel 2 Action News they saw no one on Feb. 1 and received no message passed along by the Beltline.
“It would be nice to have some facts, nice to have some conversation. I’m not even sure if they’ve been back here to see this, to see if this is possible, let alone what’s on the street,” Tyree said.
Crider called it a tragedy.
“It’s pitted neighbor against a neighbor, community against community. It’s got to end.”
Powers said her group’s first priority is to delay the Beltline’s decision on which of the three corridors is determined to be the agency’s top priority.
She said they want more time, which was not provided earlier.
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