Board Meeting Minutes: Mar 12, 2015

BCN Members Version – PDF (login required).

I. Welcome & Introductions

Tom Tidwell called the meeting to order at about 6:45 PM.

II. Approval of Minutes

Minutes for the February meetings were approved.

III. Admit New Member Neighborhood

No neighborhoods asked to be admitted to membership in BCN.

IV. BCN Standing Committees

EDUCATION

• SB 133 regarding Governor’s statewide “Opportunity School District” passes Senate 38-17 (www.legis.ga.gov).Tom Tidwell outlined his thoughts on the following legislative initiatives: Tom is concerned that the legislation will take up to 3% from these under-performing schools to create a new bureaucracy. He thinks that’s not the right way to fix these schools. The Education Committee met with Vice Chairman Mike Dungeon, Margaret Kaiser, and Beth Beskin. Tom said Mike was adamant that 133 would pass and that it wouldn’t create a new bureaucracy.Tom isn’t sure that it is possible to run the OSD system with just 3%. Tom thought there was a chance to stop the bill in the House.
• SR 287, enabling resolution authorizing a referendum to amend Georgia Constitution to allow OSD, passed 38-15 (needs supermajority).
• City of Atlanta still refuses to transfer property deeds to APS.
• Beltline dispute still in limbo.

TRANSPORTATION

• HB 170 Transportation Bill, passed House 123-46.
  • Amends definition of “education transportation purposes”.
  • Imposes a registration fee on alternative fuel vehicles (electric cars).
  • Eliminates state income tax credits for low emission vehicle.
  • Eliminates state sales tax on gas and replaces it with a 29 cent excise tax which must be used for “transportation purposes” defined to include “roads, bridges, public transit, rails, airports, buses, seaports…”
  • Indexes excise tax to average fuel mileage plus cost of highway construction.
• Tom said that according to his notes of his conversation with Ed Lindsey, 48% of the state’s roads are rated fair or poor but there’s only enough funding to repair 2% of them per year. He said they need to be able to repair 7% a year. Tom said that when businesses consider moving to a new city they look at two things: transportation and education – Atlanta is not doing well with either.
• Tom outlined the proposals under consideration in the Legislature to address transportation. Yolanda Adrean commented that the City’s analysis of the legislation indicated that the city wouldn’t lose funding because of the various changes being considered.

DEVELOPMENT/INFRASTRUCTURE

• City Infrastructure Bond Referendum- early voting open until March 13. The only location in Buckhead seems to be Chastain Park Rec. Center at 140 W. Wieuca.
• List of potential projects can be found at www.infrastructuremap.org.

OTHER

Tom added the list of elected officials to the back of the agenda to enable us to easily contact those officials when we have a comment or complaint. They are as follows:

 

V. Speakers: Jim Durrett – Executive Director of Buckhead CID

Jim outlined the status of a number of projects:

Charlie Loudermilk Park will open on March 31.

The widening of Piedmont Road from north of the Buckhead Loop up to Habersham Road – a dedicated left turn lane is being constructed. It will be available for use by both northbound and southbound traffic. He thinks the project will be completed in late summer.

West Paces Ferry will be restriped between Slaton and Peachtree. The BCID asked the city to consider repaving East Paces Ferry and Pharr Roads between Peachtree and Piedmont. The city agreed to do it and asked BCID for recommendations on the restriping of those roads. East Paces Ferry will remain essentially the same. A center left turn lane is recommended for Pharr with single through lanes in both directions for most of the road. This will permit space for bike lanes on Pharr, perhaps diverting bike traffic from Peachtree and providing connectivity to PATH400 at the Gordon Bynum Bridge. Yolanda asked about the access to the Pharr Road Post Office. Jim answered that the traffic routing within the post office’s parking lot is being reviewed.

Conceptual plans for streetscaping Peachtree from Maple Drive to Shadowlawn have been approved by most of the reviewers in GDOT. Once all approvals are secured, final plans will be prepared and right-of-way acquisition will begin this year. The project should be complete in 2017.

Options for the remainder of Peachtree down to Midtown are being considered. Generally, we have three lanes in each direction; most traffic signals don’t even have a left turn arrow. A two-way center left turn lane is needed and options for the remainder of the pavement are being considered. He hopes that a public presentation of the options will be presented in April.

• One option is to make it two lanes in each direction and bike lanes on each side. A complication is that churches on Peachtree have on-street parking granted years ago, which leaves just one through lane in each direction.
• Another option considered by GDOT is three though lanes in one direction and two in the other. There would be no bike lanes or the buffer pedestrians on sidewalks get. The three lanes would switch sides at East/West Wesley – three lanes southbound from Buckhead to W Wesley and three lanes northbound from Midtown to E Wesley.

Another project is the intersection of Phipps Boulevard and Wieuca Road. The area being studied extends from Phipps Boulevard at Lenox Road to Wieuca Road at Peachtree Road. Consultants are studying the area. Options should be available in a couple of months. Funding may come from impact fees from the projects under way in the area as well as CID funds and perhaps bonds funds. Four projects involving about 1,000 apartments and a hotel are under way or planned in the study area.

 

VI. Community Concerns/New Business/Announcements

VII. Next Meetings

• April 16, 2015, the third Thursday.
• May 14, 2015 (back to second Thursdays).

IX. Adjourn – The meeting adjourned at about 8:15 PM.

Note: The opinions expressed by the speakers and individual neighborhood representatives in these minutes do not necessarily represent those of BCN or its member neighborhoods.