MLK Jr. Drive, get ready for your facelift
Officials share ideas, renderings with the public regarding long-awaited road renovations
Atlanta officials have begun efforts to pitch residents living in the city's western neighborhoods on more than seven miles of roadside renovations along Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
City planners last night presented potential plans for the "Martin Luther King Jr. Grand Boulevard Concept," which stretches from Northside Drive to Fulton Industrial Boulevard, to the public. Officials who held the meeting were seeking input that could impact a final plan presented to Atlanta City Council in early 2015.
Department of Public Works Commissioner Richard Mendoza told residents the MLK Jr. Drive proposal would be a “working plan” that would guide the corridor’s pending transformation. The meeting, one of several being held with residents, follows a call from Mayor Kasim Reed to make the road named after the civil rights icon "one of the most attractive streets in America.” Councilman C.T. Martin last night echoed those calls, saying the time has come to put an end to 40 years of MLK Jr. Drive's neglect.
“We don’t envision this to be a plan that’s going to be sitting on the shelf," Mendoza told residents.
In one drawing, planners slimmed down MLK Jr. Drive near Downtown from four to two lanes with parallel bicycle lanes. Savannah-style medians filled with trees separate lanes headed in opposite directions. Other renderings featured roundabouts, public art, landscaping, and pocket parks with fountains.
If Council approves the MLK Jr. Drive plan, short-term projects like center medians and landscaping could be finished by 2017. Streetlights, bicycle lanes, and planted medians would require closer to five years to finish, according to officials.
Some residents attending the meeting told officials that proposed upgrades should be the start of addressing corridor's needs. Adamsville resident Mrs. Harris, who declined to give her first name, told officials and attendees that she researched the road by getting out of her car and walking it. The stroll took a while, she said.
“Sometimes I was afraid, sometimes I felt more uncomfortable,” Harris said. She listed the difficulties that she noticed on her long walk: speeding cars, narrow sidewalks that funneled her too close to strangers, and places where no sidewalks existed.
Then there were the crossings. “At Fairburn Road and MLK, I will do anything to not have to cross there,” Harris said. Since she walked slowly enough, she took note of the houses. “We talk about beautification, but yet the homeowners might need assistance to do some exterior beautification for their homes,” she said.
Resident and architect Oscar Harris (no relation to Mrs. Harris) called for the development and business communities to be more engaged in the MLK Jr. Drive plans.
“Developers see the street totally differently than engineers or architects see it,” he said. For example, he said a concrete median in the wrong place could hurt a business because of the potential to block off additional traffic.
“There’s no sense in having a street and along the side you have blight and no one’s bringing in any money,” Oscar Harris said.
Residents weren't too keen on plans to narrow the road near the Atlanta Falcons stadium and build a planted median. Castleberry Hill resident Snapper Mack received applause for denouncing the idea. He said a broken-down car in one lane has stopped all traffic in other places with narrowed roads. He instead recommended officials to build a reversible lane to channel Atlanta Falcons game traffic.
“It will be a beautiful place to drive up, if you got room to drive up,” Mack said.
Even better, Mack said, would be for planners to finally re-connect MLK Jr. Drive to Georgia State University, Underground Atlanta, and the Gold Dome. Earlier this year, the city <a href=“ http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2014/02/06/residents-blast-decision-to-close-part-of-mlk-drive-for-stadium-construction”>shut down a key portion of the road that connected residents of the city's western neighborhoods to Downtown.
“For us to get that viaduct bridge opened back up…and to make MLK Jr. Drive two-way all the way … the spirit of Martin Luther King could come to life in this city,” he said.
Check out some of the renderings presented last night after the jump:
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