The jury’s out. Adair Park president reflects on improvements - and pitfalls - IN THE 2nd Attempt

Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI) has reignited the conversation Atlanta’s southside residents are having about better transit, according to community leader J. Lawrence Miller.

“People here are so used to being the last to get anything.  They had forgotten that the BeltLine was supposed to be a rail transit project,” he said.

In addition to serving as president of the Adair Park Neighborhood, Miller leads the Murphy Crossing Coalition, ensuring that residents’ development concerns are being considered. He also recently became a board member at BeltLine Rail Now.

Last week, ABI initiated its second attempt to find a developer for Murphy Crossing, widely regarded as a potential ‘jewel’ in the creation of a new commerce center along the BeltLine's southern arc. 

Unlike ABI’s first Request for Proposals (RFP) process, developers are now being asked to factor in the important role of transit, given the site's close proximity to existing MARTA heavy rail and light rail planned for the BeltLine.

"This one’s dramatically different because of the transit component,” Miller said. “This one also requires ‘adaptive reuse’ to preserve the historic building façade, and a tiered housing design -- meaning all housing starts at one story and goes up in recessed tiers. That approach should prevent over-development, and make it look nicer.”

Proposals will be judged primarily on their potential to deliver the most "sustainable living wage jobs" to neighborhood residents, affordable housing & greenspace, based on the document.

“It’s true, there’s nothing more important than jobs, and secondary is affordable housing,” said Miller. “Unfortunately, ‘affordable’ is still being defined as 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), which, in this case, means those earning up to $42k. It would allow that person to remain as long as raises they receive don’t exceed $140% AMI. Workforce housing is 60% AMI. And we’d actually prefer to see the AMI dropped to 40% because it should really reflect the current incomes of the neighborhood.”

When the initial RFP imploded last year, media reports offered unclear - and sometimes conflicting - explanations as to what happened.

“There’s still lingering disbelief and mistrust,” he said. For its part, the coalition spent hundreds of hours engaging ABI over a four month period, he said. To prepare, members collected more than 1,000 highly-detailed resident surveys, consulted with local experts in adaptive reuse of buildings, equity and transit.

“We made sure that the BeltLine understood that we don’t trust them,” Miller said. “ABI can still break its own rules if they want to.  They probably won’t this time, because they got caught last time.”

The city considers revitalization of Murphy Crossing to be a key driver for economic development for the Capitol View, Oakland City and Adair Park neighborhoods.  And ABI describes redevelopment of Murphy Crossing as a "cornerstone" of its expanding land acquisition strategy with a deliberate focus on equity.  

The 20-acre site was once home to the State Farmers Market, but now consists of mostly unoccupied industrial buildings. 

The deadline for proposals is Aug. 3, 2021.