Forest To Be Protected In Building Of 'Cop City,' Officials Say

ATLANTA, GA — Officials say a majority of the 385 acres on which the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center will be built will be preserved for greenspace — in an effort to assuage environmentalists who have been striving to protect the nearby forest.

DeKalb County and Atlanta officials promised Tuesday to protect area forestry in the building of the 85-acre training center, which has come to be known as "Cop City." The Atlanta Police Foundation will operate the facility.

The proposed site is located near Constitution and Key roads.

A land disturbance permit, which allows for the clearance or grading of land, was issued Tuesday as plans to construct the $90 million training center move forward, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at a news conference.

The property will sit on land that spans 385 acres and is owned by the City of Atlanta near Intrenchment Creek, Dickens said.

It will be located near the South River Forest Basin, DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Michael Thurmond said. He said protecting the forest is DeKalb County's number one priority.

Protesters have been clashing with police over the training center's construction and vying to protect the forest on the land.

"DeKalb County will continue to be an aggressive and engaged steward of the South River Forest Basin," Thurmond said.

The remainder of the land not being utilized by the training center will be used as greenspace, Dickens said.

“This is Atlanta, and we know forests," Dickens said. "This facility will not be built over a forest.”

According to officials, the land the training center will live on has been cleared of hardwood trees through previous uses of the site.

"Arborists have confirmed the existing vegetation on this land is overwhelmingly dominated by invasive species like brush, weeds, vines and softwood trees. Much of the site contains rubble from old building structures and asphalt from old parking lots," officials said in a news release.

The Atlanta Police Foundation will replace any hardwood tree that is destroyed in the construction of the training center with more than 100 new hardwoods and will replace any invasive species trees with new hardwood plantings, according to the release.

Officials deemed the training center necessary for both police and fire personnel in Atlanta.

Need for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center

The design for the forthcoming training center includes an emergency vehicle obstacle course, academy housing, a burn building for the city fire department and an indoor/outdoor center and kennel for the city police department's K-9 Unit, Dickens said.

"We will make sure that we keep the site safe," he said.

The Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department currently utilize external resources and agencies to facilitate their respective trainings, both Police Chief Darin Schierbaum and Fire Chief Roderick Smith said at the news conference.

Schierbaum said the police department sometimes has to pay to use the facilities of neighboring agencies. Scheduling with outside agencies is also a concern.

Smith said the fire department has been training in a vacant elementary school but has to shift to conduct live fire training outside of Fulton County since the school is now condemned.

"We have been operating in a fractured state for over 30 years," Smith said. " ... We need places to train and get our members up to a point where they can provide the services the citizens of Atlanta deserve."

Dickens said teaching firefighters how to drive the heavy-duty fire trucks has been difficult as business owners no longer want the fire personnel to utilize their private parking lots due to the size of the emergency vehicles.

Protesting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center

The training center has been the focus of ongoing conflict between law enforcement and environmentalists who have been opposing the expansive project for at least a year.

According to its website, a group known as the Forest Defenders say building the training center will raise the cost of living and will destroy the forest.

The protests turned deadly this month when a Georgia State Patrol trooper was shot the morning of Jan. 18, and the person accused of shooting him died after being shot by authorities. The shooting happened during a joint task-force clearing operation at the training center site near Key Road where authorities were attempting to remove people from the site.

The GBI said around 25 campsites were removed. Mortar style fireworks, multiple edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks and a blow torch were also recovered, the GBI said.

A subsequent protest was held on Jan. 21 in downtown Atlanta in the name of Tortuguita, the person accused in the shooting of the state trooper.

Violence erupted near Ellis Street during the downtown protest — a subsection of the larger demonstration.

Masked activists dressed in all black threw rocks and lit fireworks in front of a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering large glass windows. They then lit a police cruiser on fire, smashed more windows and vandalized walls with anti-police graffiti as stunned tourists scattered. Six people were arrested.

Five people were arrested on Dec. 13, 2022, on charges of domestic terrorism in what authorities said were a string of criminal acts. Barricades blocking some of the training center's entrances were removed, and police found explosive devices, gasoline and road flairs in the area, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said at the time.

Opponents of the training center say the training center involves cutting down so many trees that it would be environmentally damaging. They also oppose spending so much money on a facility they say will be used to practice “urban warfare.”

According to the Atlanta Police Foundation, the initial phase of the training center is expected to open in the fourth quarter this year.

DeKalb County officials provided the additional information below about the project:

• The site will include double erosion control to ensure viability of Intrenchment Creek, the main waterway in the South River Forest Basin.
• Atlanta and its nonprofit partners will continue to collaborate with DeKalb’s planning and environmental officials working to ensure that the plans and development of the Public Safety Training Center strictly adhere to all federal, state and local environmental standards.
• Atlanta will partner with educational organizations to engage youth in public
  safety and other career development opportunities and provide workforce development to include a Cadet Program.
• Atlanta will encourage its nonprofit partners to utilize good faith efforts to engage in outreach to certified minority and female business enterprises.
• Atlanta will encourage contractors and subcontractors to use WorkSource Atlanta and WorkSource DeKalb to facilitate training and hiring workers from the surrounding communities.
• Atlanta will encourage contractors and subcontractors to use local businesses for support of the project, including materials, supplies, equipment and indirect project expenses such as signage and catering.
• Atlanta will encourage contractors and subcontractors to use sustainable materials in the work performed on the site.

The Associated Press contributed writing.

Patch has reached out to the protesting group for comment.