Transportation improvements dominate NPU-B

Planning groups banding together in Buckhead for community improvement painted a green picture at Tuesday night's NPU-B meeting. In the works are projects for parks, HOV lanes and pedestrian infrasture improvements.

Buckhead Area Traffic Management Association business development manager Tony Powers updated the board about activities with Buckhead's Community Improvement District, the newly incorporated nonprofit Livable Buckhead, on which Silver is a board member, and BATMA.

Among the projects Powers described were:

• I-85 toll ramps. By the end of the month, HOV lanes from Old Peachtree to Chamblee-Tucker roads will be converted to "hot lanes" that will be available for single-passenger vehicles, with a fee based on congestion and time of day. Qualifying carpool sizes will increase from two to three. Peachpass registration will be required for automatic payments.
• Greenspace Action Plan. Complementing the city's Project Greenspace, plans were announced for a string of parks that will be part of an overall grid of nonmotorized paths linking Buckhead with the proposed Beltline, Southfork Conservancy and biking and walking paths, such as the one to Stone Mountain.  
• Recycling Livable Buckhead. Look for an event soon that will offer special recycling opportunities for expired medications, paints and chemicals, as well as electronics. Also in the works is a special program to aid small businesses with recycling programs and improvements to large-office recycling programs utilizing one provider so that fewer truck hauls will be necessary.
• Traffic Officer Program. BCID will place officers along Piedmont Road between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. to help keep traffic moving.
• Operation Shield. Now that cameras are up along the Buckhead boundary, BCID will make sure the cameras are monitored downtown by police. BCID is coordinating with the Buckhead Business Association's Buckhead Business Foundation on this project.

On action items, NPU-B approved all items on the consent agenda for liquor licenses, with one special-use permit deferral.

One planning action request took an unusual procedural turn after the motion came to the NPU-B with conditions added. The other motion was more straightforward and approved for the redevelopment of the area around Lindbergh and Morosco drives.

"The apartments are going to go away," said NPU Chairperson Sally Silver. In their place will be a mixed-use commercial complex with active-use along the perimeter and parking and landscaping on the interior. In addition, a large grocery store is slotted for the space. "That will really make Lindbergh work," she said.

On an appeal of MARTA's plans to build a bridge over Ga. 400, the board opted not to send a recommendation for approval but rather a resolution about MARTA's planned consruction of a pedestrian bridge over Ga. 400 at the Buckhead Loop.

The resolution to the planning department will state that, while NPU-B supports Meridian's appeal on most points, the NPU should weigh in when administrative variances are sought. According to Buckhead CID's website, final design and engineering are complete for the $24 million pedestrian bridge over Ga. 400.

Meridian Buckhead condominiums has requested concessions from MARTA, including added lighting and surveillance, as well as the one contested item of overhead doors for the garage.

Once the project is complete, pedestrians from the Tower Place Drive and Stratford Road sides of Ga. 400 will have direct access to both sides of the highway and to MARTA's Buckhead Station without having to walk to Peachtree Road, making existing development transit-accessible, the website said.