A packed Riverwood High School auditorium in Sandy Springs was the stage for a public meeting hosted by the Riverside Home Owners Association Wednesday to discuss traffic management plans for the new Suntrust Park and as expected, tensions were high.
With a lineup of elected officials including State Senators Judson Hill and Hunter Hill, newly elected State Representative Deborah Silcox, and Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott all sitting front and center it was clear that the fate of Cobb Chairman Tim Lee, handily defeated this Summer, weighed heavily on the proceedings.
Riverside HOA President Reed Haggard moderated the event, but it was Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul who did most of the talking – and caught most of the flak from an audience that had more questions than it got answers. The plan put forward by Paul clearly centers around keeping as much traffic as possible in Cobb County, but given Sandy Springs’ proximity, it appears to be far more easily said than done.
The Braves and Sandy Springs will try to funnel traffic to the Windy Hill exit on I-75, avoiding the New Northside I-285 exit that also gives access to the area around Suntrust Park. Urging fans to avoid one particular exit though can only do so much, so more practical solutions were also explained. ‘Slip ramps’ on I-285 would serve as temporary exit ramps to get to the stadium, while a half-diamond interchange would alleviate traffic at I-75 and 285. A high-tech camera system would let engineers manually control busy traffic lights, while video boards on the interstate would direct travelers to the least crowded exits.
Funnily the issue of public transportation, or the total lack thereof, only got one bullet point in the slideshow, the last one on the final page. MARTA and GRTA expansion aren’t currently in the cards, a fact that Paul to his credit lamented, saying that “if it were up to me we’d expand Marta all the way up to Tennessee”.
When the floor was opened for questions the muted rumblings from the crowd turned to angry shouts, with many residents questioning the plans and their implementation and wondering why they would have to bear the cost of so much traffic for a stadium they largely didn’t want and certainly hadn’t voted for.
The crowd erupted into applause when one man near the back loudly exclaimed that “this stadium is an urban planning disaster!” Another audience member, a worried mother, raised concern over the effects that traffic would have on Riverwood students, many of whom travel to and from extra-curricular activities around the time the Braves are playing.
Paul, along with Cobb District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott, did his best to assuage the concerns of the restless crowd, but emotions continued to run high. Towards the end of the meeting a man questioned Paul’s cheerful demeanor, asking how he could be smiling while taxpayers were about to be on the hook for a series of expensive transportation projects built to support a baseball stadium not even in their county.
The other elected officials on hand were largely silent during the proceedings, saying that they were there to listen to public concerns and become better educated on the issues being presented. A wise move to make their empathy known, as the emotions in the room echoed those in Cobb County that saw Chairman Tim Lee, (and one of the chief authors of the Braves move) soundly defeated by Mike Boyce.
