DeKalb Co. Board of Commissioners says NO to cell towers

Patch reports that the DeKalb Board of Commissioners (BOC) has unanimously asked CEO Ellis to prevent the Board of Education (BOE) from allowing T-Mobile to place cell phone towers on school grounds. The article includes a pdf of the letter, in which the Commissioners accuse the BOE of placing the county in an "untenable situation."

Medlock Park neighbors fought hard to prevent a tower from being added to the Medlock Elementary school property. Here's to hoping that other neighborhoods can reverse this ill-conceived scheme with help from the BOC and CEO.

In their letter, the Commissioners argue as Medlock neighbors did: that the BOE is bound by zoning law when a decision is self-serving ("proprietary") and unrelated to its educational ("governmental") mission. In other words, loopholes that violate the spirit of the County's zoning law are violations of the zoning law, whether you are a private individual or a government agency.

Patch states that

 The school board and the school system, so far, have been unreceptive to protestations since their approval vote. Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson continues to look ahead, Woods said.
"The decision was made well before her administration," she said. "Her point of view is that we need to focus on decisions yet to be made."

By this logic, the Superintendent would never correct or reverse previous administrative policy that has been found to be damaging to our students and community. Surely she did not mean that! Happily, there's an easy way for her to clarify: end these shenanigans.

Clifton Corridor / MARTA documents

MARTA has updated its Clifton Corridor website with lots of fun documents and maps. The Existing and Future Trends Report is particularly chock-full of information about what is and what could be.

Note that MANA falls within the "Clifton Corridor" as show in this screen capture from the above report:

Clifton Corridor boundary (dashed black line) per the Alternatives Analysis report

Community Gardening Workshop [Mar 31]

from Commissioner Gannon's website:

Click to enlarge

DeKalb needs to plan ahead

AJC reports [link now dead, sorry!] that if Brookhaven becomes a city, DeKalb county stands to lose on $25-27 millions in taxes, "some as early as December."

But the County says it can't plan until it knows for a fact that Brookhaven will remove that money from county coffers. According to the County,

“Our only options are to raise revenues, reduce expenses or draw down our reserves,” said chief operating officer Richard Stogner, adding a mix of those options will be the most likely outcome."

This makes no sense whatsoever. County Commissioner Elaine Boyer agrees: “The problem with DeKalb County is we never plan ahead.”

Surely that can change. Even today. Before unincorporated DeKalb ends up "left behind" in this cityhood and annexation rapture party.

If Brookhaven passess, if DeKalb County loses on that chunk of its tax base without adjusting its budget (and likely cutting services), it will be left to its citizens to swallow a 2 mil increase in their taxes to make up the difference.

AJC encourages DeKalb Co. to better manage its sewage system

Today, the AJC has an article outlining how cooking grease is the main culprit in sewage spills, and points to successful approaches by Cobb and Gwinnett Counties, who spend 25%-60% of their budgets (respectively) in preventive maintenance of their sewer systems, in contrast with DeKalb, whose "regular maintenance program fell off about 15 years ago, in an apparent bid to keep water rates low." The lack of system maintenance is directly damaging and unsanitary (when sewage spills into our creeks), but also costly when the EPA fines the County and mandates clean-ups (as it did in 2010).

It's easy to blame the County, but we must also look to our own habits, as cooking fats tie into food preparation at home and dining elsewhere. When fats, oils and grease (FOG) solidify in cold water, the stage is set for clogs that are responsible for 73% of DeKalb's sewage spills, per AJC's report.

DeKalb has a FOG (Fats, Oils and Grease) website that  primarily focuses on commercial sewage regulation and includes this gruesome tutorial...

Click to enlarge

But we need more information to encourage all DeKalb County residents to reduce the amount of FOGs we add to the County's water processing infrastructure.  To learn what you can do to help, please take a moment to review this nifty Unclog the Fog brochure produced by Gwinett County's Department of Water Resources. Another brochure by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality explains that by rinsing dishes in cold water, we can solidify some of those fats so that they can be scraped off or caught by sink screens for disposal.

More details on MARTA @ Suburban Plaza, Emory, CDC

more info...

Link to proposed plan (and map): CCA_LPA_FACTSHEET_3_20_2012.pdf

MARTA Planning staff have completed the review of community feedback and technical analysis and have finalized a recommended locally preferred alternative (LPA) for the Clifton Corridor.  The LPA is the alternative that, based on technical analysis and stakeholder input, would most effectively address the needs of the corridor and goals and objectives of the project.The LRT 1 Alternative has been identified as the recommended LPA (see attachment), which includes 8.8 miles of new light rail service from Lindbergh Center Station in north-central Atlanta to Avondale Station in west-central DeKalb County.  The alternative includes 10 light rail station platforms and would provide direct service to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Emory University and Hospital, and the DeKalb Medical Center.  Further, the alternative would provide an alternative means for high-capacity evacuation from the CDC in the event of an emergency situation.

MARTA Planning staff will present the LPA recommendation to the MARTA Planning and External Relations Committee on March 26^th at 10:00 a.m. and to the MARTA Board on April 9^that 1:30 p.m.  We hope that your schedule will allow you to attend.   There will be a public comment period prior to both meetings.  Both meetings will be held at:

MARTA Headquarters
6^th Floor Board Room
2424 Piedmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30324
(Adjacent to the Lindbergh Center MARTA Rail Station on the Red and Gold Lines)

Upon MARTA Board approval, we will present the LPA to the Atlanta Regional Commission for adoption and incorporation into the long-range transportation plan.  Afterwards, the LPA will be advanced through the next step in the federal project development process which is the completion of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact the MARTA Project Manager, Jason Morgan at 404-848-4494 or by email at jmorgan@itsmarta.com.

Leah Vaughan
Sycamore Consulting, Inc.
195 Arizona Avenue
Unit LW4
Atlanta, Georgia 30307
404-377-9147 Phone
404-377-9091 Fax
Leahvaughan@sycamoreconsulting.net

MARTA @ Suburban Plaza?

Per MARTA's website, this Clifton Corridor plan is "pending approval" from the MARTA Board of Directors:

• "8.8 miles of light rail double track (includes tunnels and elevated sections)
• 10 light rail station platforms
  • Lindbergh Center (Transfer to Red or Gold Lines)
  • Cheshire Bridge
  • Sage Hill
  • CDC/Emory Point
  • Emory-Rollins
  • Emory-Clairmont
  • North Decatur
  • Suburban Plaza
  • DeKalb Medical Center
  • Avondale Station (transfer to Blue Line)
• 3 additional optional stations for consideration
  • Piedmont (Transfer to BeltLine)
  • DeKalb Industrial
  • North Arcadia (old DeVry campus)
• 2 Maintenance and/or storage facilities"

Note that they are seeking public comment at the meetings below: