The committee had 15 members, 5 from ARMC, 5 from CHN, and 5 citizens at large:

ARMC members: Jack Drew (CEO), Carl Nichols (Chair, ARMC Programs and Facilities Committee), and three members of the ARMC Programs and Facilities Committee, Ed Graham, Helen Mills, and Al Stone.

CHN members: David Lynn (Cobbham, CHN Co-President), Amy Andrews (King Avenue, CHN Co-President), Jim Hawkins (Boulevard), Clint McCrory (Oglethorpe Avenue), and Gwen O'Looney (Cobbham). Carol Holmes served as an alternate for Jim Hawkins.

At large members: Diane Adams, Tal DuVall, Dick Field, Keith Oelke, and Stuart Thomas.

Others provided help. Larry Emmelhainz was employed by ARMC as the facilitator for the meetings. Minutes were taken by Sally Speed, Laura Hill, and Sue Custance of CHN and Elaine Cook of ARMC. Technical help was provided by Tom Lawrence of EDAW in Atlanta; Wayne Hill, ARMC Project Director; John Stockbridge, ACC Planning Director; and Bruce Lonnee, ACC Planning Department. Presentations and advice were given by David Clark, ACC Traffic Engineer, and by John Fregonese, ACC consultant on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

The committee met eight times over the summer. The first meeting was a tour of the hospital, the second meeting was a tour of the adjacent neighborhoods, and the remaining six working meetings were held at the ACC Planning Department on Dougherty Street. Each of the six working meetings was 3 to 4 hours long. The working meetings were open to the public.

1. June 28

The following hospital departments were toured: emergency room, neonatal care, rehab, oncology, mechanical plant (heating, air conditioning, electrical), and midwifery. Rehab, oncology, and midwifery are scheduled to move into the new medical building to be constructed on Talmadge Avenue.

2. June 30

Five owner-occupied homes and one rental house under renovation were visited. The locations were Cobb Street, King Avenue, Pine Needle, and Oglethorpe Avenue. Presentations were made by Mike Geyer on real estate values, Tom Reynolds on construction quality, and Laura Straehla on the historic significance of the old homes in the neighborhood.

3. July 12

Tom Lawrence summarized the hospital's 20-year plan, which had been the subject of several heated public meetings in the spring.

Gwen O'Looney explained progressive urban planning principles. Clint McCrory outlined CHN's objections to ARMC's plan. David Lynn presented a list of specific CHN requests concerning the 5-year plan.

In the CHN presentations the following basic issues were raised: The ARMC plan should be compatible with the ACC comprehensive land use plan. ARMC should decentralize its expansion; for example ARMC could expand across Prince Avenue. ARMC should not acquire further residential property, and should return the residential property it now owns outside its proposed 5-year boundary. There should be no parking deck on King Avenue.

In the long ensuing discussion ARMC defended its decision to centralize its expansion, based on considerations of patient and staff convenience, clinical needs, safety, and maintenance. ARMC defended the location of the first new medical building (MB1) and the necessity of locating all of its proposed functions adjacent to the main hospital building.

4. July 26

Tom Lawrence presented the 5 alternatives for hospital expansion originally prepared by him for ARMC. One plan included expansion across Prince Avenue into commercially zoned property, and another gave a more compact placement of new buildings, requiring less additional land.

There was considerable discussion about expanding across Prince Avenue. Cost of the property was mentioned, so the committee decided to get a professional estimate of the cost, compared to the residential property in ARMC's proposed plan. The feasibility of building a bridge over Prince or a tunnel under Prince was discussed. ARMC emphasized that going across Prince would result in lower operational efficiency.

A report was given by Clint McCrory and Ed Graham on meetings with David Clark, ACC traffic engineer, and staff of Jordan, Jones and Goulding, who did the traffic study for the ARMC plan. As a result of this report, ARMC agreed to authorized JJ&G to release to David Clark their supporting data for the ARMC traffic study.

Gwen O'Looney presented a CHN report on the negative neighborhood impacts of ARMC's proposed expansion plan.

ARMC's architects for Medical Building 1 got input from the committee on the design of that building.

5. August 4

John Fregonese, consultant to ACC for the comprehensive land use plan, gave a presentation on the history and principles of land use planning and the purpose of the ACC plan. Fregonese supported the redevelopment of the Normaltown business district, but he refrained from making specific comments on the ARMC expansion plan. He emphasized the importance of setting the expansion boundary and of careful design of structures near the boundary and buffers along the boundary.

Carl Nichols and Diane Adams (both realtors) presented estimates of property values near the hospital. Their findings indicated that the value of the commercial property across Prince Avenue is comparable to the value of residential property adjacent to the hospital.

David Lynn presented CHN's written list of specific "Do's and Don'ts" for hospital expansion.

6. August 10

Carl Nichols presented a revision of the ARMC 5-year and 20-year plans. The revised 5-year plan kept the current boundaries of the hospital (as did the original 5-year plan), moved the Cancer Care Center north on Talmadge, and replaced direct entrance to the large parking lot on King with entrance by a connector road from King to Talmadge. The revised 20-year plan included expansion down King and across Georgia Ave., but with less property acquisition than the original 20-year plan. No expansion across Prince was included, but some principles of the EDAW "compact" alternative were incorporated. The large parking deck on King was removed from the plan.

David Clark answered questions about traffic. He supported the proposed connector roads (King-Talmadge and Georgia-Pine Needle.) He advocated the development of park-and-ride facilities, through cooperation among ACC, UGA, and ARMC.

CHN again pressed the issue of going across Prince. ARMC again emphasized the cost of the commercial property, about 4 times the cost of the additional residential property needed for the revised expansion plan. [However in this comparison the commercial acreage is greater than the residential acreage.] ARMC characterized the redevelopment of the other side of Prince as a speculative venture which would be irresponsible for ARMC to undertake at this time. However, they indicated that they might consider expanding across Prince in the future.

7. August 23

Clint McCrory presented the CHN response to the ARMC revised plan. The main points were: -Acceptance of the five-year plan, with some specific concerns to be worked out. -No expansion of the ARMC boundary down King and Talmadge. -No acquisition of houses on Oglethorpe Avenue. -Support for ARMC's redevelopment of commercially zoned properties across Prince in the future. -Neighborhood participation in the future planning of the development of the old Trusso site.

Stormwater detention was discussed in some detail, since proposed ARMC acquisition of properties on Talmadge is solely for the purpose of building an additional stormwater detention "pond". ARMC responded that careful studies have been done, and that the additional pond is most probably necessary.

Parking was also discussed at length, especially the necessity for a total of more than 5000 parking spaces on the facility in the 20-year plan. Suggestions were offered for decreasing the need for parking, such as staggering employee work shifts.

8. August 31

Carl Nichols presented ARMC's compromise 5- and 20-year plans. They basically agreed with what CHN accepted on August 23, with the exception of property acquisition on Talmadge Ave. for the purpose of stormwater retention. (See http://www.normaltown.com/latest.htm for an analysis of these plans.)

McCrory presented results of a meeting he and Ed Graham had with David Clark about the King-Talmadge connector. Clark recommended that a left turn lane be added near the connector on King Avenue. He suggested traffic calming on the connector by increasing its curvature and by using raised pedestrian crosswalks.

The last part of this last meeting was a discussion of the form of a final agreement. CHN wanted a legally binding contract. An at-large member suggested a written public document signed by all committee members. ARMC wanted a resolution by the hospital board. ARMC agreed to work with CHN over the month of September to resolve this issue, as well as remaining details concerning the 5-year plan.