In response to the request made by Carl Nichols on July 12^th for information on how Athens Regional Medical Center (ARMC) negatively impacts the neighborhood, the following document was presented for consideration and discussion at the July 26^th meeting of the Joint ARMC-CHN Planning Committee.

1. While it is easy to point out specifics, the urban design principles violated by expanding a mammoth scale institutional into a small grid, residential neighborhood are much more complex. In Life & Death of Great American Cities, Jane Jacob compared the negative impacts of this mistake to a wedge driven into an anthill. She pointed out the importance of being able to move easily and comfortably from one part of a neighborhood to another as a major theft by large intrusions into neighborhoods and spoke eloquently to the importance of volume to the health of a neighborhood. We believe that an open conversation with any urban designer will raise and address these negative impacts.
2. DESTRUCTION OF HOMES – Of course, the major reason the community feels that ARMC has a negative impact on the community at this time is the revelation that in planning its future growth ARMC intends to destroy over fifty viable and in most cases inhabited homes in a major intown neighborhood. The personal pain these plans have caused individuals is as varied as those impacted. Any other entity with the economic and condemnation powers of ARMC would have made destruction of residences a choice not to be considered until all other options had been explored. The lack of consideration given to the people of these neighborhoods is a threat that will have a long-term impact on the stability of these neighborhoods without a clear and definitive commitment by ARMC.
3. IMPACT ON HOMEOWNERSHIP – Historically, the Cobbham, Boulevard, Talmadge Heights and Oglethorpe Avenue have been seen as unstable neighborhoods due to the omnipresent expectation of ARMC property acquisition. ARMC going public with its actual plans and identifying which areas were safe and which were actually threatened could have been a very positive and stabilizing step. However, ARMC plans reveal a disregard for and a level of intrusion into surrounding residential neighborhoods greater than anyone could have predicted.
        For years, speculative investors have bought, rented and failed to reinvest in nearby residential properties knowing that when they were ready to sell or when properties were needed, ARMC would pay "top dollar." In one instance, a whole block of historic homes of the size and scale so much in demand in our community was destroyed just because of the belief that ARMC was interested. New local laws protect Athens’ residential neighborhoods from this exploitation and an increase in home ownership is occurring throughout intown neighborhoods. Of course, all property owners know that they should approach ARMC when they want to sell.
        As testified by local realtors, properties in this area have had a healthy and investment assuring appreciation in recent years. The number of homes this size are limited and in high demand by young professionals and families. In fact, many of the new homeowners are ARMC Employees who have bought into the neighborhood and the new urban design goals of Athens-Clarke County to allow people to live work worship and raise their children in a traditional neighborhood of mixed uses. As the children of Baby Boomers leave home and they retire, trends show increased interest in exactly these type of inner city neighborhoods. ARMC is removing prime properties from the tax digest. Further reduction of the number of these type and scale of homes in inner city locations will push up property values so as to displace those who are on limited incomes or bought when property values were low.
        This is one long-term positive view, but, for the first time, homeowners near ARMC also foresee the possibility of property depreciation and neighborhood decline due to the new expansion plans. Here are two recent examples:
   In the prior statements of a realtor auctioning a house on Cobb Street, a major statement was made in an attempt to allay fears of buyers that the hospital’s expansion was going to negatively impact the neighborhood.
   One family stated that the reason they did not support historic designation of Oglethorpe Avenue was based on the negative impact of ARMC plans on her property. Since the major "benefit" of historic designation allows homeowners to freeze tax values for ten years, it would only be beneficial if the property value was increasing. Designation was seen as harmful only because depreciation of the property value was expected due to the 5 story parking deck ARMC planned to build adjacent to the backyard..
4. SECURITY – Community safety is determined by a delicate formula in any neighborhood. The degree of safety primarily depends upon the number of caring eyes watching a community; the variety of activities, schedules and mixed uses in the area; and the degree of temptation offered by the opportunities available. Surface parking lots are a major breeding ground for personal attacks and theft in any community. Surface parking lots breed crime more than any other element of commercial, industrial or institutional design.
        Surface Parking Lots create "dead space" and are seldom successfully secured or patrolled. Without heavy patrolling if there is any greenery at all, surface lots offer easy hiding places, tempting loot and the greatest opportunity for crime in any setting. In the five- and ten- year phases of ARMC development, surface parking is the major method of "landbanking" property. The number of parking spaces projected are excessive and far above any formula. The sheer number and later volume when decked represent an unnecessary level of intrusion into the neighborhood.
   Since the vast per cent of spaces are needed by staff, traffic will be concentrated around shift changes with long periods of inactivity. Dead time and space presents the highest level of temptation and opportunity to criminals. If lots are designed aesthetically with screening from the street and islands of greenery, visibility decreases and the need for patrolling increases. Studies of the Atlanta area around the stadium proved vehicle patrolling to be the least likely to prevent car enterings, personal assaults and other foot criminals.
   When criminals exit large open spaces, they seek the backyards and greenery of neighborhoods to hide their escape. By placing large parking lots next to residential properties, the likelihood of criminals attracted by the hospital using the neighborhood for approach and escape is high.
5. TRAFFIC – The Master Plan does a good job of pointing out the level and variety of traffic problems created by the current plan:
   The Focus of new lots, traffic and volume onto King Avenue is of such a great magnitude that ARMC originally recommended destruction of all of the homes on the other side of the street in order to accommodate the four-laning of King Avenue. Now that ARMC has offered to remove these homes from the list of those to be destroyed, changes must be made to remove the negative impacts that precipitated the need for widening King Avenue.
   Currently, a significant per cent of staff using the deck enter and leave through the Talmadge Heights neighborhood. This is a problem that is not addressed by plans until the twenty-year plan for a new road. Now is the time to address the volume of traffic already impacting the neighborhood and to avoid the inevitable increase caused by any expansion.
   Every consideration for traffic reflected in the Master Plan violates the rules of traffic calming which would be appropriate for any plan impacting a commercial and residential neighborhood. Residents are understandably threatened by a plan designed only to speed up traffic.
   As taxpayers, the community is negatively impacted by any plan that relies on local government to address the growth impact of a single business.
   It would be negligent of us not to mention that people speeding in emergency situations through residential areas to the Emergency Room have caused accidents, property damage and a danger to our children.
6. WATER MANAGEMENT – No one disputes the precarious balance of our current water management in the area. ARMC originally proposed to destroy more than a block of homes for a detention pond. Now that this item may be removed, how does ARMC propose to resolve the admitted problem caused by planned growth? Examples of the negative impact of ARMC’s past growth abound down Pine Needle as long-term residents have watched attractive creeks swell to undermine garages, flood basements and remove property from use.
        Again, residents feel negatively impacted by ARMC when they see other high standard developers in both urban and suburban locations choose much more attractive and less invasive solutions to the water problems they cause. Every developer in this community is required to attain "zero run-off" with new construction. At no point has ARMC offered perforated surfaces to reduce runoff, included retention and treatment solutions, or recognized the advantages of redeveloping already built properties.
7. DISREGARD FOR NEIGHBORHOOD VALUES – Pointing out to a neighbor where and how they have failed to think of you in the past is difficult to do. In the hope that these examples were developed to support ARMC in development of new ways to plan and think of their neighbors in the future, we offer these past and current areas of negative impact.
   While ARMC is conscientious about its attractive appearance on the Prince Avenue frontage, some acquired properties awaiting destruction have been kept vacant for years and not been consistently maintained. One property has been turned into a business location.
   The Trusso Property has been used as a staging area for each construction project with the inescapable consequences of this use on adjacent residents of noise, high security lights, and equipment traffic.
   The huge mechanical coolers were placed on the outside of the ARMC property so that the weight of the negative impacts of noise and unsightliness was felt by the neighborhood. We appreciate that greenery was added to allow some buffer for the noise and to screen them from the street. However, these improvements are recent and should have been included with initial plans. In its major building addition, Lanier Gardens worked hard with the community and experts to determine the best location for such mechanicals and shield both their residents and surrounding homes from the noise. We ask nothing more than would be assured if ARMC upheld local laws.
   Even though designed and in some newer instances aimed for consideration of the neighborhood, the amount of abnormal and intrusive light is much higher than in other inner town neighborhoods.