April 5, 1999
Mr. Al Crace
Athens-Clarke County Manager
325 E. Washington St.
Athens, GA 30601-4514
Dear Mr. Crace:

We are writing this letter in reference to the development plans recently submitted by Athens Regional Medical Center (ARMC) to Athens-Clarke County. Although our neighborhoods recognize and support ARMC as a strong community member and service provider and are highly aware of the benefits they provide to our community in numerous arenas, we must come out in strong opposition to these plans as we understand them.

We are not opposed to the proposed building in the Talmadge/Sylvan Circle area, which is congruent with neighborhood expectations and suggested long-range plans for ARMC’s growth. However, the 10-20 year plan that proposes a "greenway" from ARMC to Belvoir Heights, and the widening of King Avenue from Prince to Hill Street is completely unacceptable. This plan eliminates 18-20 houses on King Avenue and Talmadge which are at least 95% owner-occupied. This proposed plan not only cuts the King, Holman, Sunset, and Oglethorpe neighborhoods off from Cobbham neighborhood and town, but it increases traffic to an unacceptable level and opens the door for King Avenue to be rezoned for offices in the future.

Previous rezoning requests granted to the section of King Avenue between Hill Street and Prince Avenue have been made with the stipulation that no further encroachment into the single-family residential area would be allowed. However, these boundaries are not being respected by the hospital’s new plan. For in-town neighborhoods, density equals safety. Although the "greenway" can be made to look good on paper, it eliminates neighbors, decreases safety, and threatens to have King Avenue looking like the west end of Prince Avenue in the not so distant future. This change may be desirable for ARMC and the medical community, but it is definitely not desirable for the residential community. Although ARMC does not see its plan as bad for the neighborhood, this proposal, if implemented, will destroy the integrity and attraction of this affordable, middle income, multi-ethnic neighborhood thereby creating a greenway for whom? This neighborhood has consistently improved in the last 10-15 years. Houses in this neighborhood consistently increase in value, are usually on the market for only two to four months, and are increasingly owner-occupied.

As we understand it, this proposed "greenway" is only for storm water/run off water management, and the reason for eliminating these homes is to provide an adequate detention pond for the increased paving at the source, ARMC. As we have a landscape architect in our group who specializes in storm water management and stream restoration, we feel confident in suggesting that this method of water management is not what is currently recommended for environmental purposes. Most water management experts now recommend that reduction of storm water at the source through the use of alternatives like pervious paving, infiltration systems, and bioswales are a much better long term alternative for growth, the water table, and the environment.

We feel sure that ARMC's alternative for water management was recommended by a reputable Atlanta firm, but it was part of an overall hospital growth proposal, and perhaps the firm’s specialty is not water management, or Athens-Clarke and this neighborhood. This plan, the necessary road changes to support it, the watershed it effects, and the destruction of a viable, middle income, in-town neighborhood is in every way incongruous with the Athens-Clarke County’s current and developing land use plan which targets our area as a "traditional neighborhood."

Although we support ARMC in its mission, we feel these plans should have come before the neighborhoods, community and the county before their final stage. Attached, for your information, is a letter sent to ARMC’s CEO and board in an attempt to have input and increased knowledge of these plans. As yet, there has been no response.

Again, we are not in opposition to ARMC or its development, but want to give the message that they must be part of the Athens-Clarke long-term planning, and that existing in-town neighborhoods must be preserved at all costs for obvious reasons (schools, taxes, flight issues, traffic, etc.) Moreover, we feel there is a viable alternative for the hospital and the neighborhood which supports more responsible water management by ARMC, and feel that Athens-Clarke County should insist that this alternative be investigated and addressed before any plans are approved.

Thank you for consideration of this letter and the concerns of the group here signed.

Respectfully submitted,

Concerned Citizens of the Normaltown Area

(King, Cobbham, Holman, Talmadge, Oglethorpe and Boulevard neighborhoods)

c: John Stockbridge, Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission

Doc Eldridge, Mayor, Athens-Clarke County