Atlanta mayor creating task force for input on public safety training center
Atlanta mayor creating task force to get input on future training center
The site of the proposed public safety training center, which opponents have nicknamed 'Cop City,' has been a contentious topic across the city. Now Mayor Andre Dickens is hoping a new task force could help get the community's input on the project.
ATLANTA - Atlanta is working on a new plan to address public criticism of a controversial planned public safety training facility that critics have deemed "Cop City."
Tuesday, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced he will appoint 40 members to a task force staring in March to help brainstorm new solutions.
The task force, named the South River Forest and Public Safety Training Center Community Task Force, will focus on a number of areas including green space, sustainability, and "visioning, memorializing, and repurposing the former Atlanta Prison Farm Site."
The training center was approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021 after 17 hours of public comments — the majority of which were in opposition to the project. Some locals cited noise concerns, while others said the planned destruction of nature significantly undermines the city’s efforts to preserve its famed tree canopy and would exacerbate local flooding risks.
"WE'RE NOT GOING TO STOP:" APD TRAINING FACILITY OPPOSERS HOLD TOWN HALL
A still from a video promoting the development of the public safety training center.
In January, while announcing that construction permits had been approved, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the city is taking steps to protect the woodlands.
"This is Atlanta, and we know forests. This facility would not be built over a forest," Dickens said.
Dickens emphasized that the facilities will be built on a site that was cleared decades ago for a former state prison farm. He said the tract is filled with rubble and overgrown with invasive species, not hardwood trees. The mayor also said that while the facility will be built on an 85-acre site, about 300 other acres would be preserved as a public greenspace.
City officials also say community input has already adjusted the vision - adding a 100-foot tree buffer along the residential-facing part of the facility, adding pavilions and additional meeting place, and moving the planned firing range away from the residential areas to lower acoustic impacts.
WHO SHOULD BE PAYING SECURITY TAB AT ATLANTA PUBLIC TRAINING CENTER SITE?
In February, the DeKalb County government released a review of the land development permit application for the site, saying that "no mass grading or land disturbance was detected" and that construction work has been limited to "path clearing," "tree removal along the site perimeter" and "flagging of limits of clearings and stream buffers."
Still, protestors have fought the development. Most recently, a Fulton County judge denied a motion to halt construction. Instead, the judge ordered the Atlanta Police Foundation pay for daily inspections to make sure the project is causing as little disturbance to the land as possible.
Dickens intends to name the task force members in March and seek an initial set of recommendations by July.
Meanwhile, activists are planning what they call a "week of action" to stop the development beginning this weekend.