Photo by Thinh D. Nguyen
Click to enlarge photos.By Jon Gillooly
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - A majority of the seven City Council members say they oppose adding a third lane to part of Whitlock Avenue as proposed by a citizens group they appointed.
Council members Holly Walquist, Van Pearlberg, Grif Chalfant and Annette Lewis say they oppose another westbound lane to Whitlock from Kirkpatrick Drive to Mount Calvary Road just west of John Ward Road. Two of the remaining three council members, Philip Goldstein and Anthony Coleman, say they haven't reached a decision. Councilman Jim King did not return phone calls.
Not one of the residents who packed the council chamber for a three-hour town hall meeting Wednesday said they support the third lane. Those residents want Whitlock Avenue left alone, saying if west Cobb and Paulding County commuters want a faster route to and from work, they should find another road. Residents told the council they fear an additional westbound lane to Whitlock, which is the proposal of a five-member, council-appointed citizens committee, would only cause additional traffic and ruin their neighborhoods.
Larry Wills, who lives off Oakmont Drive between Polk Street and Whitlock, chided the council for considering the idea during the forum.
"The west side neighborhoods of Marietta are the goose that lays the golden egg every year that keeps the lights in City Hall burning," Wills said.
"We are the primary contributor to the city's tax digest. So why does the city government want to build another Powder Springs Street through our neighborhood, driving down property values and destroying the amenities that attract new residents to this area? Why does Councilpersons Goldstein and Lewis want to damage the goose that subsidizes the maintenance and protection of their real estate holdings? Why does the mayor want to hurt the goose that provides the financial leverage for his redevelopment schemes?" Wills asked.
Tammy Clabby, who lives in Whitlock Heights, said it was only five years ago when she was urging the council not to widen Whitlock.
"It seems the city is intent on destroying it," she said.
Clabby and others asked why the citizens group had not asked what residents thought before turning in its plan to the council.
"Nobody asked us what we thought ...Yet here we are, year after year," she said.
Atlanta goes out of its way to protect neighborhoods such as Virginia Highlands and Druid Hills, she pointed out, asking where is the protection for Whitlock Heights.
If the council moves forward with a third lane for Whitlock, it will have to convince Kennesaw Battlefield National Park to give up 1,400 feet of right of way between Hardage Road and John Ward Road, city officials have said. Using parkland for a road did not sit well with some residents - particularly using Kennesaw Battlefield, which Clabby described as "the largest single piece of green space left in metro Atlanta."
"We view this as an incremental assault on our neighborhood. It is not the answer to pave paradise and put up a parking lot," she said, to loud applause.
Al Oaken of Marietta was so incensed by the idea of taking parkland for a road that he called on the audience to complain to their congressmen.
"You have a battlefield there," he told the council.
Clabby said residents had to fight to keep the so-called "Reynolds Street Connector" out of their neighborhoods. After they killed that project, they had to fight Mayor Bill Dunaway's plan, which was a modified version of the Reynolds Street Connector. And now they are fighting a third westbound lane on Whitlock.
"We fully believe this will be the beginning of the end," she said.
Dunaway said he resents anyone accusing him of wanting to ruin Whitlock Heights, as he has two daughters who live in that neighborhood.
"I think Whitlock Heights is the best neighborhood in town," Dunaway said.
Sandy Edwards, who owns property on Whitlock, asked council members why they wanted to help Paulding commuters get home a few minutes earlier at the expense of Marietta residents.
And Kathleen Hall, a math professor at Southern Polytechnic State University, said she opted to live in a smaller house within walking distance of the Square rather than a mansion in west Cobb or Paulding County because Marietta has a "soul."
"You are the city of Marietta Council, not the Paulding County Commission, not the Cobb Commission," Hall said.
Hall, Wills and others questioned where the data was supporting the council-appointed group's claim that the third lane would help traffic flow. Wills said the committee left no paper trail.
"All we know is that the City Council was set to approve the expenditure of Marietta tax dollars for a project that will only benefit Paulding and Cobb County commuters until Councilpersons Chalfant and Walquist insisted upon this meeting," he said.
Finding a solution for the Whitlock Avenue bottleneck has gone on for decades.
Back in the 1980s, the Reynolds Street Connector would have included constructing four lanes from Whitlock Avenue at Whitlock Drive southeast to Reynolds Street. Another proposal at that time was a modified version of the Reynolds Street Connector that would have built four lanes from Whitlock Avenue near Kirkpatrick, turning southeast to Reynolds Street. It was this modified version that Dunaway pushed for five years ago, although he did not have the needed council votes for approval. The council did vote to approve four-laning Whitlock from Kirkpatrick to John Ward Road during the late 1980s or early 1990s, funded by SPLOST. But the county commission chairman at the time, Bill Byrne, and his commission put that project behind Atlanta and Tower roads project improvements, so that by the time they got around to it the funding was gone, a city official said.
The five-member citizens group is made up of Marietta Redevelopment Corp. members Micky Blackwell and Terry Lee; Steven Bruning, a partner with Atlanta-based Newcomb & Boyd; former City Councilman Pete Waldrep; and Larry Ceminsky, owner of Bomber Battery.
The group was appointed by the council in the summer of 2006 as part of a 15-member group, which included five appointments from Cobb and five from Paulding formed to offer ideas on a long-range transportation plan being developed by leaders in Cobb and Paulding counties.
By the end of last year, Ceminksy said it became clear that the 15-member group had accomplished all the work it could with the exception of Whitlock traffic, and the Marietta group elected to continue meeting on its own. In late spring of this year, the five member group voted 3-0-2, with Lee and Waldrep absent, to recommend the council adopt the third westbound Whitlock lane.
Commenting on the town hall forum Thursday, Ceminsky said he was a firm believer in the silent majority.
"We've heard from the passionate opposition, but not the silent majority," he said.
jgillooly@mdjonline.com
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Posted Comments
I live on Whitlock Avenue and am for widening Whitlock from Kilpatrick to John Ward Rd. Nobody's yard would be damaged. So what's the problem? The traffic is here already and has been for YEARS.
I live in Paulding and I dont live in a mansion like those on Whitlock. But I do agree with the residents of the hieghts its there place leave it be and go around I do...
I truly understand the sentiments of keeping Whitlock from being destroyed, but you know what? It already is. The traffic that envelopes the road, both in the morning and night, has changed the road forever, and it won't ever go back to what it was. Nothing stays the same forever.
Right now there's a whole bunch of people already using routes other than Whitlock. Widen Whitlock and those people will come back to Whitlock and we will have cleared up the alternative routes, but not Whitlock.
I lived the Paulding Co. for 12 years and worked off the Square for as long, fighting the traffice in and out every day on beautiful Whitlock Ave. Finally 3 years ago my family made the move to just off the square and love being Marietta Homeowners. If Paulding residents have a problem with traffic they have the same freedom of choice. They do not have a say on what to do with Whitlock Ave. We, the tax payers & voters, do!
If you truly want to stop traffic cutting through Whitlock neighborhoods...stop left turns onto Whitlock Avenue from side streets.
These same Marietta residents had no problem building a traffic increasing, conjestion multiplying new high school right smack on Whitlock a few years ago. That's when they lost me on the issue of saving their historic neighborhood. They can't have it both ways. Either don't intentionally draw traffic to your neighborhood (Paulding and West Cobb residents don't attend MHS) or keep fighting against solutions. Can't do both. Also, who do you think are going to be the customers for the new Strand Theater, trolley rides, buggy rides, concerts, fireworks, arts and crafts fairs, restuarants and shops around the Square? Only city residents who can walk to the Square?
I say leave it as it is. It's like our souls are sold out to making traffic flow faster no matter what, no matter where. If you can't deal with the bottlenecks, move closer to where ever it is you are driving.
I grew up in Marietta, and now reside in Kennesaw, where we are currently undergoing widening on Stilesboro Rd in order to accomodate the massive volume of commuter traffic that flows past our neighborhoods everyday. The debate to widen Whitlock is nothing new, but something obviously needs to be done...besides just talking about it. Whitlock residents need to abandon their "not in my back-yard" mentality and work with their city council to come up with a solution to the problem. Frankly, I am tired of their elitist attitude that affects the rest of West Cobb.
What I find humerous about this entire situaiton is that the reisdents along Whitlock Avenue are the ones whow are most affected by the traffic. I can get to my house in West Cobb by other routes. I don't have to go on Whitlock. But every morning and every night they have gridlock in front of their homes. That traffic is not helping the property values within the City of Marietta. People are already weary of the schools...combine that with the gridlock and you've got decreasing property values once again. I say do yourself a favor and find a solution...
I am against the widening of Whitlock. I am thinking about the safety of my child and other neighborhood kids that walk to Marietta High School.
Of course! - let's ruin the only remaining piece of lovely old Marietta that remains. Powder Springs Road was killed by countless cheap apartments, abandoned grocery stores, and theatres; the east side of the Square was killed by public housing, now let's ruin the only remaining bit of Old Marietta left... widen Whitlock.
I lived in one of the older neighborhoods off Powder Springs Road and we BEGGED for the "new" high school to be located on the site of any of the abandoned strip shopping centers. Believe me, a high school would have boosted our property values compared to the cheap apartments and abandoned strip centers. Until the Council forces the use of existing abandoned properties, Marietta's property values will continue to nose-dive. Move away - move far away.
Whitlock should be "NO TURNS" starting from the Loop to John Ward from 5-8 AM and 6-7 PM work days. If you want to access a business along Whitlock, use Polk that day. Marietta HS need alternative routes so their traffic is not on Whitlock. Dig up that worthelss 1980s subdivision across the street and give access through to Burnt Hickory. Also dig up that drug infested area just West of Marietta HS and give access to Kirkpatrick. However, there must be NO access to Whitlock from Marietta HS.
I live in Marietta City and drive up Whitlock every morning to teach YOUR children in a Marietta City School. It's not only Paulding County or West Cobb residents who use Whitlock, and your selfish, elitist, self-centered comments about people who don't (gasp!) live within walking distance to the square are immature and supremely unhelpful. Who do you think serves your dinner on the square? Runs the shops? Staffs your courthouse? Runs the post office? Grow up and think logically. And, as I have said a million times, re-stripe Whitlock and Polk into one-way streets. It would take a two months and some education, and traffic would move faster with much less expense and heartache.
For those you who choose to live in Marietta, well goody for you ! Those of us who prefer the country life out here in Paulding county shouldn't be punished for your selfishness ! I drive 11 miles to work, from Dallas to Marietta all on Dallas Highway to my job on Whitlock. It shouldn't take me 45 minutes to an hour because you people are against taking out 8 feet of trees and grass. Get over yourselves ! Gas is expensive today, none of us want to waste a drop sitting in that ridiculous traffic jam every morning from John Ward road to the square ! And what bunch of mental midgets decided on putting MHS on Whitlock anyway! That was a brilliant idea. None of you can see the forest for the trees. Here's an idea, try thinking ahead a decade or two. WE WANT WHITLOCK WIDENED
Go around, move closer, no left turns, those of you who made these comments obviously DON"T have to WORK for a living ! It's just grass and trees people, get over yourselves Snob county !
having beem a 20 year resident of the area and a current powder springs homeowner, i feel as though it's about time i expressed my opinion on this matter. perhaps not all options are being considered. why not use convertible lanes where whitlock becomes one way east during the morning rush and one way west during the afternoon/evening rush. or how about permanent one way (let the commission choose which direction), and use the parallel streets as one way in the opposing direction. has anyone even considered these options? i'll wager the solution isn't that difficult to figure. jqnrvs@yahoo.com