Atlanta City Council approves seeking $10.5M in federal dollars for ‘The Stitch’ to cap Downtown Connector – Reporter Newspapers & Atlanta Intown

The Atlanta Metropolis Council authorised laws at present authorizing the administration to use for $10.5 million in federal {dollars} to fund preliminary engineering for The Sew, a venture to cap the Downtown Connector with a park that metropolis officers say would catalyze new improvement within the metropolis’s heart, together with inexpensive housing.

The invoice to hunt as much as $10.5 million from the brand new U.S. Division of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot discretionary grant program was launched by Council member Amir Farokhi. Council members Jason Winston, Byron Amos, Jason Dozier, Liliana Bakhtiari, Alex Wan, Andrea Boone, Matt Westmoreland, Michael Julian Bond, and Keisha Sean Waites co-sponsored the paper.

The invoice additionally obtained letters of assist from the Georgia Division of Transportation, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, and U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. 

“I’m grateful to my friends on council for his or her imaginative and prescient, in addition to the state directors and federal officers who’re a part of this effort,” Farokhi stated in a information launch. He was not in a position to attend the Sept. 19 assembly.

“Hopefully, this mass present of assist will push this catalytic venture to the highest of the nationwide software checklist,” Farokhi stated. “It is a generational alternative to restore wounds of the previous, add housing and park house to our heart metropolis, and show that our ambitions can turn out to be actuality.”

The deadline to use for the federal grant is Oct. 13.

The $10.5 million requested from the Reconnecting Communities Pilot discretionary grant is a 1 to 1 match. The Atlanta Downtown Enchancment District is placing in $500,000. The town of Atlanta is matching with $10 million via Make investments Atlanta by “drawing funds from the Eastside Tax Allocation District or different relevant funding streams,” in accordance with the laws.

President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package deal included $1 billion to reconnect communities that have been break up aside, corresponding to these within the Fifties by federal freeway tasks together with Downtown’s historic Candy Auburn district.

If Atlanta is awarded the full $21 million, the funding would go towards preliminary engineering for The Sew, the a three-quarter mile platform that might span the I-75/I-85 Downtown Atlanta Connector between Ted Turner Drive and Piedmont Avenue.

The platform would create house for a 14-acre park within the “coronary heart of the town,” reconnect Downtown to Midtown, and is projected to spark 14 million sq. toes of latest improvement, with a excessive give attention to producing inexpensive housing and attracting residents to Downtown Atlanta, in accordance with the town.

Sen. Raphael Warnock stated in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg that The Sew would “reconnect divided communities, [and] promote equitable-development and environmental justice via inexpensive housing and transportation.

“[It will] catalyze financial improvement, facilitate people-focused mobility and neighborhood connectivity, improve environmental resilience, and enhance the well being and wellbeing of Atlantans,” Warnock stated.

On the Sept. 14 Transportation Committee assembly, Council President Doug Shipman stated The Sew shouldn’t be solely a Downtown transportation venture, however one that might additionally “change the geography” in a approach that may assist entice extra personal sector {dollars} and different public sector {dollars} to construct inexpensive housing.

“This venture may be very a lot about fairness, and about reconnecting what was divided when the Connector was constructed between the neighborhoods of Auburn Avenue, the outdated Buttermilk Backside neighborhood and Fourth Ward,” Shipman stated. “And so I feel that that is an funding that’s a lot bigger than simply the funding and infrastructure … I feel it may be transformative.”

If Atlanta is awarded the grant, the Atlanta Downtown Enchancment District would oversee the design and engineering of the venture. ADID final yr obtained a $900,000 Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Fairness (RAISE) grant from the U.S. Division of Transportation and has employed a full-time improvement supervisor for The Sew.

“Years of exhausting work have gone into advancing the Sew venture to the place it’s at present,” stated A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Growth District.

“That is our second to capitalize on unprecedented federal assist and funding alternatives for the venture and safe vital funding for shovel-ready engineering of The Sew.”

The invoice now goes to the mayor’s desk for closing approval and the administration will work with ADID to finish the appliance by the Oct. 13 deadline.