Rally planned in opposition to MARTA’s Five Points redevelopment

The summer of friction regarding plans to transform Atlanta’s largest and busiest transit hub continues.

City officials, downtown stakeholders, and mobility advocates from across the city are scheduled to take to the streets near MARTA’s Five Points station at 12:30 p.m. today to formally ask the transit agency to pause its impactful renovation and closure plans, which are scheduled to begin in a month.

A rally and press conference is set for a space near Five Points station’s Peachtree Street entrance, between Alabama and Wall streets, according to Propel ATL, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable transportation in the city.

Scheduled attendees include: Doug Shipman, Atlanta City Council president; city councilmember Jason Dozier (District 4); AJ Robinson, head of Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District; Rebecca Serna, Propel ATL executive director; Carden Wyckoff, a disability advocate and MARTA Army and Propel ATL board member; and Deborah Scott, executive director of Georgia STAND-UP, an equitable economic development nonprofit.

According to organizers, the event will aim to help persuade MARTA to reconsider its $250-million renovation and closure of street-level access to the station, which is set to begin July 29. The opposition is concerned with design plans for MARTA’s Five Points overhaul and for closures they say will have “an undue effect on the lives of the 17,000 pedestrians and bus riders who rely on Five Points to access the MARTA heavy rail system,” according to a rally announcement.

Detractors, including several city councilmembers, have publicly come out against MARTA’s redesign plan on the basis, in their view, it would detract from a town-square feel and restrict pedestrian and cycling access in favor of infrastructure for 10 bus routes that connect there.

But at this late stage, getting MARTA to budge on design and closures could be an arduous task.

MARTA officials last week did acknowledge that changes to the Five Points redevelopment strategy are in the works, following weeks of pushback from the mayor’s office, mobility advocates, and downtown movers-and-shakers. That could include the installation of a temporary elevator at Five Points to accommodate riders with disabilities during construction who would otherwise have to exit trains and take a shuttle bus between Georgia State and Peachtree Center stations to avoid closures at the central transit hub.

Otherwise, MARTA appears to be sticking to its guns. In a statement submitted to Urbanize Atlanta on Friday, MARTA officials stressed that the full Five Points renovation is estimated to take four years, but that street-level access won’t be impacted for that long. MARTA engineers are currently studying ways to open at least one entrance to the Five Points station to allow for street-level access to the facility during construction, but that’s not expected to come soon.

“The goal is to get started with the deconstruction [of the Five Points concrete canopy] and demolition work and reevaluate street-level access after 18 months,” the MARTA statement reads.

MARTA’s goal is to turn the bunker-like, 1970s transit hub into what the agency describes as a vibrant, centralized city center with smoother access to trains and buses.

However, powerful downtown groups including Central Atlanta Progress have been calling on MARTA to slam the brakes on those plans and consider a redesign, while Mayor Andre Dickens has asked MARTA to keep Five Points station open until an ongoing audit of the agency is complete.

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