Brookhaven MARTA

Cory and I live within walking distance of the Brookhaven MARTA station. It's not super close (about half a mile), but very convenient when traveling to a braves game, tech game, or to the airport. But really that's about it. There's not much else that MARTA is really convenient for (for us) especially now that next Sunday, October 3rd, they will be raising the fare rate for weekly and monthly passes while cutting service 10% (goody...) read more about all the changes here. And it's only probably a matter of time until the recently raised one-way ticket rate from $1.75 to $2.00 also increases again. Anyways, for all of its shortcomings, we try to take MARTA as often as we can. Public transit really can positively impact our local economy, and we want to do all we can to support it and only hope that it improves over time and with more use.

I flew back to Atlanta today from Tampa, and rode MARTA home. As I was passing through station after station I started thinking about the potential development opportunity around MARTA stations. Most of these stations have huge surface parking lots which are prime candidates for mixed-use development. I know that this idea has been discussed with local politicians and developers around the Atlanta area. A few of these developments have already started or are being seriously discussed:

• Lindbergh Station: The prime example of a development around a MARTA station. In 2005 Lindbergh City Center was constructed with 2 office buildings, an apartment complex, condo complex, restaurants, bars, parking garages, and shopping (see photo above).

• Doraville Station: A wonderful opportunity for development. This station is easily accessible from I-285 and I-85 and has a 165 acre tract that is prime real estate. The site of the old GM plant, this industrial property is screaming for development. Rumors of a new stadium, arena, etc. as a potential use have gotten residents and the community excited about the possibilities of this land. Unfortunately it's at a stand-still as the most recent developer, New Street Properties (see plan above-click to enlarge), has backed out of the deal. Read more about that here. This development probably deserves it own blog post, so stay tuned as I learn more!

• Brookhaven Station: The most recent station that has been identified as prime property for a successful development. If you've ever visited this station, you know that it has a very large surface parking lot in the back (marta.com says 1,252 spaces) that is rarely ever even 10% filled. With the growth that Brookhaven has sustained over the past 5 years along with the cultural mix of residents, a development on this property looks promising. the Brookhaven Peachtree Community Alliance thought so too, and got the ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission) to sponsor a study of this area. The study was completed in 2006 and an overlay and design guidelines were adopted by the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners in late 2007. Because of the economy and lack of funding not much has happened (well nothing actually) on this site. But I do hope that somewhere behind the scenes that wheels are in motion to start this. I found the MARTA plan on the BPCA website (graphic above-click to enlarge). Not much news has been updated on this website (They killed a Walgreens that was supposed to go in at Colonial & Peachtree in 2008, but that's about it). I will keep you posted on any updates that I find out!