Piedmont Park Would Add Parking Garage

“The proposal under consideration calls for a five-story parking garage to actually be built into a hillside,” said Debbie McCown, the director of Piedmont Park Conservancy. “We would never put a big ugly parking deck in the middle of Piedmont Park. It would be camouflaged with vines and plants and trees."

McCown wants access for people into the park, especially now that the city will be annexing and restoring 50 acres of adjacent land to expand the park.

Susan Abramson, a neighbor and a member of the advocacy group Friends of Piedmont Park, said any added parking should be on the park’s periphery and that the garage would cause more trouble than it solved.

“I have a real issue with concrete and parking lots into the park, no matter how beautiful they look,” she said.

“When you talk about bringing the roads and all the concrete, the turnarounds, the sidewalks and drop-offs, that’s a huge amount of interference in the park,” she added.

McCown argued, with half of the park’s yearly three million visitors coming in cars, the Conservancy had to look at all possible parking answers.

The plan, however, has to pass through several hurdles before it is implemented.

The plan will have to be approved by citizens’ groups, zoning boards and ultimately, the Atlanta City Council.