Union City held the second of several public meetings last week at Liberty Point Elementary School to get input on the South Fulton Parkway Corridor Study. When completed later this summer, the corridor study is expected to provide a template for municipal decisions through 2027 that will directly affect the 6.5-mile stretch of the parkway annexed by Union City last summer.

Nashville-based RPM Transportation Consultants president Bob Murphy and representatives of Hawkins Partners asked the two-dozen area residents to form three groups to identify areas of the parkway where they believed the previously approved commercial and residential projects would best be located.

Each group was given a large corridor map and asked to develop a land use and transportation plan. Residents used colored dots to signify areas of the greenspace and parks, commercial and residential components. A significant portion of the projects approved by Fulton County prior to last year’s annexations contains mixed-use development and the potential for multi-story buildings, consultants said. Though city planning staff was present at the meeting, consultants asked that they not be involved in formulating the project plans tasked to the groups.

The planning information supplied by the groups will be studied by consultants and will be used to help formulate the overall study, Murphy said.

As with the first public meeting, most of those attending the meeting at Liberty Point Elementary School reside in unincorporated south Fulton County. South Fulton residents have long-maintained that the multi-county significance South Fulton Parkway, with an overlay district complete with 100-foot buffers and virtually no curb cuts, should never be compromised.

In a matter that might affect the study outcome, Fulton County Commission recently asked Georgia Dept. of Transportation (DOT) to take control of the South Fulton Parkway, making it a protected state highway. Such a move would provide insurance against curb cuts and buffer reductions by any city now or in the future. South Fulton Parkway is considered to be a DOT Highway of Regional Significance.

Funded by the city and developers, the study proposes to establish a comprehensive transportation and development plan that spans the 6.5-mile stretch of the parkway recently annexed by Union City, Murphy said.

The corridor study can be found on-line at www.southfultoncorridorstudy.info

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