The Presidential Parkway

This large tract of land within the city remained vacant year after year as efforts to resolve the impasse on how the land should be used continued unsuccessfully. It was from this background that the concept of the Presidential Parkway evolved. 

Engineers need to understand that a highway project is not simply an engineering project. There are important social problems that must be taken into account in a meaningful and responsible way, preferably early in the planning process. 

Charles M. Richards Senior Assistant Attorney General, Georgia 

When former President Jimmy Carter returned to Georgia in January, 1981, Andrew Young, his friend and former member of his cabinet, had been elected Mayor of Atlanta. Commissioner of Transportation Tom Moreland, who had served as Governor Carter s Commissioner, remained in that position. At that juncture, Mr. Carter was formulating plans to establish a Presidential Library but had not yet developed a plan to finance the library project. The large tract of unused highway land had become an eyesore and a place for crime. Public officials were weary of the controversy and the failed efforts to resolve the impasse as to how the highway land would be used. 

The former president was much more actively involved in the selection of a library site and the promotion of the Presidential Parkway than was publicly revealed. The Portman plan, which had been presented to Governor George Busbee in November, 1979, provided for a Presidential Library located just east of Moreland Avenue. When that property was rejected as a library site. Commissioner Moreland invited Mr. and Mrs. Carter to view a location near the center of the cleared rights-of-way. That land, located on CopenhilP and possessing an excellent view of Atlanta s skyline, was readily approved as a 

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As controversy continued over the use of rights-of-way cleared for 1-485 and the Stone Mountain Tollway, ideas for its use were being developed in many quarters of the public and private sector. These proposals, described in the environmental impact statement for the Presidential Parkway (2), are abstracted in the following paragraphs. 

Figure 8.4 Typical cross-section of the Presidential Parkway. (Courtesy of the Georgia Department of Transportation.)...

By April 1983, the draft EIS for the Presidential Parkway had been prepared and approved by the Federal Highway Administration. Nearly 1000 copies of the draft EIS were distributed to individuals who had expressed an interest in the project. 

Reference 2 describes the public meetings that were conducted to explain the Presidential Parkway to interested citizens as follows ... 

Figure 8.6 Flyer used by CAUTION, Inc. in opposition to the Presidential Parkway.

The Attorney General of Georgia released the results of an investigation that had been requested by Transportation Commissioner Tom Moreland. The investigation concluded that Mr. Arrington s participation in the Presidential Parkway project constituted a conflict of interest. 

By early 1991, the political climate had changed in Atlanta. The state had new leadership in Governor Zell Miller and Lt. Governor Pierre Howard, and Mayor Maynard Jackson had replaced Andrew Young. At a press conference at the state capital in February, 1991, 33 elected officials from Atlanta and Fulton and DeKalb Gounties went on record in opposition to the Presidential Parkway. By then, the controversy had endured for 30 years, and the parties had been engaged in the courts for seven years. 

It was from this background that Mayor Andrew Young confronted the need to develop a balance of uses for this land that together would serve the broadest public interest. Under the Mayor s direction, old and new ideas were blended into a composite plan to return the land to productive use without further delay and to enhance the quality of life in the City of Atlanta and in the State. The plan included the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and a parkway consisting of a pair of two-lane roadways, one traveling east and one traveling west, that diverge to circumscribe the Presidential Complex. 

The proposed parkway was a pair of 24-foot roadways with a median ranging from 8 to 20 feet in width except at the Presidential Library. It extended 2.4 miles from the Downtown Connector stub to Ponce de Leon Avenue just east... 

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