Turner Field Neighbors Ask City Leaders To Hear Them Out

“Our goal is to negotiate community benefits for the redevelopment of Turner Field and guarantee community residents’ participation in planning, developer selection, and project design,” the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition wrote in the letter.

Before bringing the document to the mayor’s office, Richard Quarterone said the area around Turner Field could be a gateway to the neighborhood.

“This is the biggest development opportunity that we will likely see in our lifetimes,” said Quarterone. “We have to get this right.”

Doristine Samuel said she’d like to see new businesses come to Mechanicsville, where she’s lived since 1957. She said when she was a girl, there were grocery stores, beauty shops and dry cleaners there. Now, she said it’s like a desert.

“I don’t want to say a total disaster, but we trying to make it better,” she said.  

The Atlanta Regional Commission gave the city of Atlanta more than $200,000 to conduct the research, and that includes gathering community opinions.

“This planning process provides a unique opportunity to develop, through extensive community engagement, a shared vision and plan for the Turner Field Stadium Neighborhoods,” Atlanta’s planning director Charletta Wilson Jacks wrote in the grant application to the ARC.

In an emailed statement, the mayor’s office said Reed helped secure the grant, and the City of Atlanta is also contributing money to planning efforts. But whether the city plans to wait for the study to be completed before making a move is unclear.