ATLANTA — The Atlanta City Council listened to hours of testimony Monday from the public on a proposed new police academy in southeast Atlanta.
Afterward, council members unanimously approved amendments to reduce the project's impact on the surrounding green space, but postponed a final vote.
The vote to table the ordinance passed by an 8-7 vote, indicating how sharply divided the council is on the issue. Some council members who voted to table the ordinance had voted in favor of the project in the council's finance committee.
The issue will come up again at the council's September 7 meeting.
The council heard prerecorded public comment at their virtual meeting for the majority of the afternoon – most of it strongly opposed to the new police facility.
The issue is a large plot of land in southeast Atlanta. The foundations of the buildings on the property were part of the old Atlanta prison farm – which has transformed over the years from a penal institution into an overgrown green space.
Many residents like it just fine the way it is now – as they told city council members much of the afternoon.
"I would like the city council to vote no on destroying the old Atlanta prison forest," one woman said during the public comment period.
"It's an ideal area for public parkland and for a nature preserve," a man added.
City leaders said Atlanta needs a new police academy somewhere. The current one near the main Atlanta post office is outdated and, backers said it lacks security. The old prison farm site is already owned by the city and would be relatively easy to develop. And backers, including the Atlanta Police Foundation, said that site makes sense.
"We have to make this a priority. Crime is not where it should be. We’re going in the wrong direction and it needs to be addressed immediately," a woman told council members.
But some residents and environmentalists said the old prison farm site is more valuable to residents as a green space at a time when such spaces are harder and harder to find.
"I think it would be an absolute mistake to bulldoze that land when we are facing so much development in the rest of the city," a man told council members.
After the vote to table the ordinance, council members said the issue requires greater public input before the final vote.