A member of the Atlanta City Council is set to hold a public meeting Thursday on the controversial proposal to lease a swath of forested land to the Atlanta Police Foundation for the construction of a new training center for police and firefighters.
The meeting, which will be held over Zoom and is advertised as an “overview session,” will take place days before the City Council could take a vote on the training center proposal. Participants are asked to submit questions to be included in a presentation.
Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong, who is organizing Thursday’s meeting, said people will also be able to ask questions in the virtual chat during the meeting and may be able to respond to questions from presenters.
The City Council vote on the new training center was delayed until at least Sept. 7 after several council members said they wanted more time to solicit public input on the plan.
Archibong previously said the Atlanta Police Foundation had not done an adequate public review process for the plan. The foundation held two public engagement sessions on the proposal in July, but drew criticism because members of the public were not able to directly ask questions to the speakers.
Interested residents can register and submit questions online for the session, which is set to begin at 6:45 p.m. Thursday.
The city owns over 300 acres of mostly forested land off Key Road, just outside city limits in DeKalb County. City and police foundation officials announced plans earlier this year to build a state-of-the-art training center that would include a building for firefighters to practice putting out blazes, a mock city, classrooms and an explosives testing area. The police foundation argues the facility is needed to bolster staffing and training for Atlanta’s police and fire ranks.
The council recently amended the proposal to lease some of the land to the foundation, shrinking the amount of space that could be leased from 150 to 85 acres. The proposal has been met with pushback from residents and advocates pushing for the preservation of the historic site and activists who oppose further police investment. Several southeast Atlanta neighborhoods have also come out against the proposal.
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