ATLANTA — After more than 17 hours of public comment, the Atlanta City Council approved the construction for a new police and fire training center.
The facility will be built on 85 acres just east of city limits at an old Atlanta prison farm on Keys Road and cost around $90 million.
It will feature state of the art training sites, including a mock village for urban police training, emergency vehicle driving course and a burn building for firefighters to practice.
The center will also hold the Atlanta Police Academy and Atlanta Fire and Rescue Academy. The remaining 265 acres will be preserved as greenspace.
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“The new Public Safety Training Facility is another step in our Administration’s efforts to support our fire and police officers, while also focusing on sensible reform,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement.
“This training facility will not only help boost morale, retention and recruitment of our public safety personnel, but will give us physical space to ensure that our officers and firefighters are receiving 21st century training, rooted in respect and regard for the communities they serve. We will continue to work with the impacted communities on how to best thoughtfully develop and preserve the surrounding property.”
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The plan passed 10-4 after the vote was delayed several times. The city council listened to more than 1,000 public comments from people, many of them divided on the issue.
Some community and environmental groups argued that any construction on the land will destroy the urban forest.
“I was extremely disappointed with how the vote went,” Jason Dozier said. Dozier chairs one of those groups. He says the public only learned of the plan in April and didn’t have nearly enough input.
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“What happened last night should be a clarion call for all these other public entities trying to do big development deals that have huge public impacts. You have to make sure the community comes first,” he said.
Before the vote, Gov. Brian Kemp wrote a letter to the council urging members to support law enforcement and first responder training.
“The Atlanta City Council is in a unique position to support a new training facility for law enforcement and first responders. Increasing training and support for public safety personnel has united all sides of the political spectrum here in the Peach State in the past, and at a time when residents in our capital city are being plagued by a drastic rise in violent crime, I am encouraging the council to promptly approve this facility.”
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