City council urges MARTA to hold off on Five Points renovation project

ATLANTA — Atlanta City Councilmembers are calling on MARTA officials to hold off on a major renovation at the Five Points rail station.

Channel 2 Action News told you about MARTA’s plans to shut down access to the station starting next month. The agency says it would take up to four years to finish the project.

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On Monday, the Atlanta City Council submitted their request to MARTA to halt the project.

“We’ve got to do a better job of ensuring we have a system that works for everyone,” said Councilman Jason Dozier, who co-sponsored Monday’s resolution, which passed with 12 votes.

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The council’s resolution echoes calls from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. He sent a letter requesting a closer look at an operational audit of the transit agency to find out where its money is going.

MARTA’s Board of Directors Chairwoman Kathryn Powers says though the plan for the Five Points station will move forward and called the council’s legislation “misguided.”

“MARTA believes in the Five Points Transformation project and looks forward to working through improvements to our construction mitigation plan in the June 28 meeting with the Mayor and his leadership team. As to the City Council’s action today, no report of audit findings, preliminary or otherwise, has been released. City Council legislation premised on such is misguided. As we said in our letter to the Mayor, reconciliation on the amount of money spent on bus service operations is an accounting issue, not a reason to stop moving projects forward. Using the City Council’s logic today, they should be asking MARTA to stop all our capital projects in the City - Summerhill Rapid, Campbellton Corridor and Metropolitan/Cleveland ART to name a few,” Power said.

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Atlanta Mayor Dickens asks MARTA to hold off on Five Points Station renovation

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