Owners of the Cumberland Mall are concerned that the Atlanta Braves’ parking plan for the new stadium will include fans hijacking some of the 5,600 parking spaces at the mall, then riding a circulator bus to the ballpark.
That concern is outlined in an appeal of the building permit Cobb County issued to the Braves in November, allowing the team to proceed with construction of the foundation for a new 41,000-seat stadium, scheduled to open in April 2017.
Attorney George Butler, who is representing the mall and its owner, General Growth Properties, wrote that the Braves and the county plan to use mall parking spaces “precisely because neither Cobb County nor the Braves are willing to go to the expense of providing the requisite number of onsite or dedicated offsite parking reasonably required” for the new stadium.
The appeal quotes Braves’ executive vice president Mike Plant saying that a circulator bus will move fans from shopping centers, hotels and businesses to the new ballpark, called SunTrust Park: “If you’re at the Cumberland Mall and want to go to the mixed-use development, you won’t have to get back in your car in order to be mobile inside the Cumberland area,” Plant was quoted as saying.
That worries the mall’s ownership, Butler wrote in the appeal.
“As a result, Cumberland Mall is of the reasonable opinion that on game days and on days that other special events or concerts are held at SunTrust Park, its own limited parking resources can and would be swamped by such SunTrust-generated parking demands, since both Cobb County and the Braves are expressly advertising to the public the availability of its freely-accessible parking spaces for use by Braves patrons,” the appeal says.
Braves spokeswoman Beth Marshall, responding to written questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said that the Plant quote cited was not meant to be an explanation of the game day parking plan.
“It was a hypothetical situation that explained how the entire development will tie into the Cumberland area,” Marshall wrote. “In that same hypothetical situation, someone could park near the shops in our development and take the circulator to Cumberland Mall.”
Butler chuckled at that response: “The mall doesn’t have a shortage of parking,” he said.
The Braves have not released their official parking plan for the new ballpark and last week declined to say when it will be finalized. Braves officials have said they will provide 10,000 parking spaces dedicated to the ballpark, but they have not been specific about how many of those spaces will be offsite. They also have said that there will be 6,000 parking spaces dedicated for the mixed-use development.
The appeal says the ballpark will need 21,000 parking spaces for the stadium and mixed-use development.
Marshall said Monday that the team’s parking plan “will be available well in advance of Opening Day 2017.”
Parking is not the focus of the building permit appeal, but is one of the reasons the mall has legal standing to bring the appeal, Butler said.
The appeal focuses on zoning for the stadium, which was not addressed in July when commissioners unanimously approved a rezoning for the Braves planned mixed-use development. Butler says that issuing a building permit for a new stadium required a special-use permit, which he says the Braves have not acquired.
“The issuance of a building permit … presupposes a determination by the issuing authority that the proposed structure complies with the local zoning ordinances,” the appeal says. “Clearly, (the mixed-use rezoning) did not include the requisite Special Use Permit for a privately-owned stadium.”
Last month, the Braves sent a $2.6 million check to the county to cover the foundation permit, along with all future permits and inspections necessary at the site. That amount is based on a $440 million estimated cost for the new stadium. The team and its construction manager are currently negotiating a Guaranteed Maximum Price for the facility.
Marshall said the team is reviewing the appeal. She said the team is “contractually obligated to the county … as construction administrator for the stadium project. To suggest the county should not issue a building permit for this public project … makes no sense.”
Whether the stadium will benefit the public is a major point of contention in the appeal, and in an appeal of the county’s plan to issue up to $397 million in bonds for stadium construction.
The overall project has a $622 million budget, which includes so-called soft costs for things such as attorney and architecture fees. The Braves have said they may add $50 million to the budget, if additional parking is necessary.
The building permit appeal will be heard by the county’s Board of Adjustments and Appeals. It is unclear when it will be heard, but the board’s decision can be appealed to Cobb Superior Court.
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