Delivering on a nearly decade-long effort to remedy sewer overflows and localized flooding in Southeast Atlanta, Mayor Andre Dickens today announced the final agreements that will allow a critical sewer infrastructure capacity relief project in the Peoplestown neighborhood to be constructed. The Atlanta City Council has unanimously authorized settlement agreements negotiated between Mayor Dickens and the three remaining families that owned homes in the area needed to build the project.

“From the very beginning, I have believed that we can treat these Atlanta families fairly while delivering this critically needed project to protect the larger community,” Mayor Dickens said. “I have spent this year listening to Peoplestown residents, working directly with the most-impacted families, and charting a course that will allow us to move forward in a way that is in line with our values and fulfills our obligation to alleviate the challenges that have plagued Peoplestown. I thank all the families for their willingness to engage with me and for being passionate advocates for the city we all love. I know these families wanted to stay in their homes, and I am grateful for the sacrifice they are making for the larger community and our city. I thank the City Council for their partnership throughout this process and their support of these agreements.”

Mayor Dickens personally met with the impacted residents multiple times throughout the negotiations.

“For nearly 10 years I have maintained, with my neighbors, a desire to stay in my home on Atlanta Ave. and in my beloved community of Peoplestown,” said resident Tanya Washington. “It is clear that the City will move forward with its plans and that makes it reasonable to seek a satisfactory resolution. My disappointment is curbed by the respect and integrity Mayor Dickens has shown in how he has dealt with us and this issue he inherited. We hope our fight will inspire other communities to stand up for themselves and inspire responsible exercise of authority by those in power. I am at peace with this outcome and grateful to Mayor Dickens for his role in achieving a mutually respectful result.”

“Our mother, Mattie Jackson, was a legend in the Peoplestown neighborhood, a civic leader and icon who advised mayors and represented Atlanta by bearing the torch that symbolized the 1996 Olympic Games,” said the family of Mattie Jackson in a statement. “The struggle to remain in our home over all these years, a home that she loved and cherished, was devastating to the family. Today that chapter is closed. The family of Mattie Jackson applauds Mayor Dickens for bringing resolution to this matter. As a candidate he promised he would do it and he has kept his word. No one can ask more than that. He has our sincere appreciation and our gratitude. We hope the City will find some fitting way to honor our Matriarch, Mattie Jackson in the public space that will be developed on the ground where she lived, raised her family, and so ably served the City of Atlanta. That would be a fitting last chapter for her legacy.”

“Like all the other families that are parties to this settlement, we love our home in Peoplestown where we have so many memories accumulated over so many years,” said the Darden family in a statement. “The threat of being uprooted was a great hardship and has taken a toll over the years. We are proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors waiting for our cries to be heard and justice to be served. It is a blessing to have this struggle brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and for that Mayor Dickens deserves credit. He said he would get it done and he got it done. To Mayor Dickens we say, ‘thank you.’”

The parties to this agreement acknowledge the key role that Deborah Scott, CEO of Georgia STAND-UP, has played in facilitating and mediating this agreement. All wish to express their gratitude for the important contribution CEO Scott and this stalwart community organization have made to the settlement process.

The project will alleviate sewer overflows from the combined sewer system and stormwater flooding that have threatened public health and safety of residents in the Peoplestown neighborhood. The project is also the linchpin of sewer infrastructure improvements for the broader Southeast Atlanta neighborhoods in the Custer Avenue sub-basin of the larger Intrenchment Creek Basin. The project is a critical component of the City’s obligations under two federal consent decrees signed in 1998 and 1999 to upgrade sewer infrastructure and improve water quality.

The Department of Watershed Management will soon initiate the procurement process, with the start of construction targeted for 2023. The project will be housed in the block bounded by Atlanta Ave. and Connally, Ormond and Greenfield streets. The City previously acquired all the other properties on the block, including through an earlier agreement negotiated by Mayor Dickens in June.