Meeting in-person on the 2nd floor of the Oakland Visitor Center, 374 Martin Luther King Jr., Drive.
The meeting was called to order by President Robert Selby a little after 7:30pm. The delay was to accommodate the large number of in-person attendees who needed to sign in and receive a 2026 GPNA steering committee ballot. At the call to order the nominations for the 2026 Steering Committee closed.
The October meeting minutes were approved.
The 2026 GPNA Steering Committee election commenced. Private voting was conducted online and in person. The nominees presented were as follows: President: Robert Selby; Vice President: Adelee Le Grand; Treasurer: Lynn Lamousin; Secretary: Jon Ratliff; Homes & History Committee Chair: John Sitton; Public Safety Committee Chair: Loyal Charles; Land Use & Zoning Committee Chair: Sky Hassan; Transportation Committee Chair: James Austin; Economic Development Committee Chair: Mike Walbert; Technology and Communications Committee Chair: Travis Peterman. After all votes were cast, current GPNA Treasurer Travis Peterman worked to count the votes so he could report back at the end of the meeting.
We were joined virtually by Sgt. Smart from APD. kasmart@atlantaga.gov / 470-426-2486. (1) The Sergeant stressed that with the holiday season upon us, be mindful about leaving items in your cars. (2) There was a homicide on Hardee Street in November, but crime is down 31%. (3) A question from a GPNA member was asked about a stabbing on Augusta Ave. The Sgt. said he was not aware of the incident, that the aggravated assault unit would be the ones investigating. The Sgt told the questioner to send him an email, and he would check on it.
GPNA Treasurer, Travis Peterman gave the Treasure’s update. The October balance sheet and October income statement were shared, and links are accessible from within the presentation which is on a public Google Drive that is linked in the monthly GPNA email newsletter. Next there was a vote for three $50 holiday gift cards ($150 total) for Fire Station 10 (1 card for each shift). A GPNA member asked what the gift card was for and how many people per shift, and our Safety Chair, Loyal Charles, said he usually got Kroger gift cards, and it was for 4 to 6 people per shift. The member expressed that the amount was too low and asked to amend to $100 per shift for a total of $300. There was no opposition to this amendment, so it passed. The next item from the Treasurer was the Parkside Elementary Bike Lane funding update. GPNA received money from the city of Atlanta that is earmarked for the “Bike Bus” and GPNA will be the middleman to pay for items since “Bike Bus” does not have a 501c3 in place. GPNA will be paying for items based on requests from that organization.
Public Safety Chair, Loyal Charles, reported that (1) a Halloween festival that was previously approved in Grant Park had their permit pulled after a request was made that they have more police officers at the event and the organizers said they could not afford that. (2) An incident occurred on Halloween on Grant St between Glenwood and Georgia – a gun was shot and a house was hit. (3) Be aware that the Atlanta Track Club Thanksgiving Day half marathon will be coming through Grant Park on Nov 27. (4) And as previously reported, the organizers of the “Queens Day” event left the park a mess and damaged the new basketball court. As a result, the organizers have lost their privilege to host park events.
Land Use & Zoning (LUZ) Chair, Sky Hassan, informed everyone that the presentation/discussion about Z-25-60 / 1030-1040 Grant St is deferred again. This is the 300-unit apartment building with ground floor retail at The Beacon. The reason for continued deferrals is that the developer is trying to come to a consensus with neighbors, but so far, no official changes have been made. A neighbor in attendance stated that Trammel Crowe has been cordial to neighbors. but has not agreed to any neighbor requests.
Next GPNA transportation chair, James Austin, gave updates. (1) South Boulevard Safe Street Groundbreaking Ceremony took place Friday, October 31, 2025. The project was reported on in an Urbanize article that used outdated ATLDOT graphics showing on-street parking – the incorrect graphics were provided by ATLDOT. GPNA president, Robert Selby, contacted the editor, Josh Green, and provided the correct plans. GPNA is using this as an opportunity to partner with ATLDOT. We contacted their communications team to propose the Boulevard project as a case study to help them build a more transparent and reliable communication process. GPNA transportation chair, James Austin, will lead this initiative and will be following up with ATLDOT. (2) There was then a discussion about GPNA stance on complete streets. A long discussion ensued regarding the letter that was sent after the member vote at the October GPNA meeting. That vote passed, with 15 members voting for it (Note: this was an unannounced vote with 15 for 1 against and 52 in attendance, showing that most in attendance did not vote) , to send a letter to Council Member Jason Winston stating the GPNA would like to see parking added back into the Boulevard plan and that GPNA did not support the current no parking design. GPNA President, Robert Selby, said he sent the letter and quickly received a phone call from Winston saying the project would be delayed because it would have to be re-bid and it might be cancelled if it did not commence in 2025 as planned. GPNA Steering had an emergency meeting to discuss, and the board voted to uphold its fiduciary duty to the community and GPNA tenets of History and Public Safety and support the latest design of the project. Several members expressed issues with the change of stance and Vice President candidate Adelee Le Grand had an issue with a potential violation of GPNA bylaws regarding how the special steering meeting was handled. There was a long and passionate discussion. Current GPNA Steering members reminded everyone that the board is made up of volunteers, and we work to support the community to the very best of our capabilities. (3) GPNA transportation chair, James Austin, then took the floor back and finished reporting on the Joint NPU-W/GPNA Transportation Committee Meeting which is seeking 2026 committee co-chairs.
President Robert Selby then used a map to explain the “Bike Bus” and how many of the neighborhood schools are implementing this concept. Instead of biking directly to school, the children are led in a path that stops at certain points to pick up more children on the way – like a school bus – and they all arrive together at school. Robert reiterated that making Boulevard and the streets more bikeable and safe needs to happen.
Next president Robert Selby gave a Grant Park Gateway Task Force update. The Gateway is the building in the new section of the park, above the parking garage, that has been empty for 5 years. Throughout this process we have been trying to get an open record request. GPNA just learned the latest open record request yielded 18,000 pages and the cost to obtain the pages is $2500. Plus, GPNA does not want redacted files as we believe the bid is closed since the Savi bid failed, then the Terminus bid failed. We did not put up the expenditure to a vote yet. Mike Walbert, our economic chair candidate, was part of the team with the last failed bid and we hope he will be able to give us more insight into what is going on. GPNA has tried reaching out to the Parks Department to be involved in the process, but there is no positive confirmation of their desire to partner with us. A member in the audience with Park Pride and also on the board of GP farmers market spoke about possible uses for the building in his opinion. He also let everyone know that the mayor is at Grant Park coffee house tomorrow being interviewed by WABE.
Bylaws Committee co-chair Catherine Manci reported that the next committee meeting is this Saturday, and they will present an update at the December membership meeting.
President Robert Selby then presented three proposed bylaws amendments. This was a first read and discussion only. Not a vote. The items were around: Article III, Section 3.05 (Meeting Formats); Article III, Section 3.06 (Quorum); and New Article VIII (Conflict of Interest Policy).
The links to the changes were shared in the Zoom chat and they are linked in the meeting slides which are in a publicly accessible Google folder.
GPNA Treasurer, Travis Peterman, reported that the 2026 slate of candidates for GPNA Steering was confirmed.
The meeting ran long and we adjourned just before 9:00pm which is the time we must vacate the space.
