Briarcliff Animal Clinic owner says, if the rail line takes away his parking, he’ll have to put the medical center to sleep.
Tuesday night, MARTA held the last of six open houses to get feedback on initial plans to build a new rail line along the Clifton Corridor.
Veterinarian Dr. Peter Muller, Briarcliff Animal Clinic owner, urged patrons to attend concerned the new plans would force his medical center to close. The animal clinic has served the Emory area since 1958.
Dr. Muller sent an email to patrons late last week asking for support at MARTA’s open houses. “Please help us,” was the email’s subject line.
In the last 48 hours we have learned that the proposed design of the Clifton Corridor extension of MARTA will put Briarcliff Animal Clinic out of business!
The plan proposed by the Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative puts a MARTA station on the corner of Briarcliff Rd and Zonolite Rd. This would seize almost all of our hospital parking, leaving only a few spaces at our front door. There would be no parking for our veterinarians, support staff, and not nearly enough parking for our clients…
…Briarcliff Animal Clinic has served the Emory area since 1958. If you would like to see us remain in the neighborhood, please come to this meeting and express your views. We need your help! Please come if you have any reason for opposing the MARTA Station in that particular location.
Jenn Hobby Rivera, a co-host of Q100’s The Bert Show and a longtime patron of the clinic, is rallying to keep it open.
“[Dr. Peter Muller] is my beloved vet who saved my dog, Carolina,” Hobby Riviera told What Now Atlanta in an email Tuesday. “He’s an amazing man in our community.”
Interested parties can follow updates from Dr. Muller here on efforts to save the clinic.
After 53 years, will the light at the end of Briarcliff Animal Clinic’s tunnel be the headlight of a train?
Developing…
30 Responses
hang on…. at first i assumed the train was going to go through his building or something… hence the reason it would “put them out of business”. then i read in his plea, that he would be forced to close because there wouldn’t be enough parking?! cry about spilled milk why don’t you doc?
how about staff members… um, i don’t know, take the train!?
Is there no other location in the neighborhood that could serve their needs? I hate to see an established, local business go just as much as anyone else, but opposing a transit station based solely on this seems a little short sighted.
It’s not a shelter – it is a for-profit veterinary practice.
i’m looking at the map. is his “parking lot” not even adjacent to his property? it looks like his staff and clients were parking across the street. i mean, does anyone else notice that across the street is also the sage hill shopping center?! why can’t they work out a deal with them?
I think people are counting their chickens before they hatch. This will *only* happen if the penny sales tax is passed and even then, it’ll take 10-15 years for the construction to get going.
This post is sensationalist yellow crap.
We bring our dog to Briarcliff because the people there are awesome and they have great hours. It would be a shame to see them go. The parking attached is very limited and during busy times, it can be necessary to park across the street. The train may be an option for employees but last time I checked, pets weren’t allowed on MARTA – this is definitely a business that would be affected by the loss of parking if this plan went through.
You can’t stop a system that will benefit thousands because it will inconvenience a few. They will be paid for the right of way loss, and I’m sure they can set up camp nearby.
I totally agree with the Vet and Jenn Hobby. We should not build much needed transportation infrastructure to one of Atlanta’s busiest corridors because a few pet owners will have trouble parking. Makes complete sense. Save the animals.
Actually, Tammy, the construction must be completed within 10 years and MARTA had plans for this corridor even before the Transportation Investment Act. If the tax does not pass, then MARTA plans to go for New Starts funding–which is an FTA funding program for fixed guideway transit systems. Also, the Clifton Corridor is greatly supported by the majority of the surrounding community, Emory, the CDC, and even GA Tech for the possibility of linking more academic programs.
It really is a lot to do about nothing. The clinic will be compensated for the land, and I am sure they can find a suitable alternative location for their business. The Atlanta real estate market is in shambles, I’m sure they can find a deal on a new location.
I got the email mentioned above and couldn’t believe it. I almost wrote a letter back to the clinic director telling him to kindly stop wasting my time and whining and look for productive solutions to the situation.
On a personal note: I wouldn’t be that sad to see them go. I took my cats there a few years ago and was very disappointed in the service. They did not seem remotely interested in me as a pet owner. The veterinarian spent only a few minutes with my two cats, informed me that one of them was obese and glared at me like I was a terrible pet owner . To make matters worse, they performed procedures I didn’t request or authorize (such as an extended rabies vaccine at a higher cost). I have not been back.
I’m still upset they tore down my buggy whip manufacturing facility in College Park to build that new Aero-Port. Our business hasn’t been the same ever since….
Why is this line even needed?
Don’t all of the Emory preps and CDC Fed workers have cars of their own?
Vote no on this boondoggle.
As long as nothing happens to my QT.
The new station would put them out of business? I find that hard to believe. Relocating your facilities doesn’t mean going out of business. Offices move all the time. It sounds like the vet has two options – close or relocate. I’m not a rocket scientist, but that seems like a pretty simple solution.
@ Clicker – any particular reason why you would want to vote “no” to extending public transportation?
@ Katie
They dont have to do either. The clinic is just not willing to accept that surface parking lots are not always needed. Their site currently has a number of parking spaces that are rarely used, and given my experience at vet offices, unless the BAC is the busiest clinic in the world, rarely any of the parking spaces are occupied for extended periods of time simultaneously. No one is actually touching their physical building.
on a positive note, if they build marta access there …. the homeless will come.
I really don’t care either way, BCV used to be my vet …. way to miss a parasite, worms and the ammonia that my puppy had when I first took him in.
new vet … check.
Yeah, @ Clicker, why do you propose voting “no”? You could probably use the word “boondoggle” to describe a lot of government programs, but how is improving transportation and transit fall under that category? It’s one of the few things the private sector simply can’t do on its own.
correction on my earlier post. ha that was dumb … pneumonia.
What everyone else said.
I can sympathize with the owner, but only because he has been there successfully running a very reputable business for 53 years (he’s got to be close to retirement by now!).
I get my hair cut down the street, so I know the area. It is an industrial area tucked quietly away. His neighbors include a recently constructed massive self storage facility, an indoor gun range – which is a new business there, a bike shop, some outdoor design shops, and my hair salon (Zonolite).
It is a direct path up to Emory and many of the tenants there are new to that area (my salon relocated a year ago from Amsterdam Walk off Monroe).
Much of the reason for insane costs for infrastructure projects is because of that evil term “imminent domain.” Nobody ever thinks they are being compensated fairly, and sometimes that may be the case (and other times they are way overcompensated), but this is truly a public project that will directly benefit tens of thousands of commuters, not to mention benefit property owners and businesses in the area once it is constructed.
He owns his property outright, so he will be bought out. Others will be bought out of their leases in addition to the owners being compensated (kind of a double hit on tax funds going to the project…).
I suggest the owner take this opportunity to retire and hand the reigns to someone else who can worry about relocating the business, because that is what needs to happen. If he truly wants his clinic to remain open, there is over 8.1 million SF of retail space within the Decatur/East Atlanta submarket, and 9.7% of that space is currently vacant. I’m sure he can find SOMETHING. He should consider it a “sale-leaseback”, a sort of recapitalization if you will.
@ Clicker: It’s precisely BECAUSE so many people at Emory and CDC are driving their own cars there every day (because many them don’t have much choice) that the traffic over there is so bad. It’ll probably only get worse once the new mixed-use development near the West End of Clifton Road is open. Hence the need for more, better, faster transit service for that area.
Looks like MARTA is replacing more parking than they are taking away. His guests will have more parking, right? I mean the spaces being replaced there are even more than there were before?
@tricksfordays, what makes you think MARTA will attract homeless? They don’t hang out at every station. Yes down at Five points there are homeless because that is downtown. They are everywhere around there. And maybe a couple of other stations in Midtown.
I heard the Peachtree-Pine was going to relocate to Sage Hill since they are building a MARTA station. I’m real skurred.
I doubt the pet hospital would be permitted to stay open with fewer parking spaces. Likely to be a zoning requirement. My gym, Urban Body Fitness, already had to relocate for this exact reason.
I’m sorry if this hurts the business in any way. But, if he’s looking for a good location, may I suggest the former Shoe Warehouse space at Amsterdam Walk? Because it’s near Piedmont Bark and has PLENTY of parking during the day, that’d be a great location. It’s a big space too.
Lemonade out of lemons? Eh?
I don’t oppose public transportation in general; the proposed tax scheme is what I object to.
— Marta and its funding mechanism are broken. Fix that before pouring more money into it.
— As a Fulton resident, it galls me to add another penny onto sales tax when Fulton and Dekalb have been paying the extra penny to support Marta for decades.
— I have complete distrust for Georgia transportation officials. Remember the GA 400 toll that was supposed to disappear when the bonds were retired? That didn’t happen.
— The list of projects that the tax is supposed to support will change and the budgets will balloon. Government is inept at making projections.
— “Never vote yourself a tax increase. You will always regret it.” My late father, the smartest man I ever knew.
chris – I say that because I have ridden marta before.
I consider marta, and how its run, one of the reasons lindbergh is a huge failure when it shouldnt be. am I alone in that mindset? look at all the stations. pigeons and homeless.
I only ride marta to/from the airport (the one thing it does well) or, even though its more inconvenient than it should be, to the braves game. but anywhere else in the city, its a joke.
and seriously, who is hiring these marta bus drivers? and why is the bus way bigger than an average lane size?!
MARTA is not SMARTA… its a sham. This station in theory is a great idea, but I have grown up in this neighborhood, and it will cause a lot of homeless and other issues. I think the BAC owner needs to get real though, his business would probably do better with the change.
Just park across the street in the shopping center. There are crosswalks available. The doctor could always encourage his staff to use MARTA and become partners to offer them discounted passes.