Winston-Salem council continues negotiatons with Davis Garage owner

The Winston-Salem City Council is expected to go into closed session this evening to discuss the possible acquisition of the Davis Garage on Martin Luther King Drive for a future multimodal transit center serving bus and rail passengers, City Manager Lee Garrity said.

Garrity said the city is still in discussions with the owner. The council voted in 2005 to acquire the building by deed or condemnation. The city received a $1.3 million grant from the federal government in 2004 to renovate the former train station, which was known as Union Station. The US Supreme Court ruled that local governments may not use condemnation for economic development, but Garrity said it is legally permissible for transportation purposes.

The council rejected a plan by the garage owner and a developer to renovate the transit center as a public-private partnership in 2010 because of concerns that the project wouldn’t be financial viable.
  
Garrity said it’s unlikely that a future transportation center would replace the Clark Campbell Transportation Center at 5th and Liberty streets because of the number of fixed-route bus lines served there.

East Winston community leader Marva Reid plans to present a petition to council tonight urging members to push forward on the initiative.

“Once again, the Davis Garage and the East Winston history is of dire importance that you help us save not only for historical reasons but the restoration of this building and train station would be the start of revitalization of East Winston economically again,” Reid wrote in a Facebook message yesterday. “The city council now wants to back out of the eminent domain and give the building back to Mr. Davis and venture on putting a main hub downtown which would devastate our master plans that we have worked very hard on for the past six years.”

Reid said that East Ward Councilman Derwin Montgomery and Simon Green Atkins Community Development Corporation Executive Director Carol Davis helped draft the petition.

The city council meeting begins at 7 p.m. tonight.

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