Mayor calls for pond re-do around Peoplestown resident Mattie Jackson’s home

A 93-year-old woman who has lived in Peoplestown all her life will stay there and the city will look into a redesign of a stormwater detention pond planned for her block, according to an announcement yesterday from Mayor Kasim Reed.
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? Mattie Jackson is one of five people on a /atlanta/ImageArchives?tag=Mattie Jackson&features=Stories&oid=15390285low-lying Peoplestown block who have declined to sell their properties to the city for a stormwater detention pond.For weeks, the longtime community advocate has been the public face of a campaign by the holdouts to stay in their homes.
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? The pressure on the mayor has been public and sustained. On Monday, Jackson, other neighbors, and activist-supporters delivered a petition to Reed demanding that the city cancel plans to demolish their homes.
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? On Thursday, Reed gave in on Jackson’s house.  An announcement from City Hall says the mayor offered Jackson the opportunity to stay in her home, rather than be relocated, while the administration pursues an alternative design option for the stormwater detention pond.
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?“Mrs. Jackson has been a pillar in her community, and out of respect for her contributions to our city, we have decided to support her desire to remain in the neighborhood she has called her home for decades,” Reed said in a statement. “I look forward to completing this important project as we address an issue that has gone unresolved for many years.”
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? Jackson’s own home has never flooded, but others on the block have. The city has in the past faced lawsuits from people on the block due to flood damage.
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? It was a “victory” for Jackson, said Tim Franzen of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, one of the groups working with the block’s residents.  But Franzen said the fight is not over yet because no solution has been extended to the other holdouts.
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????”If the Department of Watershed Management’s plan is so flexible that it can be modified to accommodate one home on the block and achieve its goal, it can be modified to accommodate the other six houses on the block,” Occupy Our Homes Atlanta said in a statement. 
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? Reed has offered to meet with the remaining four people who have said they want to stay in their homes. The city has already acquired or made deals on more than a dozen parcels on the block.
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?Reed’s announcement only talked about a redesign of the pond, emphasizing that the block is still going to be turned into a detention pond, as part of $65 million worth in flood-abatement projects. Like Historic Fourth Ward Park, the site will be landscaped and function as a public park.