"A lot of mixed feelings, but mostly relief that we've made it to this point." That was Rebecca Serna of Propel ATL, who has pushed for changes to Monroe Drive for a decade, speaking the day before the Monroe Drive Safe Streets groundbreaking in July, as reported by Atlanta News First.
Across the neighborhood on North Highland Avenue, a separate owner with a separate budget announced a face-lift for Morningside Village around the same time. One project is an $18 million city road rebuild. The other is a private retail refresh. They have no stated connection to each other, yet the most specific line item in both plans is the crosswalk. Both edges of Morningside are being redrawn for the moment you step off the curb, and the neighborhood's fall calendar happens to be one you can do entirely on foot.
What the city is buying on Monroe Drive
The Monroe Drive Safe Streets project changes parts of the corridor from a four-lane undivided road to a three-lane section. According to the city, its traffic models show the new lane layout cutting congestion in both directions and reducing crashes by about 30 percent, and officials expect congestion to fall by 10 percent. Fewer lanes and less congestion sounds backward. The models credit the improvement to the reconfiguration itself.
The clearest way to see what the $18 million pays for is to count crossings. The approved plans include 29 marked crosswalks within the project limits, up from 26 today. They also add two Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons, six Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, bulb-outs, and center median islands at crossings. Sidewalks and ADA ramps on both sides of Monroe will be replaced where warranted.
For anyone who lives off one of the side streets, the intersection changes matter more than the totals:
- Cumberland Road has been realigned so the pedestrian crossing is about 30 feet shorter, with better sight lines.
- Sherwood Road gets the same treatment, and its crossing shrinks by about 40 feet.
- Yorkshire Road drivers will be allowed to turn left onto Monroe Drive under the new design.
- Piedmont and Monroe gets new curb lines and ADA ramps on every corner, which define the vehicle path and shorten the walk across.
- Montgomery Ferry gets a slight widening of the northbound lane edge, new ramps and crosswalks, and a raised center median.
Two signalized crossings will be added between Montgomery Ferry and Piedmont Road. A Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon will go in between Ansley Circle and Piedmont Road, and a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon between Ansley Circle and Montgomery Ferry. The Greenwood Avenue intersection is not part of this project. It falls under the separate Monroe Drive/Boulevard Complete Street project, which is still in design.
What Monroe Drive is not getting
The plan has no dedicated bike lanes. The 2021 concept report ranked pedestrians first and bicyclists fourth, and it left bike lanes out because standard-width lanes would not fit. The community asked the city to revisit the question in 2024. That review recommended unprotected bike lanes as narrow as 3.5 feet, which needed a design variance the city decided would not be approved.
Part of the reason is who else uses the road. Monroe Drive is a MARTA bus route and a city-designated truck route, and both the National Association of City Transportation Officials and city code recommend 11-foot travel lanes for that kind of traffic. Serna said the project would make the street much safer for residents and other users, but that without dedicated space for bikes and scooters, the sidewalk would be "less safe than it could be otherwise."
A lower speed limit is also not settled. ATLDOT completed an engineering and traffic investigation to support a 25 mph limit on parts of Monroe Drive, and the findings go to the GDOT District 7 office for review and then to the Department of Public Safety for final approval. The July coverage described that approval as still pending.
The calendar on the cones
The work is split into two phases. Phase I runs from just north of Park Drive NE to Armour Drive NE and is expected to take about 12 months. Phase II covers 8th Street NE through Park Drive NE, including a new roundabout, and is expected to take 12 to 18 months. ATLDOT's project page lists construction starting July 15, 2026 and finishing July 3, 2028. On that schedule, the stretch north of Park Drive is the first in line, and the roundabout portion comes later.
City staff said they do not expect drivers to cut through side streets to avoid Monroe, based on the projected drop in congestion. ATLDOT said it has reviewed nearby streets for possible speed mitigation and will keep watching how traffic behaves. Full design plans are posted on the ATLDOT Monroe Drive project page.
The same idea, privately funded, on North Highland
Morningside Village is about 50,000 square feet of buildings on both sides of North Highland Avenue. Its owner, the Atlanta investment firm 26th Street Partners, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the property will get new lighting, landscaping, paint, awnings, and artist murals. The plan also adds wayfinding and "distinct crosswalks to clearly define the village as a cohesive district."
The AJC's July report placed the work in the fall, and the rendering it published was credited to Gentle Works. A painted crosswalk is a small item in a renovation budget. Its job is to make a street with buildings on both sides read as one place. On Monroe, the crossings are being redesigned to get people across a through road safely. On North Highland, they are being redesigned to tell people the two sides belong together.
The tenants on both sides of that line are long-standing names: Whiskey Bird, The Family Dog, Doc Chey's Noodle House, Highland Fine Wine, Highland Runners, and Intown Animal Hospital. The next addition will not arrive this season. Chef Christopher Grossman, who leads The Chastain, plans a neighborhood restaurant called Alere for 2027 at 1397 N. Highland Avenue NE, in Morningside Village. It will serve a seasonal menu drawn from Southern European cooking, with a space designed by Summerour Architects and Smith Hanes Design. That address was most recently Nowak's Cantina. Grossman told What Now Atlanta that menu and opening details will come closer to the date.
Fall dates you can walk to
If the street work is about getting from one side to the other, the season's events are a good way to try it. Each of these starts at a fixed address inside the neighborhood:
- Saturday, October 10, 10 to 11:30 a.m. The Morningside Lenox Park Association's History of Morningside walking tour starts at 1411 N. Morningside Drive.
- Saturday, October 24, 8:30 a.m. MLPA's Monster Dash 5K starts at Morningside Presbyterian Church, 1411 N. Morningside Drive, and includes a Kids Dash.
- Saturday, November 7. Trees Atlanta holds a forest restoration workday in Morningside Nature Preserve, removing invasive plants. Volunteers meet at the Wellbourne Drive trailhead near 1933 Wellbourne Drive.
- Saturday, November 14. MLPA runs a second Morningside history walk.
- November, date to be announced. MLPA's 2026 education series lists "The Power of Compassion," a panel held with Hillside.
The church at 1411 N. Morningside Drive hosts both the October history walk and the 5K, so two of the season's biggest neighborhood gatherings start from the same front steps two weeks apart. MLPA's monthly newsletter is now for members only, which makes its public events calendar the most reliable place to check for changes.
Where the two projects stand this fall
The Morningside Village face-lift is the shorter of the two jobs and was scheduled for this season. Monroe Drive's first phase, north of Park Drive, has about 12 months of work planned, and the full corridor has an official finish date in July 2028. Between them sits a neighborhood where the October and November calendar is built around walking tours, a footrace, and a morning pulling invasive plants on the Wellbourne Drive side of the preserve.
When a street changes right outside a home, the difference shows up in daily life well before it shows up in a sale price, whether that is a shorter crossing at Sherwood Road or a new left turn out of Yorkshire. If you are trying to figure out how the Monroe Drive phases or the North Highland refresh affect a particular block before you buy or sell, Stephen Beckwith can go through the timing with you, street by street. Let's Connect.