Sandy Springs council adopts 2026 Transportation Master Plan after debate on vision and priorities

The Sandy Springs City Council voted to adopt an updated 2026 Transportation Master Plan (TMP) that lays out a 10-year, constrained list of projects totaling about $280 million, with roughly $118 million planned in the first five years and $162 million in the next five. Transportation unit manager Kristen Westcott and consultant Dave Cox told the council the update consolidates more than 200 prior project recommendations under a unified scoring framework and responds to public outreach and prior studies such as the safety action plan.

The plan expands policy language on curb management — broadening focus beyond autonomous and ride-share vehicles to include delivery and e-commerce vehicles — and includes a new land-use integration goal that nods to housing and future residential development. "The 2026 transportation master plan update provides 1 guide forward to enhance multimodal accessibility for the City Of Sandy Springs," Westcott said during the presentation.

Council member John Paulson moved adoption while adding two formal requests: that any transportation recommendations from the city's pending comprehensive plan be incorporated and that staff prepare an executive summary to make the document more accessible. Paulson said an executive summary was needed because "270 pages is a long haul" for most readers; the motion to adopt the plan with those two additions passed on a council voice vote.

Not all members were convinced the plan strikes the right balance. Councilman Puczynski said he would vote no and outlined concerns under three headings: vision, policy and timing. He said the TMP should place a stronger emphasis on walkability and neighborhood connections rather than adding vehicle capacity, and suggested that reliance on TSPLOs funding should not substitute for a clear policy vision. "This plan should lay out our ideal transportation policy," he said, urging a shorter, more focused policy document with data in appendices.

Council members pressed staff on implementation and transparency. Staff said projects will be re-prioritized annually through the city's budget and capital improvement program and that staff would provide reporting measures and additional data points to track progress. Council members also requested maps and functional-classification lists and asked staff to prepare public-facing materials for large projects such as the Roswell Road streetscape. The council's action enables staff to begin advancing design and delivery steps for projects scoped in the TMP.