Glover was a firm believer that large-scale public housing developments were an utter failure, and that the living conditions in Atlanta’s public housing were intolerable. These contentions led Glover to prioritize getting “people out of these horrible conditions,” while vowing not to “rebuild a newer version of something that has failed.” She also believed that “the private sector had to be very much a part of the solution” to the housing problem – a view that made Cousins’ plan to center the redevelopment around a revitalized golf course especially attractive.

The leaders of the East Lake tenant association were immediately skeptical of Glover and Cousins’ intentions and requested the counsel of longtime public housing advocate Dennis Goldstein. Goldstein, an Atlanta Legal Aid attorney, was at the time representing tenant associations in other housing projects under redevelopment. At the request of the tenants, President Carter also assigned Frank Alexander, a faculty member at Emory University’s School of Law who was serving as a fellow with the Atlanta Project, to represent the tenants alongside Goldstein.

Meadows residents immediately began to worry about the plan’s consequences. Vivian Louise Featherstone, a sixty-seven year old Meadows resident, remembered thinking, “Where are we going?” and “how will we survive?” Now, in addition to the bullets, she felt she had to fear Cousins’ and Glover’s bulldozers as well. Eva Davis vowed to reject the plan. “A lot of residents feel like this is a sneaky way to get rid of us,” Davis said. She believed that Cousins and Glover were “just pushing [the residents] away from the golf course.” Many of the residents were worried about the stark reduction in the number of public housing units – from 650 to 206 – and the lack of planning for replacement housing.

Glover understood the concern and stressed that this was “just a proposal,” and that “nothing [would] happen without resident consent.” Giornelli also noted that “the next challenge will be to find good, decent, safe housing off the East Lake Meadows site.” He remained confident that the Foundation, the Housing Authority, and the tenants would “be able to work through this together.”

Over the next six months, the Housing Authority and the tenant association, with the guidance of Goldstein and Alexander, met weekly to work towards a redevelopment agreement. In the negotiations the residents’ main goal was to ensure that they had the right to live in whatever new facilities would be built.