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Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta BeltLine: Westside Trail advances as city agrees to accept $18 million from US DOT

by David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council has authorized Mayor Kasim Reed to take the steps necessary to accept $18 million in federal funding for the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside Trail.

This TIGER V grant to the BeltLine was announced Sept. 9. The city council’s action is a mere formality, but one that’s required in order for Atlanta to assure the federal government it will comply with rules regarding the use of funds.

Councilmember Aaron Watson introduced the paper at the end of the council’s meeting Monday, as the final legislative act of his term. The funding will enable construction to begin in 2014, possibly as early as the summer.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Mayor Reed: BeltLine transit should be funded with up to $4 billion in public private partnership

by David Pendered

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says the planned transit system along the Atlanta BeltLine should be funded through a public private partnership.

“We’re going to have to have a public private partnership,” Reed said. “We’re going to need to partner with an investor to put up $3 [billion] to $4 billion to put up the rail component. … I believe that is the right way to go because I’d like to ride the light rail while I’m alive.”

If the project moves forward, the price would dwarf the $840 million network of managed lanes the state Department of Transportation is building in Cobb and Cherokee counties alongside I-75 and I-575 through a public private partnership. This project is the largest project of its kind in Georgia history.

Posted inDavid Pendered

BeltLine’s public safety upgrades first suggested in 2007 report from Tech’s Center for Quality Growth

by David Pendered

Atlanta’s response to crime along the Atlanta BeltLine is unfolding almost exactly as recommended in a health impact assessment completed in 2007 by a research team guided by Georgia Tech professor Catherine Ross.

The city has formed a police team to patrol BeltLine’s greenspaces; worked with Trees Atlanta to trim vegetation; improved lighting; and installed markers to help users identify their location.

All the efforts address this one statement in Ross’ report: “Users might avoid the BeltLine if it is perceived as being ‘unsafe,’ …”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta’s new cycle track is short, but a milestone in city’s mobility options

by David Pendered

Atlanta is poised to complete in August a significant component of its overall plan to provide safer routes for bicyclists.

On its face, the new cycle track seems too short to be notable. It will stretch along 10th Street only the width Henry W. Grady High School, from Monroe Drive to Charles Allen Drive.

This short segment will provide a separate cycle track that will connect tip of the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail at Piedmont Park to Charles Allen Drive. Because a bike lane already exists on Charles Allen Drive, the cycle track will provide one of the last links of connectivity for cycling and walking along a route from Inman Park neighborhoods through Midtown and across the Downtown Connector to Tech.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Proposal to have Atlanta Streetcar planning done by BeltLine hits snag over who’s to pay for the research

by David Pendered

Atlanta’s effort to bring more of the planning for the expansion of the Atlanta Streetcar under the wing of the Atlanta BeltLine has hit a snag at Atlanta City Hall.

This particular situation is not expected to be significant. But it is the latest in a series that has led to the delay of at least a year in the planned opening of the Atlanta streetcar’s current route.

The current snag involves the source of up to $6 million to pay for planners and planning consultants to work on the streetcar expansion project. The city council’s Finance Committee raised a question that may delay legislation that had been slated for adoption by the council on Monday: What sources of taxpayer dollars will the Atlanta BeltLine use to pay for this long-range planning.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta BeltLine: City to condemn property to develop park, trail

by David Pendered

Atlanta is preparing to condemn private property to further the development of the Atlanta BeltLine.

Although just a few acres are involved, this marks the first time Atlanta has exercised its power of eminent domain to develop a park or trail related to the BeltLine.

Condemned land will be used to expand Enota Place Park, in southwest Atlanta, which was one of the original 13 jewels in the “emerald necklace” vision of the BeltLine that was used to promote the concept in its formative days. The Southwest BeltLine Connector Trail will be built atop some condemned properties.

Posted inDavid Pendered

PATH Foundation named in Ga. 400 trail, latest of its $55 million projects

by David Pendered

After building more than 180 miles of trails in Georgia, the PATH Foundation is now memorialized in the name of a future trail in Atlanta – PATH400 is the name of the trail that’s to run alongside and beneath Ga. 400.

When the trail’s complete, it will join a trail network valued at $55.5 million that PATH has completed and transferred to local governments, according to PATH’s most recent Form 990, the IRS tax return filed by non-profit organizations.

Despite the size of this contribution to public greenways, or perhaps because of it, the PATH Foundation has become such a fixture in metro Atlanta since it was formed in 1991 that it’s possible to forget that it is still a relatively small organization in the big world of non-profits.

Posted inDavid Pendered

BeltLine’s Eastside Trail: Replacement bridge to improve access, safety

by David Pendered

Construction started Wednesday on a replacement bridge above the Atlanta BeltLine, one that is to improve safety for users of the bridge and to provide better access to the Eastside Trail and the BeltLine’s proposed transit line.

The $4.5 million, yearlong project was delayed from a planned start date of March 18. The cause was utility work that had to be done before crews started to demolish the existing bridge.

As with many public construction efforts in Atlanta, this one is presented as a BeltLine project. Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. is involved and funding comes from a federal program that provides bonds for projects in economically distressed areas, which were provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Posted inDavid Pendered

BeltLine: Construction returns as advisory group ponders equity issues

by David Pendered

A new report shows that construction activity along the Atlanta BeltLine is trending upward after a stark decline during the recession.

Fourteen projects were under construction in 2012. That compares to four projects in 2011, three in 2010, and nine in 2009. There were 31 projects being built in 2008, according to the new report from the city’s Bureau of Planning.

The concentration of development in northeast Atlanta – half the projects being built last year were in the Freedom Parkway subarea – speaks to the issue of equitable development, which is the subject of an advisory group that’s to meet Friday.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Adams Park in southwest Atlanta listed on National Registry of Historic Places for landscape, stonework

by David Pendered

A portion of Adams Park, in southwest Atlanta, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of attributes including its landscape design and stonework.

The recognition is a reminder of the efforts underway in many of the city parks, in addition to headline-grabbing initiatives such as the Atlanta BeltLine and Buckhead Trail.

The Adams Park designation is the result of work by the Adams Park Foundation on behalf of a park that – like Chastain Memorial Park, in Buckhead – was originally intended to attract residents to the region by offering first-class recreational amenities. The same landscape company worked on Chastain and Adams parks.

Posted inSaba Long

Atlanta’s ‘start up’ community — turning hype into reality

by Saba Long

Bash it all you want but the beauty of Twitter is moments like the one I had a week ago. I stumbled upon an online conversation about the ecosystem of Atlanta’s startup community and its relation to the city’s transit access – namely connecting the Atlanta BeltLine to MARTA.

The irony is hours before that tweet exchange took place, Scott Henderson, the executive director of Hypepotamus – an open gathering space for startup companies – gave me nearly the same line in an interview. “Density begets serendipity.”

Posted inGuest Column

Atlanta BeltLine a path for private entities to partner for public good

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist VALARIE WILSON, executive director of the BeltLine Partnership, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering support for Atlanta’s BeltLine

Standing on the playground at Historic Fourth Ward Park on a weekend afternoon, surrounded by young families, you look down into the park, past the amphitheater toward the water and see others walking their dogs and generally moving at the sort of leisurely pace inspired by such havens within a city.

You’re in the shadow of hundreds of new apartment and condominiums built in the midst of the worst economy in a generation, filled with residents who want to live in proximity to the park and the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail on the horizon.

Posted inDesign, Design and Our City, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership

A Run Along the Eastside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine

Avatar photo by Perkins and Will

Allen Post, author of the columns on Sprout Space in March 2012, writes this week about his experience with the new section of the Atlanta BeltLine. The photo is from Ryan Gravel, a senior urban designer for Perkins+Will, who conceived of the BeltLine while earning his master’s degree in architecture at Georgia Tech. Read more and […]

Posted inDavid Pendered

Forums aim to help small firms win work as Legislature debates “small businesses”

by David Pendered

Two upcoming forums will provide information to small and minority companies seeking contracts to design and build projects in Atlanta to be funded with proceeds of the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation.

Presenters will talk about the procurement processes to be used to award contracts for planned transportation projects in Atlanta, MARTA, DeKalb and Fulton counties. Registration for the session Wednesday is closed, but openings remain for the March 6 event.

The forums occur as the state Legislature debates a proposal to redefine small business as it relates to state purchasing contracts. House Bill 863 would change the size of a small business, for purposes of competing for a state contract, from 100 employees to 500 employees.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Buckhead trail in Ga. 400’s right-of-way begins final planning phase this week

by David Pendered

The proposed five-mile trail to be built alongside and beneath Ga. 400 moves into its final planning phase this week.

If all goes as scheduled, design work that begins at this time will lead to construction starting in mid 2013, according to Denise Starling, the executive director of Livable Buckhead, Inc. Livable Buckhead is the chief organizer of the $10 million trail that is to stretch from a cemetery off Loridans Drive in North Buckhead to the planned Peachtree Creek spur of the BeltLine, near MARTA’s Lindbergh Station.

The Buckhead trail is not directly affiliated with the BeltLine. But the two projects are complementary, and are to constitute the largest expansion of greenspace now underway in any U.S. city, according to Trust for Public Land.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 1

Ryan Gravel’s Moment wasn’t conceiving the BeltLine, it was when others embraced it

Avatar photo by adminmegan

I thought BeltLine visionary Ryan Gravel would say his Moment was when he looked at a map of the city of Atlanta, saw the 1800s-era railroad tracks outlined and had an “ah-ha” moment. He says he’s often asked if the idea came to him all at once, but it actually marinated slowly, sparked during his senior year in college when he rode trains all over Paris and later when he returned to the traffic-clogged streets of metro Atlanta.

“My moment was in 2003, when I realized we might actually build the BeltLine,” he said.
Please view our HD Moments video with Ryan Gravel.

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