The Atlanta Beltline, Inc. capped off a busy year with its fourth quarterly briefing on Dec. 16, but the team is already looking at 2025 projects, including trail construction, affordable housing and the first steps to building light rail.
“We’re just continuing to push the people’s project at the forefront and get that national and even international attention,” Atlanta Beltline, Inc. CEO Clyde Higgs said.
Throughout 2024, the Beltline made strides in the development and acquisition of the 22-mile loop. Currently, the trail is 85 percent complete or under construction and set for a 2030 finish. In October, construction began on Segment 1 of the Northwest Trail, officially bringing the Beltline to Buckhead. The city followed it up by announcing a key land acquisition that would open up the land needed for Segment 2 of the Northwest Trail.
Weeks later, the Beltline opened up a 0.9-mile chunk of trail alongside Piedmont Park, starting at 10th Street and Monroe Drive. It keeps the organization on track to have 18 miles of trail completed in time for the city to host eight World Cup matches in 2026.
But the city’s popular trail saw some other changes, too. In July, the organization teased out a major change. Some predicted an announcement about rail or other developments, but ABI instead launched a new logo and website to better reflect the project’s evolution.
The new logo condensed 45 squares representing the city’s neighborhoods to only eight shapes in a circle. The website was also condensed and updated for easier navigation.
It was one of a few cultural moves for the Beltline: the organization boasted its inclusion in the New York Times’ guide to “36 Hours in Atlanta.” The outlet said the Eastside Trail in particular had transformed the city, though it has sparked gentrification concerns.
With a $172 million budget for 2025, the Beltline has three main goals in the year ahead: design and construction, real estate and affordable housing. As of December 2024, the Beltline is about 85 percent of the way to its goal of creating or preserving 5,600 affordable housing units by 2030.
Currently, there are 626 units planned for 2025, including a permanently affordable housing development on Chappell Road. It’s one of the ways the Beltline aims to fight gentrification and create equity within the massive, transformational project.
Another is Beltline rail. The planned project to add light rail along the popular walking and riding path has sparked controversy since the announcement of a Streetcar East Extension project that would bring downtown’s streetcar system through Ponce City Market.
Rail was part of the original Beltline plan, though Mayor Andre Dickens has waffled on whether or not he would support the multimillion-dollar transit project in its current state. Previously, he has floated driverless pods as an alternative.
“The vision of the Beltline transit system is really one of democratization,” Beltline principal engineer Shaun Green said. “This is the thing that makes the beltline accessible to everybody, regardless of wealth, regardless of weather, regardless of ability, regardless of geography.”
Green said rail is what holds the 22-mile loop together — and Atlanta Beltline, Inc. is fully in favor of it happening. Currently, the organization is conducting a Beltline transit study launched in the fall of 2023. The focus is on how to build rail in areas like the Northwest quadrant that lack an abandoned rail line.
The engineer said the study has looked at population demographics, future land use, densities and more to generate ridership projection and figure out operations. Those draft findings and recommendations will likely be publicly available by 2025.
“We continue to make progress in delivering, again, on the people’s project,” Higgs said.
Although Mayor Andre Dickens has been evasive about whether he would support the multimillion-dollar transit project in its current shape, rail was included in the original Beltline concept.