...When It’s in Atlanta, Of Course!
Anyone who listens to doctors, personal trainers, and nutritionists is well aware that an expanding belt line is not a good thing. Unless, of course, you happen to be the city of Atlanta. If all goes as planned, the “Beltline” project, nicknamed for a set of unused railway tracks surrounding the city, will include light rail, 1,300 acres of new parks, affordable housing, and walking and cycling trails. Over the next 25 years, Atlanta residents can expect to see an estimated 2.8 billion dollars of investment surge into the old railway line, whose design is based on a Georgia Tech student’s master’s thesis.
“Atlanta is a sprawling metro area,” says KC Boyce, Senior Project Manager for the Beltline, “However, we’ve seen a shift in demand patterns away from the exurbs to in-town areas. This will help provide positive benefits for people who live in the city.”
An interesting fact about Atlanta: the city proper has a population of about 500,000 compared to a staggering 5,000,000-person metropolitan area.
“By encouraging density, it’s combating one of our biggest sustainability issues: sprawl,” says Mandy Schmitt, the city’s Sustainability Director.
“It’s a more resource efficient way to develop,” adds Boyce. He says the Beltline is expected to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 665,000 metric tons a year, by reducing the number of vehicles on the streets.
The Beltline currently runs through an eclectic range of neighborhoods, from affluent areas to economically depressed ones, from active industrial parks to factories that haven’t been in operation for years. Facilitating easy access between these areas will spur more even economic growth. Part of the Beltline plan also includes cleaning up “brownfields” —areas where the Environmental Protection Agency says redevelopment may be complicated by the presence of hazardous substances, contaminants, or pollutants. The project will address the environmental, social, and economic needs of the city—the mark of a truly sustainable plan.
“At its core, the Beltline is about creating a new way to live, work and play in Atlanta. It’s the closest thing we have to re-designing and re-knitting the city,” says Schmitt
In other words, the bigger the Beltline, the better. Take that Jenny Craig.
Ken O. says:
Planetizen today writes that Atlanta's Beltway future is in doubt, due to communication and funding issues.
Just fyi. What do Atlantans think?
"Mixed communication, contested railway lines and the collision of local, state and federal entities has put the future of Atlanta's Beltline greenspace and transit project."
http://www.planetizen.com/node/37218
"In brief, here’s the issue: The northeast quadrant of the Beltline, known as the Decatur Belt, is a 4.3-mile piece of railroad right of way formerly run by Norfolk Southern. Running through residential areas and along Piedmont Park, it is the most commercially valuable property on the 22-mile Beltline; the city’s plans for financing the project depend heavily on private investment in that area."
"But before the property could be freed for other uses, Norfolk Southern had to get an OK from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to abandon it as a railway."
"The DOT, while supportive of the Beltline, believes that preserving the Decatur Belt as a railway is essential to eventually bringing high-speed rail and commuter rail service into a proposed multimodal station in downtown Atlanta, near the Five Points MARTA station. It also believes that the Beltline property could accommodate all three uses — Beltline, high-speed rail and commuter rail."
"So earlier this month, without apparent warning to the city, the DOT filed a last-minute objection with the Surface Transportation Board to try to stop abandonment. If it succeeds, and if Amtrak succeeds in condemning the land, it could kill the Beltline project altogether."
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 2, 2009