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Another tale of urban development in the US of A.
From Yahoo! News:
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Atlanta Looks to Abandoned Railroad Tracks By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 30, 3:38 AM ET
ATLANTA - The sprawling metropolis always has given park proponents a headache. Founded as a railroad hub, the city has no ocean, no mountains and no major body of water to serve as a built-in foundation for a park system.
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One of the only opportunities for adding green space is manmade ¡X the mostly unused railroad tracks that ring the city, dotted with rundown warehouses and abandoned depots.
It is precisely those tracks that city planners and green groups propose to use in an ambitious $2.1 billion plan to build a 22-mile verdant loop of parks, paths and transit around the city that would link 45 neighborhoods.
"Atlanta, which was for many years known as the poster-child for sprawl, is becoming a national leader in demonstrating there are cost-effective, profitable alternatives," said Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow of the Urban Land Institute.
Dubbed the Beltline Project, the plan could propel Atlanta from the bottom of the pack of major cities in green space to square in the middle, while at the same time generating economic development by linking together affluent and struggling, isolated neighborhoods.
Urban planning experts are closely watching how the project plays out, saying it could serve as a blueprint for so-called smart growth developments across the country.
The Atlanta project comes as other urban centers champion efforts to turn out-of-use railway lines into parks.
New York's High Line project would turn an abandoned 1.45-mile stretch of elevated rail line in Manhattan into a towering trail. A similar proposal in Chicago would convert a 20-foot-high freight railroad line into an oasis for walkers and bike riders. Both projects seem to be inspired by a world-renowned project in Paris in the 1990s that turned a rail viaduct into a lush 3-mile pedestrian walkway.
More than 13,000 miles of rail-trails dot the nation and 14,000 miles of additional lines are in the works, said Katie Magers, spokeswoman for the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a Washington-based nonprofit.
"They're everywhere," she said. "We're seeing a lot more creative use of rail lines."
To raise most of the $2.1 billion needed to pay for the project, the City Council this month approved a special tax district this month that could raise $1.7 billion to fund the project's infrastructure.
The Fulton County Commission and Atlanta school board also are expected in the coming weeks to cast crucial votes on whether to help fund the project.
Even before the City Council's vote, the national conservation group Trust for Public Land began working to secure about 70 acres of land along the route, preserving at least some space as developers eagerly snatch up other open tracts. The private group has spent as much as $1 million an acre to lock up the land.
Jim Langford, director for the state chapter of the conservation group, said it is essential to build a "green infrastructure" for a region that is home to about 4.7 million people and that expects 2.3 million more in the next 20 years.
For months, the project enjoyed glowing praise around the city, but some critics have made headway.
A panel of transportation experts raised concerns when it found that isolated parts of the loop would not have the riders to support trains, trolleys or whatever transit options are proposed.
Neighborhood groups in the well-to-do northeastern portion of the loop have criticized high-rise apartment proposals that would be a dramatic change in a landscape of mostly single-family homes.
And in other neighborhoods, some residents worry the Beltline project is a development tool aimed at building housing near the rich but ignoring the poor.
However, these fears could be put to rest if the city provides investors tax incentives to encourage development, said Michael Meyer, a transportation consultant professor at Georgia Tech.
Meyer is among a group of academics who argue that the project is a once-in-a-generation chance to drive Atlanta's growth for decades and provide a blueprint for the revitalization of cities across the globe.
"It's almost as important as Hartsfield Airport and the freeway system," Meyer said, referring to the city's airport ¡X the busiest in the world. "It could have that big of an impact."
___
On the Net:
http://www.beltlinepartnership.org
From Yahoo! News:
Link to article
Atlanta Looks to Abandoned Railroad Tracks By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 30, 3:38 AM ET
ATLANTA - The sprawling metropolis always has given park proponents a headache. Founded as a railroad hub, the city has no ocean, no mountains and no major body of water to serve as a built-in foundation for a park system.
ADVERTISEMENT
One of the only opportunities for adding green space is manmade ¡X the mostly unused railroad tracks that ring the city, dotted with rundown warehouses and abandoned depots.
It is precisely those tracks that city planners and green groups propose to use in an ambitious $2.1 billion plan to build a 22-mile verdant loop of parks, paths and transit around the city that would link 45 neighborhoods.
"Atlanta, which was for many years known as the poster-child for sprawl, is becoming a national leader in demonstrating there are cost-effective, profitable alternatives," said Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow of the Urban Land Institute.
Dubbed the Beltline Project, the plan could propel Atlanta from the bottom of the pack of major cities in green space to square in the middle, while at the same time generating economic development by linking together affluent and struggling, isolated neighborhoods.
Urban planning experts are closely watching how the project plays out, saying it could serve as a blueprint for so-called smart growth developments across the country.
The Atlanta project comes as other urban centers champion efforts to turn out-of-use railway lines into parks.
New York's High Line project would turn an abandoned 1.45-mile stretch of elevated rail line in Manhattan into a towering trail. A similar proposal in Chicago would convert a 20-foot-high freight railroad line into an oasis for walkers and bike riders. Both projects seem to be inspired by a world-renowned project in Paris in the 1990s that turned a rail viaduct into a lush 3-mile pedestrian walkway.
More than 13,000 miles of rail-trails dot the nation and 14,000 miles of additional lines are in the works, said Katie Magers, spokeswoman for the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a Washington-based nonprofit.
"They're everywhere," she said. "We're seeing a lot more creative use of rail lines."
To raise most of the $2.1 billion needed to pay for the project, the City Council this month approved a special tax district this month that could raise $1.7 billion to fund the project's infrastructure.
The Fulton County Commission and Atlanta school board also are expected in the coming weeks to cast crucial votes on whether to help fund the project.
Even before the City Council's vote, the national conservation group Trust for Public Land began working to secure about 70 acres of land along the route, preserving at least some space as developers eagerly snatch up other open tracts. The private group has spent as much as $1 million an acre to lock up the land.
Jim Langford, director for the state chapter of the conservation group, said it is essential to build a "green infrastructure" for a region that is home to about 4.7 million people and that expects 2.3 million more in the next 20 years.
For months, the project enjoyed glowing praise around the city, but some critics have made headway.
A panel of transportation experts raised concerns when it found that isolated parts of the loop would not have the riders to support trains, trolleys or whatever transit options are proposed.
Neighborhood groups in the well-to-do northeastern portion of the loop have criticized high-rise apartment proposals that would be a dramatic change in a landscape of mostly single-family homes.
And in other neighborhoods, some residents worry the Beltline project is a development tool aimed at building housing near the rich but ignoring the poor.
However, these fears could be put to rest if the city provides investors tax incentives to encourage development, said Michael Meyer, a transportation consultant professor at Georgia Tech.
Meyer is among a group of academics who argue that the project is a once-in-a-generation chance to drive Atlanta's growth for decades and provide a blueprint for the revitalization of cities across the globe.
"It's almost as important as Hartsfield Airport and the freeway system," Meyer said, referring to the city's airport ¡X the busiest in the world. "It could have that big of an impact."
___
On the Net:
http://www.beltlinepartnership.org