Posted on 12/03/2005 9:15:53 PM PST by Lorianne
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.
One of the only opportunities for adding green space is manmade - 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.
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 - the busiest in the world. “It could have that big of an impact.”
They've done a lot of this in the western suburbs of Chicago. What they really needed to do with this railroad stuff is build a better commuter system around here.
22 miles of additional parks is a maintenance nightmare. The above assessment district will have to address that in addition to the construction funds needed. The assessment district will not dissolve after the construction bonds are paid off, maintenance is forever.
Necklace or hangman's noose? Smart growth requires hard edges to cities and neighborhoods, and putting a noose around the city will accomplish that. Most smart growthers go for the European look, where cities and towns are built in tightly controlled spaces, surround by fields and open space in the manner of a medival village.
I've finally reached the conclusion that Chicago is evil, and its only hope, far-fetched though it may be, would be a popular uprising that kicked Daley and his minions out forever and instituted a free and democratic government. Unfortunately, the serfs (no one who lives in Cook County is a "citizen" in any meaningful sense of the word) seem to be happy to trade less graffiti and lotsa parks for freedom and economic development.
I believe it was actually a black comedian who commented on the fact that one can identify the worst area in any large city by the fact that MLK Jr. Blvd. will be in the center of it. Chris Rock, maybe?
"One of the only opportunities..." I suppose they mean "one of the few opportunities." An only opportunity suggests that there is just one.
My exact thoughts also
If I remember correctly, such railroad lands are not owned by the railroad, but are owned by the ajacent land owners who sole an easement to the railroad.
When the Railroad gives up the lease it is supposed to revert to the landowners who may have other uses for it than a walkway.
With in-town transportation (not to mention suburban transportation) being nightmarish at best, any solid proposal -- including the Beltline -- are ones that deserve looking at.
Everything I've seen on the Beltline so far, is on the up and up.
Now, as long as the Atlanta City Council can keep their grubby little paws out of the coffers (yeah, right!) then this will probably roll on the way it ought to.
Carolyn
Absolutely correct. Read my post #32 to see what happened here in Missouri.
Carolyn
You must be forgetting your Texas roots, living in Japan.
We have concealed carry in GA. Had it long before TX, actually. And while I'm sure there will be muggers, I'm also sure they'll be at mortal risk.
Rails to Trails is a wonderful idea and active organisation. It promotes the banking of the nation's RR rights-of-way in case of any unforeseen future need for rights-of-way, and helps convert them to outdoor activity trails.
I encountered these back in my younger days when i was Mountain Biking.
We have several here in SE Michigan and they are in use all over the United States.
One is even being developed by architects on an unused New York City elevated railway. It's on the West Side and it's called "The High Line".
This AP article sets forth its own agenda, making this erroneously sound like some greenspace project. It's mainly a light rail, and is near downtown, not through the suburbs like the article implies.
I agree that this is worth looking at. My main conern is that it serves areas that are already not that far away from existing MARTA stations and bus lines.
BTW, I like Atlanta's sprawl. Sprawl is just a way of saying that citizens have another option for their living and working environment. Planners (and AP reporters) who want to eliminate sprawl are no friends of freedom.
Whether these railways revert back to the original owner depends upon whether the railroads were granted a simple easement or acquired a simple fee title. If the latter, the property owner is probably out of luck.
For those property owners that granted only easement, several years ago the federal court of claims ruled that original owners of railway beds are entitled to compensation plus interest for property taken under rails to trails or similar schemes.
The eco-fascists are trying to snowball people into believing that the local government owns these lands. Several property owners in my area have discovered that they own the property on these rails to trails schemes and have erected fences, keeping the public out until they're paid.
The best thing to do is to hire a good property rights attorney and sue, sue, sue.
"You must be forgetting your Texas roots, living in Japan."
Tryin' hard not to.
"We have concealed carry in GA. Had it long before TX, actually."
I did not know that. Glad to hear it.
"And while I'm sure there will be muggers, I'm also sure they'll be at mortal risk."
I kind of had a vision of the cast of "Friends" wandering in there for a nature walk.
I was just going to post about what we have here in milwaukee that is the same- we have a beautiful trail just a couple blocks from where I live that is an old railroad track that is nicely paved. I spent a big chunk of my weekends on it this summer and it's great- and it's very populated and has a heavy police presence so it's very safe. I think this is a great idea.
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