Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. Board of Directors Adopts Long Range Strategic Implementation Plan

Strategy Will Guide Atlanta BeltLine Program through its Completion in 2030

Atlanta, GA – Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.’s (ABI) Board of Directors unanimously approved the Atlanta BeltLine 2030 Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP), which will guide the citywide transportation and redevelopment program through its completion. The first seven years of the program generated a roughly 3:1 return on investment, with more than $1 billion in private redevelopment spurred by roughly $350 million of investment. The SIP expects to equal or exceed this return on investment as the economy continues to improve in the coming years.

“The 2030 Strategic Implementation Plan is a thorough, practical strategy that will help ensure the realization of the full vision of the Atlanta BeltLine,” said John Somerhalder, Chairman of the ABI Board of Directors. “It will guide the work of public, private and community partners investing in America’s most ambitious urban transportation and redevelopment program.”

The SIP is the culmination of a yearlong effort with extensive community and stakeholder engagement to create a living document that determines short, medium and long-term priorities for the implementation of the Atlanta BeltLine across the City of Atlanta. The SIP also provides cost estimates and funding scenarios to complete the program.

“The SIP is a pragmatic, business-minded approach to effectively advance the Atlanta BeltLine through completion,” said Paul Morris, President and CEO of ABI. “It provides a flexible framework for pursuit of accelerated delivery options, including public private partnerships and other innovative funding and financing opportunities. The SIP is grounded in economic reality and will ensure the Atlanta BeltLine benefits the entire community.”

“Our collective efforts have brought the Atlanta BeltLine from concept to reality,” said Brian McGowan, President and CEO of Invest Atlanta, Atlanta’s Development Authority. Invest Atlanta is the redevelopment agent of the City with oversight of all tax allocation districts, including the Atlanta BeltLine. “New parks and trails have attracted jobs and more than $1 billion in private real estate development, demonstrating the impact and success this historic and transformative initiative is having on the City of Atlanta.”

The next phases of redevelopment outlined in the SIP will build on progress to date including seven miles of new trails, 200 acres of new and renewed parks and greenspaces, more than 70 acres of remediated brownfields, and new, diverse affordable housing opportunities. Critical planning, environmental review and real estate acquisition for transit is well underway, increasing the program’s competitiveness for federal funding. Most immediately, the City of Atlanta is receiving an $18 million TIGER V grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the development of a 2.5-mile portion of the Atlanta BeltLine Westside Trail in southwest Atlanta.

The SIP divides implementation into three periods of projects. For the next five years, Period 1, the SIP includes the following project priorities:

1. Securing rights to the remaining right-of-way to complete the 22-mile Atlanta BeltLine loop;
2. Completing the southern half of the Westside Trail and commencing construction on the Southeast Trail;
3. Constructing Boulevard Crossing Phase II, Enota and Murphy Crossing Parks;
4. Initiating the first phase of Westside Reservoir Park including the passive-use park space; and
5. Constructing streetcar/light-rail transit on the East and West sides of the Atlanta BeltLine.

The SIP estimates the cost of completing the projects identified within Period 1 at $926 million and proposes sources for 80 percent of the necessary funding. The SIP estimates the total remaining program cost (indexed to inflation), encompassing all three Implementation Periods through 2030, at $4.39 billion. The SIP proposes sources for 80 percent of the necessary funding to complete the remainder of the program, with 20 percent anticipated from sources to be identified.

“The Atlanta BeltLine is already changing people’s lives, improving public health and quality of life for the entire city and building passionate private, nonprofit, philanthropic, and grass roots support,” said Valarie Wilson, Executive Director of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, a private 501(c)3 organization that has raised more than $41 million from private and philanthropic sources to date for the Atlanta BeltLine. “The Strategic Implementation Plan makes clear the opportunities on the horizon for our work around and beyond the project’s 22-mile corridor.”

The 2030 Strategic Implementation Plan is available in its entirety at BeltLine.org.

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About the Atlanta BeltLine:

The Atlanta BeltLine is the most comprehensive transportation and economic development effort ever undertaken in the City of Atlanta and among the largest, most wide-ranging urban redevelopment programs currently underway in the United States. The Atlanta BeltLine is a sustainable redevelopment project that will provide a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit along a historic 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown and connecting many neighborhoods directly to each other. Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI) is the entity tasked with planning and executing the implementation of the Atlanta BeltLine in partnership with other public and private organizations, including City of Atlanta departments. For more information on the Atlanta BeltLine, please visit www.BeltLine.org.