An Ambitious Rails-To-Trails Project: The BeltLine

[simms3]

Partner Funding and private funding are important sources for the Beltline.  My own company's foundation has contributed to partners, as has the Coca Cola Foundation ($100K to ABP and millions more to partners), the well known Woodfruff Foundation ($3M directly to ABP), Blank Foundation ($40K directly to ABP to keep the weekly bus tours going in under development parts, and $350K to Trees Atlanta for Beltline landscaping, among other partner contributions), and there are others.

PATH is probably the most important partner, currently.  PATH is responsible for other urban trails, such as the Stone Mountain trail which begins in the Old Fourth Ward, connects to the Beltline in Inman Park, and travels all the way through the city past Decatur to Stone Mountain.  PATH is also working with Buckhead groups for Buckhead's version of the Beltline, which follows GA 400 and is in development right now.  PATH is very active and has excellent funding resources and leadership, and it is a powerful organization.

An overview of what they are working on (all the trails that are similar to the Beltline...they did the Silver Comet as well, which is a well known bike trail regionally) with pictures can be found here:

http://pathfoundation.org/trails/

Also powerful are the Trust for Public Land (national group...it looks like they have worked on some small stuff in Jax and they purchased the a lot of the land for the Pinellas Trail in St. Pete), and Trees Atlanta, which last year planted thousands of trees along the beltline on the eastside trail and in the two major parks that have opened on the Beltline since (so they essentially covered the bulk of the landscaping, which is expensive).

The TAD tif district can be found in detail here (large file size):

http://beltlineorg.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Maps-TAD-Boundaries.pdf

I have more pictures of the Beltline back home somewhere that I can dig up and will be in Atlanta next week, though not sure if I'll have time to take new pics (will be going on a tour of Ponce City Market while I'm there, which is on the Beltline).  Speaking of which, the Vimeo for Ponce City Market is pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/v/_nqUPSA-6q0?hl=en_US&amp

And some pictures from Curbed of the Eastside Trail of the Beltline just 2 years ago.

http://atlanta.curbed.com/archives/2013/07/16/-credit-goes-here-2.php



















The ABP has a good website with lots of information, graphics, renderings, updates, etc.

http://beltline.org/

[Max]

An ambitious project for sure - let's ring Jacksonville with a Greenway:

A.  Speeds Crack around 1/4 of the City from I-1O to Lem Tuner

B.  Promotes Bike-by-Shootings

C.  Ted Carter stammers and stutters a "Ya Borthas wez gots us a beltway..."

D.  JSO appreciates the ability to quarantine Bohemians, Brothas and Beyathces!

[Redbaron616]

The following may certainly vary from state to state, but I was under the understanding that once the rail line stopped, which was the reason for the easement, the land reverted back to the original plot. Again, that might vary by state, but it would certainly be a topic worth investigating.