Overview of the Atlanta Beltline Project

The Atlanta Beltline is the largest and most ambitious public development project currently underway in the United States. The project aims to convert a 22-mile stretch of mostly abandoned or underutilized railroad track encircling Atlanta into a transit loop featuring light rail or bus transportation, as well as walking and biking trails. Around this 22-mile “Beltline” will emerge dozens of new parks, greenspaces and commercial and residential developments touching 45 in-town neighborhoods. The Beltline project has the potential to transform Atlanta—long considered a poster-child for suburban sprawl—into a truly thriving and vibrant urban city.

Location of the Atlanta Beltline

The Atlanta Beltline, as presently conceived, is a loop that encircles downtown Atlanta with a radius extending about 2 to 3 miles from the City’s center. The Beltline touches or lies in close proximity to the following historic neighborhoods and landmarks: the Carter Center, City Hall East, Grant Park, Maddox Park, Piedmont Hospital, Piedmont Park, Washington Park and the West End area. The Beltline also links to several MARTA stations, including the Lindbergh and Inman Park-Reynoldstown stations.

To see detailed maps of the Beltline, visit the Maps section of our website.

Origins of the Atlanta Beltline Project

Most of the railroad tracks that comprise the Atlanta Beltline date to the era immediately following the Civil War. The tracks were laid to service industrial facilities that emerged around (what was then) Atlanta’s periphery. In the ensuing decades, as trucking became the dominant form of overland freight transportation, these railroad tracks fell into disuse and the companies that they served deteriorated. Eventually, much of the track was abandoned.

In 1999, Ryan Gravel, then a Georgia Tech graduate student, published a visionary thesis in which he proposed transforming this 22-mile stretch of dormant track into a public transportation system. Inspired partly by his study in Paris, Gravel envisioned this transportation system—the Beltline—stimulating revitalization in the numerous neighborhoods that it touched. His thesis, and his vision for Atlanta, became the impetus for the Atlanta Beltline project.

From Vision to Reality: Implementing the Atlanta Beltline Project

In 2000, Gravel set out to make the Atlanta Beltline a reality. He and two colleagues summarized his thesis and mailed it to approximately two-dozen influential Atlantans. Cathy Woolard, the former President of the Atlanta City Council, became an early champion of the Beltline project and it soon won the support of many of Atlanta’s civic and business leaders, including Mayor Shirley Franklin. By 2004, formal steps were underway to implement the Beltline project, including the formation of the Beltline Partnership, a group of influential Atlantans dedicated to raising money and public support for the Atlanta Beltline project. Today, the Beltline project is being spearheaded by a collaboration of public agencies and private organizations working to bring Gravel’s thesis to life.

Obstacles to Completing the Atlanta Beltline Project

The Atlanta Beltline project is expected to take at least 25 years, and it faces many obstacles along the way. The Beltline railroad tracks are not contiguous in many places, and no consensus has developed as to whether or how to utilize the tracks. Some have proposed using buses instead of light rail on the Beltline, while others have balked at that notion. Fulton County taxpayers have filed at least two lawsuits challenging the mechanism approved by the City of Atlanta—the establishment of a Beltline Tax Allocation District (TAD) and the issuance of TAD bonds—to pay for the Beltline project. And real estate developer Wayne Mason, owner of approximately five of the Beltline’s twenty-two miles, recently withdrew his offer to donate 46 acres of that land to the City amid controversy over his plan to build two 40-story towers on the edge of Piedmont Park. These issues, and many others, will need to be resolved before Gravel’s Beltline vision can become a reality.

Milestones of the Atlanta Beltline Project

• December 1999: Ryan Gravel publishes his visionary thesis proposing the Atlanta Beltine
• May 2004: Mayor Shirley Franklin forms the Beltline Steering Committee, an organization charged with analyzing the feasibility of a BeltLine TAD
• November 2004: The City of Atlanta begins investigating the feasibility of the Atlanta Beltline project.
• March 2005: The City of Atlanta releases Beltline TAD Feasibility Study
• April 2005: Ray Weeks is appointed Chairman of the Beltline Partnership, a non-profit organization charged with moving the project from vision to reality
• June 2005: The Atlanta Development Authority (ADA) assembles a BeltLine Transit Panel to study the transit component of the BeltLine vision.
• July 2005: Mayor Shirley Franklin announces the creation and composition of the Beltline Partnership
• September 2005: The Beltline Partnership publishes the Atlanta Beltine Redevelopment Plan, which outlines the proposed Beltline TAD
• November 2005: Atlanta City Council approves the Beltline TAD
• December 2005: Atlanta Board of Education and Fulton County Commission approve Beltline TAD; Beltline TAD established
• January 2006: The City of Atlanta announces plans to acquire the Bellwood Quarry and convert it to the new Westside Park
• June 2006: ADA releases draft of 5-year Beltline work plan; City of Atlanta completes purchase of Bellwood Quarry
• July 2006: ADA submits revised 5-year Beltline work plan to City Council for approval; Terri Y. Montague named President & CEO of Atlanta Beltline, Inc., newly formed organization charged with implementing Beltline plan; Fulton County taxpayer John Woodham files lawsuit challenging Beltline TAD; Atlanta City Council approves 5-year Beltline work plan and the issuance of $35 million in bond anticipation notes and $200 million in tax allocation bonds
• August 2006: Fulton County Taxpayer Association files suit challenging Beltline TAD; Valarie Wilson named Executive Director of Beltline Partnership
• September 2006: Wayne Mason, owner of a 5-mile tract of the proposed Beltline, withdraws rezoning application and offer to donate 46 acres of land to City of Atlanta


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