PATH Foundation Winter 2019 Newsletter

PATH NEWS

December 2019 - Issue #100

PATH Foundation

A Non-Profit Organization Dedicated to Planning and Building Greenway Trails pathfoundation.org

A

tlanta Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms joined Cox Enterprise’s Chairman Jim Kennedy and the Allen family to help PATH dedicate the Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Bridge at a ceremony on November 25th. Ivan Allen Jr. was mayor of Atlanta from 1962 through 1970 during a period of civil unrest and racial tension in the city. Mayor Lance-Bottoms praised the former mayor for having a voice of reason at a time when Atlanta needed it the most.

Jim Kennedy shared a story his aunt told him back in the sixties. She introduced him to Mayor Allen and said, “this is the man that took action that allows our city to become great. He created a city that doesn’t hate.” Jim also praised PATH for connecting the westside of Atlanta to the PATH trail network.

Ivan Allen IV spoke for the Allen family. He praised the project as a means of acquainting younger generations with his grandfather and insuring that his contribution to Atlanta won’t be forgotten.

PATH completed upgrades to the bridge and a trail to Northside Drive in 2017. After those improvements were made, the PATH design team led by Carlos Perez and Greta deMayo, decided the bridge could serve as a tribute to Mayor Allen while also serving as the gateway to West Atlanta.

The design team reached out to Theresa Huffman to develop the artwork and create the walking museum. PATH employed Kaizen Collaborative and Capital Signs to draft plans for the bridge improvements. When the proposal was presented to the PATH board, Jim Kennedy immediately agreed to fund half of the cost through the James M. Cox Foundation.

The PATH design and build team completed the design, raised the other half of the funding, and oversaw construction of the $1.5 million project. The trail that passes over the bridge will soon connect Centennial Olympic Park to Westside Park, the Westside BeltLine, and the Silver Comet Trail.

l to r: Ed McBrayer, Michael Julian Bond, Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms, Beau Allen and Jim Kennedy

Chastain Park Addition

In 2018, the PATH design team produced plans for making a trail connection between Lake Forrest Road and Powers Ferry Road using your donations to PATH and matching funds from the Chastain Park Conservancy. The City of Atlanta has recently procured a contractor to construct the West Wieuca portion of the PATH around North Fulton Golf Course.

The plan calls for narrowing the street ever so slightly and erecting retaining walls to accommodate trail installation. PATH will build a ten foot wide concrete trail separated from parking and travel lanes by a neutral strip.

The Chastain Park Trail has been built in six phases. The original phase began at Lake Forrest Road at West Wieuca, crossed the Field of Dreams driveway and continued south to Nancy Creek. Within months, the trail became a popular gathering place for walks and runs. Phase two wrapped around the American Legion Post and connected to the sidewalk on Powers Ferry Road. Subsequent phases connected the amphitheater to Dudley Drive, narrowed Powers Ferry Road north of West Wieuca, and narrowed Powers Ferry Road between the American Legion Post and West Wieuca. This trail has always been one of the busiest PATH trails.

The proposed improvements to West Wieuca will create almost a perfect 5K loop around the golf course which will likely attract additional running enthusiasts from the region. Lighting was added to the trail several years ago through an effort initiated by the Chastain Park Conservancy. The City of Atlanta Parks Department maintains the trails at Chastain Park.

Whetstone Redo

In 2004, a resident on LaDawn Street in Northwest Atlanta called PATH to say there was an abandoned railroad next to his house and he thought PATH ought to build a trail on it. We visited the site and sure enough, there it was: an overgrown corridor connecting Tilford Yards to the six-way intersection at Marietta Boulevard and Bolton Road.

Our next stop was the city where we discovered the abandoned line previously supplied chlorine to the R.M. Clayton water treatment facility. When chlorine stopped being transported to the plant, CSX deeded the mile-long corridor to the Atlanta Department of Public Works. The City and PATH pooled their money, and a year later we were building what is now the Whetstone Trail.

Last year, PATH and the Atlanta BeltLine initiated an effort to connect the Silver Comet Trail in Cobb County to the Westside BeltLine and downtown Atlanta. Since CSX did not abandon the rail across the Chattahoochee into Atlanta, the PATH design team went to work in search of an alternate route. Ultimately, the Whetstone Trail was identified as a component of the alignment and work began to bring the trail up to today’s standards.

PATH crews repaired broken concrete, trimmed invasive vegetation, installed new signs and crosswalks, and pressure washed the entire trail. An illuminated sign with the new branding “Silver Comet Connector” will be installed where the trail emerges at Marietta Boulevard. This is the first completed segment of the Silver Comet to downtown connection.

North of the river, the trail will be installed within the Atlanta Road right-of-way to Plant Atkinson Road where it will join the abandoned railbed, crossing under I-285, South Cobb Drive, and the East-West Connector and on to the existing Silver Comet. Work in Cobb County is expected to start in 2020 and be completed in 2021.

2019 Annual Report

pathfoundation.org

Emory Extensions Emory University is in the process of extending their new PATH trail system by adding three segments.

PATH recently permitted an extension along Eagle Row to Means Street (pictured below) and between Haygood Road and North Decatur Road. Emory has contracted with the PATH design team to create the segment between Andrews Drive and Clairmont along Starvine Way. All of the new trails are components of the Emory PATH Master Plan developed in 2018 by the PATH planning and design team. When complete, the Emory PATH will connect the South Peachtree Creek Trail at Clairmont to the proposed bike depot at the student center, and to North Decatur Road at Haygood. Residents of Leafmore, Mason Mill, and Medlock Park neighborhoods can soon commute by trail to virtually every corner of the Emory campus.

The last segment of the Clayton Connects trail system at International Park was completed by PATH crews in September. The trail system features two loops, one through a lake on a curved boardwalk, and a second loop that wraps around the southern border of the park near the 1996 Olympic volleyball venue.

The trails at International Park were master planned by PATH in 2015. Then Councilman Michael Edmondson was instrumental in having SPLOST money allocated for the trail. Almost five miles of trails have been built, connecting the Lake Spivey Golf Club to the J. Charley Griswell Senior Center, the Clayton County Parks and Recreation headquarters, and the soon-to-be-completed District Four Recreation Center.

Clayton Connected

Trail bridge over the entrance to International Park

Thirty Years of N.I.M.B.Y.S

er

’s C o r n d E

We’ve encountered our share of NIMBYS (Not In My Backyard), NOPES (Not on Planet Earth), and BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) while building almost 300 miles of trails across the region. Since I have firsthand knowledge of the most notable encounters, and I am getting old, I feel the urge to share them for history’s sake. The opposers shall remain nameless, although some of them will recognize themselves through my embellishment of battles from yesteryear.

The bloodiest NIMBY battle we ever had was when we tried to build the South Peachtree Creek Trail between Medlock Park and Mason Mill Park. I actually had a barefooted, flowerchild say in a public meeting that walking in the forest ‘hurt’ the earth because it tore the soil. We had (overweight) belly dancers dancing in Willivee Circle blocking our machinery. My ugly mug was on the home page on the opposition’s website with the title: Perpetrator.

Adjacent land owners to the abandoned railbed in Polk County would build fences across the right-ofway each night, to discourage us from building the Silver Comet Trail near Esom Hill. When they realized how much work it was to build a fence everyday, they resorted to releasing their cattle to trample through our forms and stand in the way of progress.

At one point we had five Polk County Sheriff cars watching over our crew as a result of multiple threats by people carrying guns. One Saturday night, we had $400,000 worth of machinery torched along Grady Road.

Recently, I had a woman stand up in a public meeting and ask, “who’s responsible for relocating the deer from the area before you build the trail?” A man asked me “Who was going to pick up all the beer cans along the trail?” The primary reason the Stone Mountain Trail isn’t built through Stone Mountain Village stems from one adjacent property owner who was worried people would see him taking a shower from the trail. (Not that they would look again if they saw him.)

While we were designing the trail near Peachtree Battle Road, an adjacent property owner came to several meetings insisting that homeless people would surely set up camp under the bridge we proposed to build near his house. We built the bridge, and within two months he called to gloat; there was a homeless person living under the bridge, just as he had predicted.

We immediately went to the site to find a brand new Pawley’s Island hammock, a pair of lily-white tennis shoes, and a few books under the bridge. We gathered the ‘evidence’ and took it back to the office. Two days later, the property owner called to see if we would return his hammock, shoes, and books.

While building the Chastain Park Trail, neighbors along Lake Forrest threw rocks and sticks in the freshly poured concrete to protest the trail being built in the park across from their houses. Police were called and gave the protesters a choice: either climb in the back of the patrol car or sit on the curb across the street until we finished pouring concrete. The same group had demanded a ten foot high fence be built between our trail and Lake Forrest to keep trail users from peeing on their lawns.

I truly have learned a great deal from many of the NIMBYS, NOPES, and BANANAS over the years.

Some of their ideas and concerns have resulted in changes to our standards. We have adopted root bridging as a way to save more trees. We have developed techniques to build trails close to streams without degrading the water quality of the streams.

These standards were the direct result of negotiating with concerned neighbors. With that in mind, I’m sure the lady on Overbrook Drive who shoots me the bird each time she sees me on the trail is encouraging me to build ONE more trail.

Presorted First-Class Mail U.S. Postage Paid Atlanta, GA Permit No. 8163

PATH Foundation P.O. Box 14327 Atlanta, GA 30324

PATH Foundation Board of Directors Chairman, Charlie Shufeldt Vice Chairman, Alex Taylor Secretary, Jennifer Dorian Treasurer, Harry L. Anderson Samuel Bacote Brian Cosgray Doug Ellis Sam Friedman William C. Fowler Executive Director, Ed McBrayer

B. Harvey Hill, Jr. Ciannat Howett James C. Kennedy Sarah K. Kennedy Scott Kitchens Cody Laird John W. Somerhalder II C. Austin Stephens