With Atlanta's first new streetcar line in a century set to be completed next year, transit advocates are putting recent defeats behind them and studying how to expand the system.
With a new, $93 million, streetcar line running from Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site to Centennial Olympic Park currently under construction, city leaders are looking to leverage momentum and anticipated investment to expand the system throughout the city.
"Despite the failure of last summer's transportation tax vote, the city is taking steps to expand Atlanta's streetcar network that could connect more than just tourists, students, residents, and workers between Centennial Olympic Park and the King Center," reports Thomas Wheatley.
"This morning, Invest Atlanta's board approved doling out more than $1.4 million to Atlanta Beltline Inc., the nonprofit that plans and develops the 22-mile loop of parks, trails, and transit, to pay for studies to expand the city's streetcar network to North Avenue and the Beltline's Eastside Trail in the Old Fourth Ward....The board of the city's economic development agency also OK'ed funding to study a possible east-west streetcar line along North Avenue, Northside Drive, and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway."
"The studies of the proposed routes, parts of which you might recognize from last summer's T-SPLOST project list, only cover the projects' environmental assessment," notes Wheatley. "However, once complete, the two projects could become more competitive for federal funds. A Beltline spokesman says the studies are expected to take approximately two years to complete."
Read the full story: City to study new streetcar routes connecting to Georgia Tech, Beltline
Streetcar Extension Plan Approved in Atlanta
The transit map is being redrawn in Atlanta.
Proposed Atlanta BeltLine Budget Jumps 27 Percent
The improving economy will allow planners and city officials to expand work on the Atlanta BeltLine.
Preserving Affordability As Atlanta's BeltLine Takes Off
The Atlanta BeltLine brings much promise to the city of Atlanta, but will elevated housing costs be an unwelcome addition? Atlanta is looking to a community land trust to preserve affordability for the long-term near this new asset.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
Proposition 1 will double the city’s transit tax to add 95,000 more bus trips and preserve 180,000 bus trips annually.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority