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14 | Community
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City breaks ground on Greenway’s ‘model mile’
Continued from page 1
months. City officials are also set to invest
$200,000 in a future bridge in Buckhead to
ensure the Greenway connects to the At
lanta BeltLine.
A ceremonial groundbreaking of the
first 1.2-mile section of the Greenway be
tween North Druid Hills Road and Bri-
arwood Road was held Dec. 12. Officials
from Atlanta, Chamblee, Doraville, DeKalb
County as well as state lawmakers and fed
eral officials were on hand for the ceremo
ny held on a portion of the 19-acre Briar-
wood Road property the city purchased for
a future trailhead.
“To me, the Peachtree Creek Greenway
is synonymous with people collaborating
to achieve goals,” Mayor John Ernst said.
The dream of the Peachtree Creek Gre
enway has been around for nearly 20 years
when it was included in a DeKalb Coun
ty multiuse trail master plan. But work to
make the trail a reality ramped up after
Brookhaven was incorporated in 2012.
Councilmember Joe Gebbia, who has
served on the City Council since the city’s
founding, represents District 4 where the
Peachtree Creek Greenway is being built
along Buford Highway. He said at the Dec.
12 ceremony he envisioned a path along
the North Fork Peachtree Creek while
standing on the overpass on North Druid
Hills Road and looking down on the wa
ter. That’s when a “seed was planted,” Geb
bia said.
But the city needed a nonprofit, he said,
and the volunteer Peachtree Creek Green
way organization headed up by Betsy Egg-
ers stepped up to advocate for its creation.
“This [Greenway] has always been an
impetus for how we handle redevelopment
along Buford Highway,” Gebbia said. “And
this will be a statement park for the re
gion.”
Once considered a linear park, the Gre
enway has evolved over the years to be
come part of a regional trail plan for all of
Inset, a new illustration of the bridge
to be built as part of the first phase
of the Greenway across Peachtree
Creek behind the Corporate Square
office park. (City of Brookhaven)
Above, a 14-foot-wide concrete path is
to be built where a dirt road now runs
along the north fork of Peachtree Creek
behind Northeast Plaza. (Dyana Bagby)
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metro Atlanta. The Greenway master plan
includes a 12-mile multiuse trail connect
ing Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville, Mer
cer University in unincorporated DeKalb
County and eventually the Atlanta Belt-
Line. Those are the “A, B, C, D’s” of the Gre
enway, Ernst said at the Dec. 12 ground
breaking event.
To ensure the Greenway connects to the
BeltLine, the City Council last month ap
proved a resolution to invest $200,000 on
a “confluence bridge” that would be at least
10-feet wide and designed by the South
Fork Conservancy.
The bridge is planned to be constructed
north of 1-85 and between Piedmont Road
and Lindbergh Drive, where PATH400, the
BeltLine and Greenway meet, at an expect
ed cost of $2.38 million.
The Buckhead Community Improve
ment District earlier this year approved
$200,000 to fund widening the bridge that
was originally expected to be 8 feet wide.
But as more trails connect to the bridge to
get to the BeltLine, the BCID, Brookhaven
and the South Fork Conservancy want the
bridge to be at least 10 feet wide to handle
the expected foot and bike traffic.
Brookhaven’s funding of the bridge is
dependent on the city of Atlanta’s support
of the completion of the Peachtree Creek
Greenway from the Brookhaven city line
to the planned Buford Spring Connector to
the bridge, said Greenway Project Manager
Patty Hansen.
“This is a trail of regional signifi
cance and this is a critical gap [between
Brookhaven and Buford Spring Connec
tor],” she said. “We feel positive with the co
operation of groups working on this that
we can move forward.”
But if Atlanta does not step in to help
fund that link to the bridge, the city would
not invest $200,000 in the bridge, she add
ed. “There’s no reason to help with the
bridge if we can’t get there,” she said.
From concept to
groundbreaking
In 2016, the City Council approved a
$36 million Greenway master plan. Since
that time, city officials have been acquiring
land along the North Fork Peachtree Creek
to make way for the a paved 14-foot-wide
path to be used by walkers and cyclists.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta last
year purchased Tullie Road and Tullie Cir
cle for $10 million from the city as part of
its buildout of a private medical campus
at North Druid Hills Road and 1-85. That
$10 million is being used for the Greenway.
The Salvation Army also donated 2 acres of
its property on the Northeast Expressway
along the creek for the Greenway.
The city worked with state legislators
last year to get a bill passed in the Gener
al Assembly to raise the city’s hotel-motel
tax. The new revenue from the hotel-motel
tax increase is expected to fund construc
tion of the city’s entire 3-mile portion of
the Greenway that will extend to the Atlan
ta and Chamblee borders. In October, the
City Council awarded a $7.99 million con
tract to Lewallen Construction.
But before all that, there were “commu
nity champions” who helped with clean
ups, fundraising and political support, said
Eggers, chair of the nonprofit Peachtree
Creek Greenway organization.
“This is 1.2 miles of a 12-mile and grow
ing trail that will connect to the BeltLine
and to 1-285, and beyond to Spaghetti Junc
tion,” she said at the Dec. 12 groundbreak
ing. “Now, onward.”
BK