A greenspace initiative that for years appeared more buried than Oakland Cemetery residents will be dusted off and resuscitated in the near future, according to City of Atlanta officials. 

Plans for the Memorial Drive Greenway trace back to initial studies and land acquisitions in 2001. Fifteen years later, the 2016 Memorial Drive Vision Plan was finalized, promising a beautified linear greenspace that would complement billions of dollars in private investments flooding into the corridor during that time, largely fueled by Atlanta Beltline buzz. 

But then, for the most part, crickets. 

Today that’s changing, as the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation is officially launching a fresh Memorial Drive Greenway design phase in partnership with Pond & Company. The Peachtree Corners-based planning and landscape design firm is also behind the Beltline’s under-construction Enota Park project, large-scale pedestrian upgrades in Buckhead, and a flood-solving, 5-acre park underway in Peoplestown, among other projects. 

Full scope of the finalized Greenway plan compiled in 2016. City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation

The Greenway revival comes in the wake of downtown’s highway-capping Stitch project losing the bulk of its funding—more than $150 million in federal cash previously approved by President Joe Biden’s administration—that was required to complete phase one. (Stitch leadership insist the project will continue to move forward and seek alternate funding sources.)  

Broadly speaking, Greenway plans call for remaking half a mile of underutilized land between Oakland Cemetery and the eastern edge of downtown into an accessible, leafy linear park. The land in question totals 8 and ½ acres sandwiched by Memorial Drive (the southern border) and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (northern border). 

Plans for the first phase call for gathering public input and compiling schematic designs for the full length of the park. That would be followed by finalized designs, permitting, and construction for one of seven city-owned blocks included in the Greenway’s scope, city official announced today. 

Absent from phase one is the “cap park” component that called for bridging greenspace over the downtown Connector, as the initial scope will focus on “achievable next steps,” per the announcement. 

The beginning of the collaborative process was described as a “milestone” by city officials. The 2016 vision plan will serve as a “foundational guide” for revised designs, according to project leaders. 

Those Greenway revisions are expected to include Sustainable Sites Initiative strategies, which call for native plantings and stormwater management in an effort to boost public health and biodiversity. 

Next steps call for launching a public engagement phase with project designers and other stakeholders later in August, to continue over coming months. Details and updates on that process will be posted on the city’s Parks and Recreation website. 

The Greenway’s design phase is being funded by $560,037 in discretionary funds from City Council District 5, as part of the Moving Atlanta Forward bond; and $500,000 from the Department of Parks and Recreation’s fiscal-year Park Improvement Fund, per city officials.

Beyond city leadership and designers, partners in the project were cited as Mailchimp cofounder Dan Kurzius, The Integral Group, The Conservation Fund, Park Pride, and the Friends of Memorial Drive Greenway. 

“Every neighborhood deserves access to quality parks and greenspace, and I am eager to see this project through,” said Mayor Andre Dickens, in a statement regarding the Greenway. 

“This is what transformational infrastructure looks like: inclusive, innovative, and inspired by the people it serves,” added Atlanta City Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari, whose District 5 includes the area in question. “From skate parks to shade trees, the Greenway is built not just for today’s Atlanta, but for the generations who will inherit it.” 

For a closer look at finalized 2016 Greenway plans, zoom in over here.

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