Despite pushback, 2-mile Complete Streets on brink of construction

For the better part of a decade, concerned neighbors and parents in places such as Grant Park have been lobbying the city to remake the southern stretches of Boulevard into something less like a hilly drag strip.   

According to project officials, construction to start making that Complete Streets vision a reality could start in a matter of weeks—despite 11th hour pushback from some concerned neighbors. 

South Boulevard Complete Streets (alternately: South Boulevard Safe Streets) calls for a remake of the traffic corridor stretching for more than two miles. It will run from just south of Oakland Cemetery on the north end (Woodward Avenue) to McDonough Boulevard at the south terminus, at the doorstep of Atlanta’s federal prison. 

Plans call for protected bike lanes and upgraded pedestrian infrastructure to stretch through several neighborhoods—including Grant Park, Boulevard Heights, Chosewood Park, and Benteen Park—to provide a safer connection to the Atlanta Beltline. Other points of interest along the route include Zoo Atlanta, Grant Park, Boulevard Crossing Park, Red’s Beer Garden, El Progresso #14 (aka, Prison Tacos), and numerous other businesses. 

According to the Atlanta Department of Transportation, construction on the Boulevard Complete Streets initiative is scheduled to start in November and wrap in September next year. Specific changes call for lane geometry adjustments, street resurfacing, and new bike facilities with striping, bollards, and signal upgrades.

According to a column penned earlier this month by Rebecca Serna, executive director of safe streets advocacy organization Propel ATL, the new Boulevard design will reflect the corridor’s (largely ignored) posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour, thanks to years of community input. Changes will also help make Boulevard safer for Grant Park visitors on foot and kids walking to area schools, per Serna. 

Serna did note that, just as the project is heading out to bid for construction, a few residents have raised concerns that the forthcoming bike lanes will wipe out on-street parking they’re enjoying for free today. 

“[D]ue to a small part of the community, this project is now under threat,” Serna wrote. “We did not create this road design–the traffic engineers did, with substantial community input. Now, a small group of people who will lose access to on-street parking in front of their house are protesting the design.” 

Serna clarified in an email to Urbanize Atlanta that, to her knowledge, South Boulevard Complete Streets is continuing toward construction as planned. The recent column was intended to share information about the project’s community engagement for people newer to the area, and to provide a means for quickly contacting project supporters in case further action is needed, she said. 

“Of course, there is usually some degree of concern or opposition anytime a big change like this is proposed,” Serna said. “But Councilmember [Jason] Winston has been very engaged and communicative with everyone in the adjacent neighborhoods, providing opportunities to air out those concerns, and that seems to have helped.” 

Winston’s office hadn’t responded to a request for comment as of press time today. 

As Serna recently wrote, localized efforts began to bear fruit back in 2017, when neighbors succeeded in convincing city officials to extend the Monroe Drive/Boulevard Complete Street project farther south. 

City leaders officially proposed the South Boulevard Complete Streets in 2021, and years of community engagement, meetings, and an open house followed, culminating in what could be—by all indications—actual construction this fall.

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