In quest for more Buckhead parks, ‘aggressive’ construction ahead

Over the past decade, Buckhead’s PATH400 trail project has succeeded in getting where the Atlanta Beltline hopes to be by 2030: Almost all planning and development work is finished, with only the final burst of construction remaining.  

That’s what Denise Starling, executive director of project spearhead Livable Buckhead, calls “the big sexy part of PATH400.” 

So what comes next? 

From the start, the 5.2-mile PATH400 multi-use trail was envisioned as a spine and conduit for a growing Buckhead parks system, a means to help heal the wound Ga. Highway 400 cleaved through leafy neighborhoods three decades ago.  

Following the September opening of PATH400’s latest section between Wieuca Road and Loridans Drive—with the sky-high landmark that is Mountain Way Common bridge—three park projects in particular will be “a large focus for me,” says Starling.  

Those projects—Old Ivy Park, Mountain Way Common, and Loridans Park—are dotted along the northernmost sections of PATH400, just south of the Atlanta/Sandy Springs city line. Livable Buckhead’s role is to work with and advocate for a “conglomeration of partners” to wrangle funding, finalize plans, and break ground. 

Collectively, the parks would total about 16 acres. 

According to Starling, city officials are using Moving Atlanta Forward bond dollars to refresh plans for Mountain Way Common ($500,000) and Loridans Park ($1 million) and then convert finalized documents into construction drawings. 

“The timeline is pretty aggressive,” Starling wrote via email to Urbanize Atlanta. “They are into the actual construction docs design already, and we will probably have final plans ready early in the new year.” 

Here’s a snapshot of each park vision today, starting from the southernmost site and moving up: 

…

Old Ivy Park 

Described as an “unrealized jewel” at 519 Old Ivy Road, this project adjacent to Ga. Highway 400 aims to bring to life underutilized green and gray spaces in a notoriously under-parked area. The estimated cost to build is $2.8 million, according to a Livable Buckhead executive summary. 

The city has committed $500,000 in bond funding to Old Ivy Park. According to Starling, legislation is in place that allows Livable Buckhead to directly administer funding to get the project moving. “We are working out the agreement with the [Department of Parks and Recreation] for this,” said Starling. 

…

Mountain Way Common

This 9-acre, underutilized space is partially located under a towering highway overpass along Nancy Creek, adjacent to the new PATH400 bridge. 

The goal is to transform “forgotten [Georgia] Department of Transportation bridge overpass lands into a livable greenspace” and weave a neighborhood back together, per Livable Buckhead. 

…

Loridans Park 

This 5-acre site in northernmost Buckhead, situated just east of Ga. Highway 400, has unique history. It includes the former D.F. McClatchey Elementary School property and the historic Lowery-Stevens Cemetery, a burial ground for early settlers, with some plots dating to the 1850s. 

Cleanup and cemetery preservation efforts have been underway for years. 

For Loridans Park and Mountain Way Common, Livable Buckhead is working with parks department officials to guide public engagement and “flip” designs into construction documents as soon as possible. Livable Buckhead is working to leverage bond funding to bring in additional investments from other sources, Starling said. 

No concrete construction timeline has been set for any of the park projects. 

“The money for the consultant team’s work comes out of the bond funds, but we don’t know the allocation between the two projects,” she noted. “Whatever funding is left will be used to build whatever portion we can afford after that for each park.   

“From there, I don’t exactly know what to expect for construction,” Starling continued. “For [Mountain Way Common], we are timing it around the award of a potential grant that we have our fingers crossed about.”

Meanwhile, north of the new 80-foot-tall bridge, the final unfinished PATH400 segment between Loridans Drive and the city limits of Atlanta/Sandy Springs is also under construction now. 

Beyond that, heading north, a 2.3-mile extension that would bring the Sandy Springs pathway up to the Interstate 285 and Ga. Highway 400 interchange is fully funded with an $18 million grant from Atlanta Regional Commission. That, too, is under construction. 

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