DOT action could kill Beltline, mayor says

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin says the state Department of Transportation and Amtrak have made moves that endanger the Beltline, a planned 22-mile loop of transit, parks and trails around the city’s core.

The dispute centers on part of the land the Beltline would need.

Franklin, in a letter to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, said Georgia DOT and Amtrak are trying to keep a key northeast part of the corridor available for heavy rail. The city wants the Beltline devoted to light rail, parks and transit.

Franklin said DOT’s actions would put noisy heavy rail, such as Amtrak trains, in inappropriate environments like neighborhoods near Piedmont Park, “at the expense of the Beltline.”

DOT spokesman David Spear said that DOT remained “completely, totally supportive” of the Beltline and that it was possible to combine both DOT’s plans for heavy- or high-speed rail there and the city’s plans for the Beltline. Though city officials said there wasn’t space to do both a light rail line and a heavy rail line, Spear said “We just disagree.”

Beltline officials said other places on the west of the city would serve the other rail projects, but the DOT and Amtrak disagreed.

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said Tuesday evening that the Beltline corridor was “the only feasible way” for Amtrak’s current line to serve a future Atlanta multi-modal center, and the western alignment would be too time consuming and make a train line uncompetitive.

City officials hope the Beltline will seed a rebirth in close-in Atlanta areas by attracting dense, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods of homes, businesses and entertainment within walking distance from mass transit stops. They paint the proposal as an economic development project that would hinge on people’s attraction to the Beltline area as a place to work, live and play — thus reducing the need for building more streets and highways.

Future increases in property tax revenue from the district would fund the Beltline itself. DOT officials say the two projects could share the same corridor. But Beltline officials say the attraction of the Beltline would be destroyed, and its economic development engine disabled, by something as unpleasant as high-speed or heavy rail.

“I am horrified,” said Liz Coyle, a Virginia Highlands resident and community activist who now serves on the Beltline’s board and supports the project. Coyle said DOT and Amtrak were doing “irreparable harm to the Beltline’s momentum for something that will never happen.”

Spear said that heavy rail needn’t be a safety concern in the Beltline.

“Some sort of barrier could be erected or warning devices could be adapted to one or both of the lines,” he said.

In Georgia, commuter rail has languished for years, in spite of more than $80 million in available federal funding, until Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state DOT put new emphasis on it last year. DOT hired new staff and Perdue promised support. However, with budget cuts Perdue recently denied DOT’s request for state funds for the project in his proposed budget.