A Buckhead business group plans to hold a public meeting this week on a plan to cap a portion of Ga. 400 with a nine-acre park.
The Buckhead Community Improvement District plans to present “Phase I concept drawings” at a meeting Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Buckhead Theatre, according to a public notice. The Buckhead CID, which consists of businesses that tax themselves for infrastructure projects, unveiled the idea about a year ago for what’s called a “deck park.”
The project would stretch from Atlanta Financial Center on Peachtree Road to the Lenox Road-Ga. 400 interchange. It would essentially cover Ga. 400 and the Buckhead MARTA station, creating an at-grade and walkable connection to apartment towers and office buildings now cut off by the highway.
Buckhead CID last year unveiled some preliminary renderings by Jacobs Engineering Group. Since that time, the group sought designers and planners to advance the concept, which backers say would bring needed green space and a gathering place to the core of Buckhead’s business district.
At the time, Buckhead CID Executive Director Jim Durrett said the concept could cost about $150 million.
A meeting notice said planners from Rogers Partners Architects + Urban Designers and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects will be on hand to answer questions from the public.
The Buckhead CID isn't the only group considering such a deck park. Last month, Central Atlanta Progress unveiled a similar, though much larger, $300 million-plus proposal to cap the Downtown Connector from Spring Street to the area near Georgia Power's headquarters.
CAP’s concept would cover about 14 acres and open up underused land for private-sector development.
Capping freeways have become popular concepts. Dallas has gotten a lot of attention for its Klyde Warren Park, a more than five-acre development over the busy Woodall Rodgers Freeway, which opened a few years ago.
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