UPDATE (Sept. 6, 2018): Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry—Atlanta’s Biggest Park—Breaks Ground
Mayor Kasim Reed Friday unveiled plans for Phase One of the future Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, a $26.5 million project 100 acres larger than Piedmont Park.
“The future Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry will transform a historic property on the Westside and bring something incredible to the community and to all of Atlanta,” Mayor Reed said in a City of Atlanta statement.
“We are connecting more residents than ever to parks and greenspace. We are creating a healthy and sustainable City where everyone can bring and build their dreams…”
Phase One of the Future Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry will include a gateway entrance at the intersection of Johnson Road and Grove Park Place on the north side of the park.
The gateway design will provide lighting, signage and “visually appealing graphics.”
The restoration of Grove Park Place will include resurfacing of the roadway and the rehabilitation and enhancement of greenery along the corridor.
The park will also include a grand overlook area to maximize views of the quarry-turned-reservoir as well as panoramic views of the Atlanta skyline.
Visitors will be able to experience the quarry using ADA-accessible trails leading to the grand overlook.
The Bellwood Quarry has been under construction since September 2016.
The City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management has been working to transform the quarry into a two billion gallon emergency drinking water reservoir for the City that will increase the emergency water supply from three days to thirty days.
5 Responses
Beautiful renderings of an inaccessible park. With no main thoroughfare or public transit to get there and from what I can see no parking structures/lots it seems like an incredible waste of money. There are a lot of actual needs in atlanta that $25million could help. Homeless shelters come to mind, fixing the roads that continue to tear up all our vehicles or even a transit system that goes somewhere other than Buckhead, the airport and midtown. Love the idea of the green space but not very practical.
Also, this is not the best part of town. Will need to be policed constantly.
The Bankhead Marta will be the main mass transit connection to the Quarry Park. The park ties into the Quarry Yards development, and will connect to the under construction Proctor Creek Greenway Trail. There will be multiple access points into the park, with on main entry point on Marietta St/Marietta Pkwy. You’re missing out on a bunch of facts in your statement.
Excellent. Looks good and I bet it only gets better as you continue to sort out the details. We as a people are desparate for green space and parks, so much so that most get grumpy when you even think about taking away the cement and horrible current conditions. This is very good for our growing city. You seriously might want to visit Seattle to see how the homeless have large tent sites laid out. It’s better to just provide space for them since we are already at very low unemployment rates. Also, they can work. Austin set a great example on hiring homeless to pick up trash and it is working out very nicely. Even with out those two comments, I am very excited for your development. Thanks for bringing fresh positive changes to our area.
It won’t be “not the best part of town” for long as this progresses. People are already renovating the houses in the area and any neighborhood nearby will look a lot nicer as this gets underway. Can’t wait to see the progress and a strong police presence is always a plus in my book.