The Atlanta City Council approved a resolution Monday creating a 16-member advisory committee to make recommendations on the redevelopment of Bellwood Quarry, a site in northwest Atlanta bought by the city in 2006.
The site, located between Johnson Road and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, lies between Bankhead and west Midtown. It will be used as both a park and recreational space and as a raw drinking water storage facility.
“The property has enormous potential to be redeveloped in a number of ways consistent with the purposes for which it was purchased,” said Atlanta City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, the sponsor of the resolution.
Plans are to eventually create a 300-plus acre park with a 45-acre lake which would also serve as a drinking water reservoir. The plan is a portion of the extensive Belt Line project to construct a ring of parks, trails, and transit surrounding the core of Atlanta. The proposed park will be nearly twice the size of Atlanta’s current largest city park, Piedmont Park.
“The sooner we get this project underway, the better,” said Bond. “This park will provide city residents and visitors an alternative to Piedmont Park and will serve as a venue for large events. I envision it being a world-class public green space and it will be the largest public park in the southeast.”
Michael Julian Bond has an inane proposal to build a new civic center in this future park. Apparently he thinks the city needs to have and run a civic center. That worked out well for the current civic center, huh? Park space should be park space. It is not space to build the next city boondoggle. Build a park – for respite, for recreation, to allow people to breathe in a growing city. Do not parcel out the land to private organizations to develop into entities that need more parking, more space and more more more of what is intended to be park space (see examples of bad decisions to allow private entities to lease public land in Grant Park and Piedmont Park).