The organizers of the Mountain Way Common are looking back on a decade of work to create the park – and looking forward to adding a long-awaited multiuse trail early next year.
The 9-acre park in the area of North Ivy Road and Mountain Way beneath Ga. 400 came out of longstanding concerns about the conditions of the site. The forest area was plowed down in 1990 for Ga. 400 construction. For years afterward, it remained overgrown, and government agencies used it as a construction staging zone. But around 10 years ago, the community effort coalesced after an attack on a jogger in the area, according to the North Buckhead Civic Association.
A series of cleanups began, and in 2012, the nonprofit Park Pride helped the community develop a vision for a park with more than $4 million in planned amenities. The vision aims to take advantage of the unusual space, which flanks Little Nancy Creek and is capped by the towering Ga. 400 and MARTA Red Line overpass. Working with a park friends group is the nonprofit Livable Buckhead, whose PATH400 multiuse trail is planned to extend alongside the park.
In 2015, the Friends of Mountain Way Common achieved the first phase of construction on the master plan: a $250,000 pedestrian bridge over the creek.
The latest cleanup, scheduled for earlier this month, marked roughly a decade of park planning. Dan Weede, a board member of the friends group, says that coming next is a $150,000 multiuse trail. That second phase of construction is planned for the first quarter of 2020, he said.
The rest of the master plan wish list ranges from play equipment to an amphitheater with a fire pit. The most unusual part of the plan aims to turn the hulking overpass into an asset by adding climbing walls around its “colonnade” and slides on the concrete slopes.
For more information about the park, see mountainwaycommon.net.
