Parks and Greenspace: The BeltLine will add more than 1,200 acres of new greenspace through a linear park alongside trails, the creation of new parks and the expansion of existing parks.
Public Art: The BeltLine will incorporate public art displays as well as opportunities to transform features like benches and bike racks into art with which people can interact.
Tax Allocation District: The BeltLine Tax Allocation District (TAD) will serve as the primary source of funding and will cover the majority of infrastructure costs. Bonds issued against increased tax revenue streams generated by new development within the 6500-acre TAD will fund approximately $1.7 billion of the project.
OFTEN REFERENCED PLANS
5-Year Workplan: The Work Plan is the budget plan for the first five years of the 25-year project. It outlines the key components of the Atlanta BeltLine that will be financed within the first five years based on a projected funding stream of $427 million over that time period.
Emerald Necklace Study: Commissioned by the Trust for Public Land in 2004, the Emerald Necklace Study proposes an interconnected parks system around the BeltLine.
MARTA Alternatives Analysis: The Beltline Alternatives Analysis was completed in August 2006, and the MARTA Board of Directors adopted route alignment B3 (the teardrop alignment depicted in most BeltLine maps) as the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for the corridor. The preferred type of technology was rail-based (not bus rapid transit).
Redevelopment Plan: The BeltLine Redevelopment Plan, completed in November 2005, is a key precedent document for planning how the BeltLine will develop over the next 25 years. It includes recommendations for land use guidelines that are consistent with the redevelopment vision, public input and technical assessments. While these guidelines are recommendations, BeltLine Master Planning efforts underway in 2007 and 2008 are refining the land use plan in a comprehensive manner to include transportation planning and park master planning to make recommendations for incorporation into the Atlanta Strategic Action Plan (ASAP).
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION FRAMEWORK
Community Participation Framework: The Community Participation Framework is in place to ensure that the voices of residents are involved, engaged, and considered in the implementation of the BeltLine. The Citizen Participation Framework includes five main components: the Tax Allocation District Advisory Committee, the BeltLine Affordable Housing Advisory Board (BAHAB), a community Representative on the ABI Board, a Citizen Participation Advocate on the ABI staff, Quarterly Briefings, and Study Groups.
Tax Allocation District Advisory Committee: The TADAC is made up of stakeholders from across the broad spectrum of Atlanta and is composed of community members representing the Atlanta neighborhoods and technical experts with a commitment to making the BeltLine a success for the City. Including experience in the area of parks and trails planning and development; transit planning and development; finance and business; complex project management; affordable housing; urban planning; arts and culture; historic preservation; green building principles and other subjects relevant to the BeltLine. TADAC’s main responsibilities are primarily the following:
- Make recommendations to ADA and the City on the issuance , allocation and distribution of tax allocation proceeds within the BeltLine Development Area;
- Monitor the effective and equitable distribution of the BeltLine Redevelopment Plan;
- Develop and implement a “decision making tool” to measure the impact of the BeltLine;
- Conduct an independent review of the BeltLine’s 5-year development plan.
BeltLine Affordable Housing Advisory Board (BAHAB): A group of individuals with demonstrable experience in affordable housing related fields. Their purpose is to make policy recommendations to the ADA and City Council, monitor the availability and location of affordable housing, and coordinate with other affordable housing activities in the City of Atlanta.
Study Group: There are five Study Groups (N, NE, SE, SW, W) that are designed to provide geographic and project specific input over the 25-year life of the BeltLine, including input into master planning, transit planning, etc.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT TERMS
Accountability: The principle that an individual or organization is entrusted and answerable to authority.
Advise: To recommend and suggest a particular action toward a decision
Awareness: The understanding, appreciation, recognition, perception of a particular issue or organization.
Citizen: Someone with rights and responsibilities in a particular community.
Community: The aggregate of persons with common characteristics such as geographical, professional, cultural, racial, religious, or socio-economic similarities.
Education: To assist in developing the knowledge, skill, or character of a particular interest.
Engagement: A process that involves the public in problem-solving or decision making and uses public input to make decisions.
Expectations: Beliefs that are centered on a future decision or decisions.
Input: Opportunities to provide feedback, comments, and suggestions to a decision making process that will affect the public.
Involvement: To work directly with the public through a process to ensure that public concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered.
Outreach: An effort by an organization or group to connect its ideas or practices the efforts of other organizations, groups, specific audiences or the general public.
Participation: Activities where purpose, design, and plan intends that members of the public have an opportunity to participate for a defined period of time.
Partners: Organizations and individuals who are members represented in a partnership involved in an activity or process.
Public: Open to or concerning people as a whole.
Resident: A person who has a principal place of domicile in a particular geographic area.
Stakeholders: A person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by another organization's actions or with an active interest in a given situation, action or enterprise. Adaptive Reuse: A process that adapts buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features.
At-grade: Level for a road, building or other structure at the same grade or level as the adjoining property (as opposed to a depressed or elevated road, building or other facility).
Average Daily Traffic (ADT): The average number of vehicles passing a specified point on a highway during a 24-hour period.
Atlanta Strategic Action Plan: The Atlanta Strategic Action Plan (ASAP) is the new 2007 - 2032 Comprehensive Planning Document for the City of Atlanta. Land use amendments coming out of the BeltLine planning process will be placed into the ASAP, which is updated on a quarterly basis.
BeltLine Planning Area: The area on which the overlay district is superimposed. It is generally ½ mile on either side of the BeltLine transit right-of-way.
Brownfield: Land that is environmentally contaminated as a result of past development, typically past industrial development
Build-out: Build-out is the point at which a community's total land area is completely developed as envisioned by a land use plan.
Capacity: The maximum number of vehicles that have a reasonable expectation of passing over a given section of a lane or a roadway during a given period under a specified speed or level of service.
Concept Plans: A number of options presented in order to elicit the advantages and disadvantages of each plan and approach the selection of an option, or a blend of options, for a Draft Master Plan.
Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP): This is Atlanta’s first transportation plan to evaluate coordination of all modes of transportation, including roadway, air, transit, freight, bicycle and walking facilities.
Density: The number of dwelling units (housing, apartments, townhouses, duplexes, etc.), or building per unit of land.
Easement: The right to use the real property of another for a specific purpose.
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): A document, prepared by a federal agency, on the environmental impact of its proposals for legislation and other major actions that significantly affect the quality of the human environment.
Existing Conditions: A review and synthesis of existing demographics, precedent studies, land use, transportation, parks, historic resources, and public art. It typically represents the first phase of the BeltLine Master Planning process.
Floodplain: A relatively flat or lowland area adjoining a river, stream, or watercourse, which is subject to periodic, partial or complete inundation.
Floor Area Ratio (FAR): The ratio of the total floor area of a building to the total land area of the site.
Goals and Objectives: A phase in the planning process which elicits aspirations for the future development of the Sub Area. These aspirations are used as a framework for creating and evaluating concepts in a later phase of the Master Planning process.
Greenspace: Open space, undeveloped space designated for parks, playgrounds, trails, gardens, and habitat restoration and preservation.
Greenways: Areas of protected open space that follow natural and manmade linear features for recreation, transportation, and conservation purposes and link ecological, cultural and recreational amenities.
Historic District: A group of historic resources comprised of two or more properties that are significant as a cohesive unit and contribute to the historical, architectural, or cultural values. Historic districts sometimes have federal or local designations.
Infill Development: Development that takes place on vacant or underutilized parcels within an area that is already characterized by urban development and has access to urban services.
Infrastructure: The built facilities, generally publicly funded, that are required in order to serve a community's developmental and operational needs. The infrastructure includes such things as roads and water and sewer systems.
Intensity: A term referring to the gross (total) floor area of commercial and industrial land uses.
Land Use: The categories of buildings and activities existing in an area or on a specific site. A land use plan is a guide for the location and intensity of future development in a community. Unlike zoning, land use designations do not place legal requirements on property owners.
Level of Service: A set of operating conditions describing the ability of a road network to handle traffic. Level A specifies the best traffic conditions; Level F indicates gridlock.
Master Plan – Draft: A preliminary version of the master plan, which occurs after existing conditions, goals and objectives, and concepts have been developed. After the draft master plan has been released, there is time for comment and input prior to the release of the Final Plan.
Master Plan – Final: This plan is submitted for endorsement by the study group. The final plan must also be approved by City Council and the Mayor prior to adoption into the ASAP. Certain components of the Plan will also be submitted to other groups for recommendations. For example, the land use portion of the plan will be submitted to the NPU.
Master Planning: Through mid-2008, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc is master planning the entire 22-mile BeltLine loop. While several BeltLine-wide studies and plans have been prepared, the master plans go into greater detail while building on and validating previous efforts and recommendations. To achieve the necessary level of detail, the BeltLine was divided into ten sub areas. Five of the sub area plans began in 2007. Once the sub area plans are complete, each will be a stand alone document, but they will all fit together seamlessly as one master plan for the entire Beltline. Atlanta BeltLine Inc is taking an interdisciplinary planning approach within each sub area. Each master plan addresses land use, transportation, parks and recreation, public art, and historic preservation in a comprehensive way.
Mixed Use: The combination of two or more land uses in a single development project. Optimal mixed development promotes pedestrian activity and the creation of a vibrant area.
Mobility: The ease with which desired destinations can be reached
Mode: A particular form of travel- e.g. walking, traveling by automobile, traveling by bus, traveling by train.
Multi-Family: A building that is designed to house more than one family. Examples would be a fourplex, condominiums, or an apartment building.
Office Hours: Designated hours when groups can schedule an appointment to ask questions and discuss the Master Plans.
Open House: A flexible meeting format with various tables with different components from master planning.
Overlay District: A zoning district superimposed on the existing underlying zoning district, but having validity in governing the use of the property. It establishes a set of regulatory criteria relating to certain characteristics that anticipates manages and encourages quality development opportunities in the Beltline planning area. The BeltLine Overlay District is designed to preserve a continuous transit corridor, preserve historic physical character, and promote smart growth urban design principles.
Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU): The City of Atlanta is divided into twenty-five NPUs, which are citizen advisory councils that make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on zoning, land use, and other planning issues. The NPU system was established in 1974 to provide an opportunity for citizens to participate actively in the Comprehensive Development Plan, now called the Atlanta Strategic Action Plan, which is the city's vision for the next five, ten, and fifteen years. It is also used as a way for citizens to receive information concerning all functions of city government. The system enables citizens to express ideas and comment on city plans and proposals while assisting the city in developing plans that best meet the needs of their communities.
Non-Conforming Use: A use that is prohibited by, or does not conform to, the Zoning Ordinance.
Open Space: Areas of land not covered by structures, driveways, or parking lots.
Pedestrian Friendly: Development and infrastructure designed so a person can comfortably walk from one location to another. It encourages strolling, window-shopping, and other pedestrian activities, and typically is fostered by a mix of land uses.
Recreation – Active: Includes recreation activities that have a noticeable impact on the surrounding environment and are usually rigorously athletic and not quiet. May include individual or team sports, large
picnics or playground activities, and recreational events with a high density of people.
Recreation – Passive: Includes recreation activities that are usually quiet and not rigorously athletic, and have a low impact on the surrounding environment. May include walking, hiking, fishing, bird watching, and quiet picnicking.
Right-of-Way: The strip of land over which facilities such as highways, railroads, or power lines are built, which can be obtained through outright ownership of or an easement on the strip.
Setback: The distance between a building or structure from property lines or from other buildings.
Smart Growth: Metropolitan area development characterized by compact, mixed use districts, efficient use of infrastructure, choices of travel model, and protection of environmental resources and open space.
Special Administrative Permit (SAP): An approval process used where complex or unusual technical determinations are involved and/or in conjunction with temporary uses and structures when the matter does not require public notifications and hearings.
Special Use Permit: Permits used in connection with land uses identified within particular zoning classifications that are of substantial significance or of unusual operational characteristics.
Streetscape: The view along a street from the perspective of a driver or pedestrian, particularly views of natural and built elements in the street right-of-way, including street trees, signs, street lights, above-ground utilities, sidewalks, bus shelters, bike racks, street furniture and public art.
Sub Area: The sub area is a temporary geographic area for detailed master planning. Each sub area will undergo detailed study and has a temporary steering committee. There are two sub areas in each Study Group.
Steering Committee: A group of local stakeholders, many times with local knowledge, property ownership, or expertise, who are convened to provide detailed input into a planning process.
Traffic Impact Analysis: A determination of how street networks can manage increased households and employment at a future date. Creates an understanding of future pedestrian and road facility needs.
Transit Supportive Development: Mixed-use, higher density development centered around transit stations. The goal of Transit Supportive Development is to create development patterns that supports the use of mass transit and reduces dependence on the automobile. Also referred to as “Transit Oriented Development” or “TOD.”
Urban Design: the process of giving form, shape and character to the arrangement of buildings, to whole neighborhoods, or the city.
Variances or Special Exceptions: Used in conjunction with construction proposals where consideration of effects on the surrounding property is of principal importance, and include, but are not limited to: building additions that involve yard set-back reductions, construction of fences and walls, and reductions in required parking.
Watershed: An area of land with a common drainage point.
Zoning: A set of laws that restrict the type of development that can occur on each parcel of land. Zoning typically divides a community into districts that group compatible uses together and exclude compatible uses. Zoning is a tool that is used to implement a land use plan.
Atlanta BeltLine, Inc: An affiliate of the Atlanta Development Authority, is the entity tasked with planning and executing the implementation of the BeltLine in partnership with the BeltLine team including City of Atlanta Departments. Its functions include specifically defining the BeltLine plan; leading efforts to secure federal, state and local funding; continuing the BeltLine community engagement process; and serving as the overall project management office to execute the BeltLine plan, including the coordination of planning and execution activities with other City of Atlanta departments and managing all vendors and suppliers. Atlanta BeltLine Inc. is also responsible for tracking and reporting progress on the BeltLine to the Atlanta City Council, Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County, the three taxing authorities that authorized the BeltLine TAD legislation in 2005.
BeltLine Partnership: A non-profit organization committed to raising funds from private and philanthropic sources to support the BeltLine; working with neighborhoods, community organizations, faith organizations, businesses and other groups to raise general awareness and broad-based support for the BeltLine; and serving as a catalyst to mobilize resources to address the social concerns raised by new development around the BeltLine.