Along Beltline’s future Southside Trail, 20-acre park expansion is moving forward

Efforts to make a Beltline-fronting green space five times larger in Chosewood Park are moving forward.

In the works for more than a decade, the Boulevard Crossing Park project will enter a design stage this summer for its transformative second phase, Atlanta Beltline Inc. officials said this week.

Beltline and city officials announced in October they were seeking qualified firms to substantially expand the park’s existing five acres on the southeast side of Atlanta, directly south of Grant Park.

Now, the firms selected—Cambridge-based Agency Landscape + Planning, and locally based Perkins+Will, which is no stranger to Beltline development—will be tasked with creating plans for 20 additional acres linked to the future Southside Trail.

A public engagement process, scheduled to begin this month, will largely determine what the park will be.

Beltline reps previously said additions could include trails, a playground, public art, expanded play fields, and the city’s fifth splash pad.

ABI

Boulevard Crossing Park’s initial phase debuted in 2011 with two large, multipurpose fields.

The next phase “is a major addition to the constellation of new parks that will be connected by the Beltline,” Perkins+Will’s Valdis Zusmanis, who led previous work on the Eastside and Westside trails, commented in a press release. “It represents a unique opportunity to re-envision this part of Atlanta,” added Zusmanis, “in a way that will engage the surrounding community and welcome visitors alike.”

The community engagement process kicks off with a 6 p.m. meeting May 23. at Atlanta Community ToolBank (410 Englewood Avenue SE), next to the park site.

ABI

As for the Southside Trail corridor itself, Beltline officials told Curbed Atlanta earlier this year the roughly four-mile leg will officially open as an interim hiking trail by early summer, following work to remove railroad infrastructure, repair erosion issues, and install new railings on bridges.

Meanwhile, work continues to identify funding to build the potentially $70 million new Beltline link between existing Westside and Eastside trails.

Efforts to secure a $16 million federal grant to help fund construction did not pan out.

ABI

Next door to the park, Pollack Shores Real Estate Group is building 319 Class A apartments along Boulevard and the Beltline. Expect offices, 15,000 square feet of retail, and rare micro rentals of 500 square feet, designed to keep rents lower.

The mixed-use venture is expected to deliver later this year, marking one of the first completed ground-up developments on the Southside Trail corridor.

The Boulevard sites are directly east of The Beacon district, along the rail loop.