Beltline Rail I: Setting the Scene—Nimbys and Yimbys Take on Atlanta

Part I

Over 200 people gathered in March 2024 at Inman Park’s historic Trolley Barn to weigh in on an issue dividing Atlanta: what should mass transit look like along the Beltline?^[1] One proposal: extend the Atlanta Streetcar northeast to Ponce de Leon Avenue with three stops along the Beltline’s Eastside Trail.^[2] This design structure would marry the Beltline’s urban trails and parks, Atlanta’s “emerald necklace,” with light transit through dedicated landscaping separating the streetcar from the walking trail.^[3] Not all Atlantans, however, favor this proposal.^[4] Though many city residents agree that Atlanta is at a “critical juncture for mobility” and that transportation should be less automobile focused, Beltline rail opponents counter with an array of solutions—most notably, electric bicycles that connect Atlantans across the Beltline.^[5]

The Trolley Barn crowd—filled with Atlanta department heads, Beltline staff, and concerned residents—was tense.^[6] Bill Bolling,^[7] the evening’s moderator, acknowledged the open disagreement as “part of the reason we’re here.”^[8] But calling it an “open disagreement” undersells this story.

Although Atlanta’s urbanists have long fought to preserve and enhance the city’s walkability, the rapid pace of Atlanta’s population growth is increasing demand for exceptional progress across the city’s infrastructure.^[9] While Atlanta attempts to position itself as a global powerhouse beyond just the capital of the southeast, it still grapples with challenges like affordable housing, income inequality, and a public transportation system in need of major updates.^[10] But the Beltline—the seminal taxpayer-funded public works project of the past two generations, and perhaps even the twenty-first century—is nonetheless fueling Atlanta’s grand ambitions.^[11] The decision to build or not to build light rail on the Beltline will be a pivotal moment affecting all Atlantans for years to come.

This Article, through four installments, will explain the history around the Atlanta Beltline transit debate; how the Beltline receives funding; who the advocates and their organizations are; and will propose a path for how the city should move forward. An examination through the lens of the two main advocacy groups both for and against Beltline rail—”Better Atlanta Transit” and “BeltLine Rail Now!”—reflects how the Beltline transit debate rhymes with other moments in Atlanta’s past and echoes into its future.

A. The Atlanta Beltline

Within a generation, the Atlanta Beltline has jumped off the pages of Georgia Tech master’s student Ryan Gravel’s 1999 thesis paper and onto concrete.^[12] Titled “Belt Line - Atlanta: Design of Infrastructure as a Reflection of Public Policy,” Gravel’s thesis proposed transforming a twenty-two mile ring of mostly abandoned rail lines into a new public transit system through the combined effort of public and private economic development strategies.^[13] Today the Beltline has firmly woven itself into the fabric of the city. Once completed, it will encircle the city’s core with pedestrian and cyclist-friendly paths replacing the old rail lines with connected parks and transit.^[14]

Gravel saw Atlanta’s transportation infrastructure problems—namely an increasing dependence on automobile traffic to accomplish even basic daily tasks—rooted in the class-based separation of land uses and people.^[15] The problems Gravel sought to address are still apparent today. Atlanta’s relentless expansion into undeveloped areas increases the cost of providing transit infrastructure over greater distances to more people.^[16]

Seen as gospel by many, Gravel’s original plan carefully explains the intricacy, importance, and intimacy transit would share with the Beltline.^[17] But now an iron curtain separates Atlantans on this issue. Likely, nothing factors into this divide more than the population boom experienced by the city since the turn of the century; the influx further highlights the need for additional transportation infrastructure.^[18] Indeed, many parents hardly recognize the city their children are now growing up in. Atlanta ranks sixth for population growth nationwide after “add[^ing] 12,000 new residents between 2022 and 2023.”^[19] This, in part, has also led to the city securing eight matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.^[20] However, like all success stories, this new age in Atlanta stands on the shoulders of giants.

The 1996 Olympic Games revolutionized Atlanta.^[21] Spearheaded by city leaders, including mayors Andrew Young and Maynard Jackson, the arrival of the international games sparked several urban regeneration projects in Downtown Atlanta, featuring the newly constructed Centennial Olympic Park as the centerpiece of Downtown Atlanta’s revitalization.^[22] The mammoth twenty-one acre park remained the largest urban greenspace constructed in the United States for more than twenty-five years, transforming a neglected industrial district into a pivotal gathering spot.^[23] Public and private funding invested $500 million in new landscapes, completely changing the city’s appearance.^[24] This included almost 2,000 newly planted trees.^[25] But the Olympics was not just a moment that came and went. Instead, it was a catalyst for ongoing redevelopment in Downtown and Midtown Atlanta as the Olympic leaders were “determined to build facilities and venues that would have life beyond the games.”^[26]

Indeed, not long after the city won its “dark horse bid” to host the “17-day fête” under the eyes of the world, Mayor Jackson laid out lofty goals for urban revitalization.^[27] Today that vision has been realized, as eighteen Fortune 500 companies call metro-Atlanta home—only three U.S. cities have more.^[28] Not only did the games instill confidence in outsiders that Atlanta supports healthy business development, but the arrival of the games changed the entire perception of the city.^[29] For example, a one-year retrospective noted that before 1997, “international businesspeople routinely confused Atlanta with Atlantic City” in New Jersey.^[30] But after the Olympics, the city often took on its colloquial airport code, ATL.^[31]

Crucially, the Olympic-induced rejuvenation of Atlanta exposed to the populace that a city’s design can mitigate problems caused by urban sprawl, namely, by “creating urban forms that encourage walking and increase the use of public transportation.”^[32] City planners first realized this epiphany less than a decade later, in 2004, when the 17th Street Bridge rose from the dirt to tower over the Downtown Connector and the highway traffic below.^[33] The bridge’s completion signified a visual covenant securely anchoring the new connection—and foot traffic—between the eastern portion of Midtown Atlanta and the redeveloped Atlantic Station, a 138-acre neighborhood that now almost 5,000 Atlantans call home on the western side of the Downtown Connector.^[34] This vital increase in housing capacity on the west side of the bridge helped alleviate crowding pressures on the east side, which itself was undergoing a major residential boom.^[35]

The eastern portion of Midtown Atlanta has demonstrated a masterclass on combatting Atlanta’s sprawl by balancing density with connectivity with public transportation and active streets over automobile-centric planning.^[36] Indeed, while a little over 5 million square feet of residential space was built in east Midtown from 2000 to 2010, almost 10 million more were added over the next decade.^[37] This expansion provided housing to the now swarming 24,000 Midtown residents seeking a lifestyle in the most pedestrian oriented section of the city; here, residents are linked to over 150 restaurants surrounded by 300 acres of parks and greenspace all supported by three MARTA stations.^[38] Midtown’s demographic is young, with millennials comprising over 40% of Midtown’s population and another 32% by Gen X.^[39] This budding, active group makes up the majority of Midtown’s residential population, annually pumping over $350 million of retail spending into the neighborhood’s local economy.^[40]

On top of decades of development, excitement, and attention paid towards Atlanta, eight games of the World Cup—an event that brought over one million visitors to Qatar in 2022—are about to walk in the door.^[41] As if on the receiving end of a cold shower, Downtown Atlanta has now abruptly awoken to people racing towards the city’s new providence.^[42] Roaring into the scene is the metropolitan trinity of South Downtown, Centennial Yards, and the Stitch—all vying to remedy the city’s interstate scars that tore the Atlanta’s historical business districts apart.^[43] With these projects finally underway, many Atlantans are beginning to wonder if they will see completed walking infrastructure linking Midtown to Downtown within their lifetimes.

While all these developments are transforming different parts of Atlanta, none can truly compare to the colossal impact of the Atlanta Beltline. Once a derelict rail line surrounded with old factories and weeds, the Beltline has, more than anything else, propelled Atlanta’s growth into the twenty-first century.^[44] The project has rehabilitated thirty-three miles of unused rail lines turning an underutilized local asset into multi-use urban trails and generating $10 billion in economic development to date—all while not yet fully connected.^[45] With 50,000 permanent jobs created, 5,600 affordable workforce housing units built, and the construction of 1,300 acres of new greenspace, 1,100 acres of environmental remediation, and forty-six miles of improved streetscapes, the Beltline’s triumph has fostered an advancement in the city’s civic policy.^[46] But this economic and civic success has brought with it new issues. Facing the pressures of accommodating relentless population growth, Atlanta residents stand as a house divided on how the Beltline should evolve into the future: stick to the model that garnered this success or build boldly forward.^[47]

B. The Advocacy Groups

Within this divided house, two main players stand out. On one end, BeltLine Rail Now! (BRN) is mobilizing the support and advocacy for Beltline light rail.^[48] On the other end, Better Atlanta Transit (BAT) questions whether a streetcar belongs on the Beltline in the first place.^[49]

Spearheading BRN is Matthew Rao, a Georgia Tech architecture alumnus.^[50] Rao passionately views the Beltline as “the most transformational urban design project in the United States” and that educating the public on this vision is crucial.^[51] Founded in 2018 by Gravel and former city council president Cathy Woolard—who have since left leadership to Rao—BRN’s roots arguably lay as deep as the Beltline itself.^[52] Functioning as a civic voice for Gravel’s vision of light rail on the Beltline, this group has become a tangible fixture in the Atlanta community.^[53] It organizes protests, encourages op‑ed authorship for local publication, and coordinates attendance at local meetings to harvest support for building light rail on the Beltline.^[54] Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, BRN, an unpaid volunteer organization, led a petition that captured and delivered 10,000 signatures to then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ desk calling for her to “lead hastened transit implementation” on the Beltline.^[55]

Although BRN is making strides in its efforts to bring light rail to the Beltline, not everyone agrees.^[56] BAT’s leader, Walter Brown, refers to the streetcar extension project as the “Beltline-destroying light-rail plans.”^[57] Indeed, this group believes that ongoing “debate is needed because changing transportation technology and priorities have cast doubt on long-standing plans for light rail on the Beltline.”^[58] BAT argues that scooters, bicycles, and autonomous vehicles are better transit options that the city should consider.^[59] The group fears that by going forward with Beltline rail, the city is getting “stuck in a decision that was made[^twenty] years ago.”^[60] BAT has two goals: to reimagine the Beltline’s current success as a micromobility greenway, and to focus “More MARTA” funds^[61] on projects that make sense for equity while pushing the light rail conversation down the line until a unified public plan is in place.^[62] Ultimately, although the two organizations agree that Atlanta needs more public transit—and must embrace its development across the city—they disagree that Beltline rail is right vehicle to reach this goal.^[63]

While the tension is not yet boiling, it is certainly starting to bubble. On March 22, 2024, BRN supporters crowded the steps of Atlanta City Hall and called on Mayor Andre Dickens to publicly support the project just days before his annual State of the City remarks.^[64] Led by Rao, light rail advocates felt their patience tested as they desired a clear stance from a mayor who had previously been a vocal advocate for Beltline rail but is now cautious on that vision.^[65] Rao’s comments captured the impatience of the moment: “We’re here today to talk about progress but also promises.”^[66] But at his State of the City address, Mayor Dickens did something completely unexpected: he announced four new infill stations along MARTA’s already existing lines.^[67] This announcement brought with it more questions than answers. As the dust begins to settle on this major infrastructure announcement, Atlantans cannot help but ask: will the new infill stations kill Beltline rail?^[68]

These questions must be answered, as now more than ever Americans want more public transportation options opposed to building more “car-centric infrastructure.”^[69] The Beltline is that opportunity, and in some shape or form, it must be capitalized on. How will the city pay for these projects? How will these present-day advocates affect Atlanta’s policy on how transit is implemented on the Beltline? Will the Beltline activate the city as a new cycling paradise or instead change the twenty-two-mile corridor into something closer to Manhattan?