ABI muscle, the liaison for TAC and at your service. I'll go ahead and pass the mic to Rashida.
Hi, everyone, and I do apologize for the background noise as well. But thank you for joining us fixed a night for our tech meeting on December 13. Tonight, we're going to just have just introduction, this strategic interest implementation of a plan. And I'm just going to again, round of introductions pass it off to limit rate.
Good evening to that committee members. My name is Lynette Reed. I'm the director of planning with the Atlanta BeltLine Nice to be with you this evening and I will pass to Kelvin Collins
Thank you Lynette. Even everyone, Kelvin Collins. I'm the Vice President of economic development with the Beltline. And over to you Chelsea.
Hi, everyone. My name is Chelsea Arkin. I'm the senior housing policy and development manager for Atlanta BeltLine, and I will pass it to Kim. Hey, this
is Kim Wilson, Vice President of Design and Construction. I should be back at my desk in a minute sorry, I don't have my camera on.
Hey guys, my name is Shawn green. I'm Principal Engineer at Atlanta BeltLine Beth
Good evening everyone. My name is Beth McMillan. I am vice president of planning, engagement and art I will pass it to rob Bronner.
Everybody, Rob Reiner, Executive Director of the Atlanta BeltLine partnership here to answer whatever questions may come up related to the partnership and Rashida I can't see everybody. So I'm going to hand it back to you and if there's somebody else who needs to introduce that, you can hand it to them.
No problem. Let's see we're done with our ABI folks. So let's start off with some of our panelists for the evening. So I guess is under afford if you'd like to go ahead and introduce yourself.
Thank you, Rashida and good evening my name is Andrea Ford. I'm a Senior Program Manager with Sinclair consulting, and I will pass it over to a dealing.
Hi, I'm Good evening. I'm ideally one called the managing partner for CTG, and the project director for the SAP update. And I'll pass it on
to Olivia. Good evening.
My name is Olivia and ASCII. I'm a staff planner the collaborative firm over and explain and I guess I'll pass it on
to John Kenobi. Thank you. Yes, my name is Don pan. OB and I'm tadhack member. I've been I think a BAP put me on here. So I've been here for maybe a year now. Maybe a little more. But with COVID going on. It's been kind of crazy. And I'll pass it on to boy, David yokley Mitchell.
My name is David yokley. Mitchell. I'm the Executive Director of the Atlanta preservation center. And I'm very excited to grow the role of historic preservation in the process of this conversation and see the inclusion of our culture and identity grow with the same compass same vigor and I'll pass it on let's see here got here what lucky number here what we got here I go Lucy big um, I got Lucy big that's my big choice. Unmute yourself, Lucy.
Thank you, David.
I'm Lucy Begum. I've been on tack for over six years now. And I got involved with the Beltline before Tabak as a bus beltline tour guide for 10 years. And I'll pass it on to
Michael Hightower.
Good afternoon Michael had taught managing partner with the collaborating firm, and I'm part of the team with Andrea Ford. And ideally I'd be glad to be here and I'm joining my colleague Olivia, who introduced herself earlier. Thank you.
I believe that was the round of introductions. If I'm missing anyone, please step forward and state your name. If not, we could go ahead and get this meeting started.
If we get night jester Mm hmm.
Mr. Jester, would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. Good evening, everyone.
My name is Nate Jester. I'm
a commercial real estate attorney practicing in Atlanta. Glad to be here and look forward to hearing the presentation. Thanks. Thank you. At this time, I'm
going to pass the baton on to miss board. You should be able to share your screen whenever you're ready. Thank you, Rashida I am and we're doing a lot of passing. So I'm actually going to while I'm sharing, I'm going to turn it over to Kelvin briefly and then I will take the baton back.
Thank you, Andrea. And so in addition to being the vice president of economic development, as I noted in my introduction, I am also the project manager for the SAP update and just so good to be with you all again today. And just to sort of set the tone and tenor of the conversation I just wanted to define a little bit for you, for those of you who might be less familiar with what exactly is the SI P and why is it such an important component of the Beltline implementation. And so we're, we're really using the SI p as a as a roadmap essentially for the completion of the Beltline program. And so looking across all programmatic areas that includes trail and transit preparedness to parks to fordable, housing, job creation, and economic development. Those are all critical programmatic components as part of the initial idea of the Beltline. And as you know, the Beltline is indeed intended to sunset, at least a tad that is by 2030. And so this is really the roadmap that's going to get us there and demonstrate with your community inputs, how we will, we will get there. So again, we're hoping that the plan will outline a very comprehensive strategic emphasis all the way through 2030. So what does this project look like? As mentioned in our last meeting, we have secured the services of CTG to lead this effort and you're going to hear from them today. And so we are looking to have this project wrapped up in the next six months with a final presentation on June of next year. But before that, there will be series of drafts report and the first draft will come March 20. March of next year. And in between there there'll be a series of community engagement and you're going to hear a lot more about that in the later part of the presentation. But again, we're very aggressive with with this SAP updates and we expect that it will be completed in the next six months, a June of next year. So with that, I'm gonna pass it over to Andrea to walk us through today's items and you will hear from me at the end of her discussion to lead the engagement part of today's meeting Andreea
thanks, Kelvin. And again, it's good to be back with you all I know we met and had our introduction virtually at a at your meeting last month. So we appreciate you making the time today. Last meeting, we just again did some introductions and talked a little bit about the community engagement schedule. What we wanted to do today is focused on sort of the background of what's led into the SRP. So a lot of the planning of the project and as kelvin talked about, just again, the importance of the SRP, just the work that we've been charged to do. And then how we've been taking some of this planning and a lot of the existing conditions as we'd like to call it and those steps to start to lay out where we are in our charge in this update. And then to talk a little bit more detail about the community engagement schedule at the end. So a lot of this you may or may not be familiar with, but I don't have to tell you that a lot of planning work in general has gone into the Beltline since inception. And so we want it to initially just kind of highlight those four foundational planning documents. So including the redevelopment plan, the five year work plan that was created in 2006, the 2013 SRP which is the document that we are charged with updating and then the 2015 integrated action plan. And so starting with the 2005 redevelopment plan, this plan specifically specified the boundaries of the area that was proposed for redevelopment. So a lot of the vision for the Beltline and Tad and whether the Beltline area as it was carved out met the requirements for the creation of the tax allocation district. So a lot of the programmatic components that you that we now see related to goals related to affordable housing, the permanent jobs and the economic development with the permanent and construction jobs. And again, some of those initial out of workforce job creation activities were really founded and outlined in the 2005 redevelopment plan. So from there, we moved into the five year work plan, which was a timeframe between or set a timeframe and goals from 2006 to 2010. This document outlines the key components of the Beltline to be financed in the first five years. So again, we're talking in that 2006 to 2010 timeframe. And it also outlined the roles and responsibilities related to certain beltline functions. So we know that there are a lot of components and a lot of stakeholders clearly involved in the project. This in the early onset started to lay out the foundation of setting those roles and responsibilities as it related to the project and then started to you know, get into the sources and uses of funds. In the early stages and what project budgets would be set based on those allocations in the first five years. Then we move into what in essence, we're now charged to update now and so it's been almost you know, nine years, 10 years since the 2013 strategic implementation plan was developed. And as kelvin talked about, at the very beginning, the importance of having this plan as a framework and roadmap as we continue to see and work to move it forward. As part of the planning effort, and so the 2013 CIP built on the goals that were again identified in the Atlanta redevelopment plan in 2005. It started to outline that strategy and schedule for implementing the Beltline components, and it got into I'm sure if you all were not tannic members or just members of the public, I don't have to tell you the amount of community engagement that happens in general around the Beltline and projects, but that went into the 2013, CIP and the project prioritization and developing the criteria for those projects. What came out of the 2013 Sep, was in essence a framework for ensuring completion and integration of the Beltline components. Again, it included an extensive amount of community engagement to vet the prioritization criteria, and then talked about the funding and what projected funding wouldn't be available through the tab and some of the other funding forces. We know again, with a lot of plans. They can be they're dynamic, and so conditions change and things change. And so this document while it did, set a good framework it was meant to be to be updated. Then in 2015, the integrated action plan was developed to focus more on the economic development, the real estate, and the affordable housing pieces. And so this planning document did was supplement the 2013 CIP and again focused on those three areas. It laid out short term and foundational recommendations. So some of those included how to optimize land uses some new sources of funding and different financial tools and sources of funding. That could be used for land acquisition. So this plan was strategic and targeted to focus on those three components of the Beltline. Then again, just kind of going back in general to my earlier statement about how much planning work could be or has been done around this project. We could spend the our entire time talking about the planning and strategy that's gone to move this project forward over the last, you know, 20 plus years. We wanted to just highlight in addition to some of those foundational or those four foundational documents that I just talked about, we wanted to highlight just about a handful of some of those key existing supporting plans. A couple of them I know including the equitable development plan and community benefits guiding principles. The tat Act was very instrumental in working with the Beltline on completing and developing these plans and the guiding principles that was adopted. So recognizing this is an economic development project and how it spans you know, different neighborhoods have different demographics and all the apple development plan really took a holistic approach to the Beltline. So it looked at the economic, environmental and social improvements of the project. And there were four guiding principles that came out of that plan. So integrating people and play strategies, reduction of local and regional disparities. Promotion, again of those social economic and environmental investments, and, you know, inclusion of meaningful community voice participation and leadership. So it really goes back to all of the community and public engagement that's happened and try and addressing some of the equity around the Milan mentioned the community benefits guiding principles. Again, this took a broad set of rules that was developed to encourage and influence the promotion of community benefits. So again, that partnership and how this project was even then seen as a way that it would impact and influence the way that Atlanta as a city, but definitely these neighborhoods that is connecting, just changing the shape of the city as a whole over time. And so just I won't mention all 11 of them, but these 11 principles were developed with input from study group commit the community, the tadhack, as I mentioned, and some developer or developer focus groups. So there was a lot of input that went into developing these 11 principles. The Affordable Housing working group was created to support the development again around a comprehensive housing strategy. You know, we'll talk a little bit later in the presentation about where we are today, but I don't have to tell anybody here, even reflective of the time that this working group was established to where we are now not even around or not solely around the BeltLine, but the city as a whole and other areas, just the challenge that there is in maintaining affordable housing. And so this working group was convened to discuss ways to support the Atlanta BeltLine in reaching its goals to create and preserve affordable housing around the corridor.
And then also important to the Beltline. It's the sub area master plans. So looking at the land use component and some of those policies that guide growth and development around the corridor. There are 10 master plans that contain recommendations for future land use mobility, open space and parks. These plans can be revisited and modified every five to 10 years and there's a lot of input from the community and from technical resources as well that goes into updating these plans. But again, they include a lot of information and developed around a variety of data. So not only is it's the qualitative as well as the quantitative information that goes into updating these sub area master plans. And so again, with all of that foundational information and planning documents and focus strategies around the Beltline there, there's been a lot that's changed since those documents initially and even since the 2013, CIP so one and 2020 There was a inter governmental agreement that was signed with the city of Atlanta and more Marta that address the roles and responsibilities as it relates to transit and emphasizing the implementation of the more Marta program or the more Marta Atlanta program. The city of Atlanta adopted in 2018, their inclusionary zoning, so again, looking at different policies, and ordinances that were put in place or could be put in place to either promote or foster additional affordable housing. As you see with the creation of the city of Atlanta as Affordable Housing Task Force, as well as the city of Atlanta's department of transportation that was created in 2019. And the the city's D O T focuses on transportation issues and matters in the city and then from a funding perspective, we've talked about Ted, we know that there's a lot of sources of funding that go into carrying out and implementing all of the Beltline programs. And so in 2021, there was the passage of the special service district and this really generated or allocated additional funding for trail completion. Small business support and affordable housing, which those components are typically funded from the tab allocation.
And so that brings us to where we are in our charts from the consultants side and working with Avi to do the CIP update. And so, you know, again, as Calvin mentioned in the beginning, it's this framework to provide a roadmap as to how the Beltline moves forward to 2030, updating all the different strategies and priorities and funding to complete the programs. And so our charge is to review the existing conditions, a lot of which I just outlined and talked about from a planning perspective, but also, you know, conducting a lot of gathering data and information around that. So we're in the existing conditions phase currently, we're also doing some financial assessment and analysis. Again, a big piece of that that we're currently working on, is reviewing existing financial data and developing initial draft of a financial model. key component, as I've talked about, also, that's not new to anyone on this call. It's the robust community engagement that the Beltline typically has around their projects. And so we have a community engagement schedule that I talked about at our meeting last month, but we'll come back to at the end of the presentation and walk everybody through just as a refresher. And then as we continue along in the project schedule that Calvin outlined, its the project prioritization and roadmap and then a final report and presentation that we are scheduled to complete in June. And so everything that I've just talked about with all of the planning documents, the new policies and initiatives that have been established or adopted, since the 2013 CIP, will all go into what we're doing as part of our CIP. Update. So these wonderful paint buckets just represented all of the information and data that goes into, you know, doing this update, and then carrying forward. So we talked a lot historically, we've looked at some of the goals related to the program components, we've done a good reflection of the background. Don't need to sign ended on sorry. So we've done a good reflection of the background and the foundation of the Beltline. We'll take a quick look at kind of where things stand today. So we'll start with affordable housing. Again, I've touched on you know, again, just the importance of of this charge and where ABI currently is related to their goals. So they're about 50 56% of the goal. So you see 4900 Total affordable units. That representation is you know, inside and outside of the Tad area. But again, it's the keeping pace with the supply side as the demand increases. But this is one area that we have seen with increased housing production related to affordability that the Beltline has seen over the past few years and is projected to continue going forward. Then we'll move on to economic development. Again. You know I talked about it's a lot of pieces related to the Atlanta BeltLine as a whole but from an economic development standpoint, from you know, the the people who come to the different trails and parks, they're spending money, businesses that are setting up along the BeltLine, small or large, some of the workforce that's created including residents that live in the Beltline corridor, all of that means something and so this is meant to tell the story of what that generates into from a return on investment from the dollars that are put in to do the construction to build affordable housing. And how much of that has generated within the corridor. And so it's about 83% of that 10 $10 billion goal which is amazing. And speaks again to the volumes of not only interest but just how this project really is an economic catalyst for the city and for these neighborhoods. And so specific to some of the economic development programmatic goals, these numbers show where the Beltline currently stands related to the public and private or the permanent and construction jobs that that are in their program to meet. Initially in the redevelopment plan I talked about that initial goal was 30,000 jobs with the passage of the SSD in 2021. That target goal increased from 30 to 50,000. But you can see where it beltline currently is today, relative to that new increased goal and the framework that the economic development group and kind of the mission is focused on is basically these four pillars. So investing in the entrepreneurs, those small businesses, those minority owned small businesses, and local businesses and trying to attract those entities and companies around the Beltline corridor. Commercial affordability, so just trying to you know, maintain spaces where these small businesses can come in and you know, set up a company or an establishment or have some physical space and presence along the Beltline. Then there's the Workforce Development Support. So it's again you know, there are a lot of residents that are connected to the Beltline. So what are those different strategies and tools that can go into getting folks who are in the area jobs and working within the different businesses and companies that are in the area, and then the commercial district support so building out the capacity of business associations and CIDs to support entrepreneurship. And so there are a lot of different ways and strategies that this is unfolding, including the Beltline marketplace that's on the east and west side of the Beltline with a pilot initiative. That's had six businesses out of hundreds who applied, who were able to locate along the Beltline from different types as part of this initiative, so it's one example of many as to how beltline is looking to be creative and innovative in their strategy for economic development. And then from a trails perspective, there's a lot of activity happening in all of the corridors from a mainline trail, from early design to those that are under construction and even those that have been completed. So there's activity all around and this is one effort that will continue as you can see a lot of in the green depending on how your your screen is a lot of completed mainline trails, but still a little work to be done and a few trails in the Northwest corridor that are still in early design. And so as we have been working through again, just doing a lot of review of the existing data and existing information and planning documents we're continuing or building a list of potential projects that may be revisited. And so working with the API team on that list, which is not limited to but you know includes the mainline trails and gaps and improvements that are needed their parks. Spur trail streetscapes, and again, just any strategies related to job creation and affordable housing. And so from a community engagement perspective, we talked about, you know, where we were at when we met with you all on November 15. We are here today and have a city wide conversation meeting scheduled which will be our first public meeting on this week Thursday. In essence it will be similar content to what we are talking with you all about this evening. And as we continue to work our way through the project. So the top of this little bendy loop here that we have, or bendy line is the project schedule that Kelvin talked about at the very beginning and so the bottom is where we have integrated and incorporated the different community touchpoints. So in January, we're looking to have come back to you all in January as well as start a series of study group meetings. We're looking at that meeting to have some discussion around some of those projects that I just mentioned and talk a little bit more about where we are with some of the funding and financial pieces. Then in March, we'll come back and have a conversation around what we see or where we are just related to the draft recommendations going into the strategic implementation plan update. Then in May, we'll be back with you all again. As well as have our project wrap up with another city wide conversation to talk about or have a conversation around those final SRP recommendations. Before we go to the ABR board of directors to give our final presentation on the CIP update.
And with that, I'll kind of close my piece. This is all of our contact information. If you ever need to get a hold of us, it's Kelvin myself, Lynette and Nathan. So I will turn it back over to Kelvin.
Thank you so much.
Andrea. Go ahead, Nathan.
Can I jump in Kevin I'm sorry to do this. But I want to make sure that tadhack members are being counted for attendance. I have a number of people. At least a couple who are listed as please rename yourself. No one of those is Rob or was Rob maybe not anymore. If you can just unmute yourself and tell me who you are. I can catch you for attendance and I can get your name changed, provide space to do so now.
I will just
holler out at any point in the meeting. You can either rename yourself or show your face or let me know who you are. And I can get your your name changed otherwise you will not be counted for attendance. Thank you. Go ahead Calvin.
Thank you. Appreciate you. Getting that taken care of Nathan and thank you so much, Andrea, for walking us through very comprehensive look back at the Beltline and the series of plans and strategies and components of what has brought us to this point as well as where we are and what the Beltline has accomplished and how the SAP will work to map us towards a 2030 in this update. Opportunity. So thank you so much, but we're at a point of the agenda where we are. We want to open it up for conversation for comments for questions we have with us number of ABI team members that are available to answer questions and so I certainly want to invite members of tadhack to share their thoughts and comments. I see that we we have one question. Thing David raised his hand.
Thank you very much. Let me lower my hand here. And Andrew, thank you very much for the presentation. took some notes while you're speaking so I was very excited. And I enjoyed talking about the four bedrock principles, but in housing and so forth, but the absence of historic preservation was something I noticed in the five year plan. Again, the absence of historic preservation, but I did enjoy using the word dynamic which really made me happy, which shows the inclusion and the opportunity for historic preservation and then I saw that we got the Eco development plan. You start talking about a loss of culture, loss of community and so forth. And I can think of no better way of making sure that you have an anchor and community than through preserving the spaces that identify that community through the craft historic preservation and with all of the new affordable housing they'll be coming in and all the density they'll be coming in. You know having these anchor pieces in these communities, the Beltline abuts to is really going to be instrumental. I understand that not the entire beltline is touching on every single thing. But there are places where this is happening and so if you can kind of address some of that, and how that can maybe be wed together and grow. So we can you know make sure that the Atlanta BeltLine represents also the Atlanta community as well. Thank you. Thank you for the question,
David. And I'm going to invite that that anyone else that may want to touch on on David's question. Thank
you, Calvin, David, you, Nathan and I met offline to talk about historic preservation. I in turn sent a letter to our attorney asking for guidance on how we could spend tax dollars as it relates to historic preservation. As I recall you were going to get back with us with a list of structures within the corridor that will qualify or that should be parts that were historical, if you will. When at the conclusion of that conversation we talked about or you suggested let me say that perhaps Avi could help with that. Preparation of applications in terms of the dollars for applying for historic designation. I am still awaiting an opinion from our attorney if that is how the tax allocation districts can be used. The first pass from the attorney was if ABI doesn't own the property that we couldn't make application and spend tad dollars on those applications if the structure was on private property, because we would be using public dollars to bring value to a private citizen. But the attorney did say she would run it up the flagpole to one of the tap attorneys and follow up with me and I haven't gotten a response back from her yet. So David, I'm gonna ask that we continue that conversation. And as soon as I have a determination Nathan and I will reach back out to you.
That's fine. Thank you very much, Beth. And I'm also getting the section 106 and full documentation. Well, because the section 106 clearly defines all of this and it's been and I was one of the original tenants of the Beltline when it came out. So yes. All right. Thank you. You're very welcome.
Thank you
for that Beth. Lucy, I see that your hands raised and so love technology and offer you an opportunity to make a comment or ask any questions.
Thank you, excuse me, Kelvin. Let me go ahead and lower my hand so it won't be up there in yellow the whole time. I'm talking. Thank you, Andrea. That was a very helpful presentation a very good summary of what's happened in the past. I used to tell people on the bus tour that I loved the CIP and that showed how much of a geek I am. But the reason I loved it is that it told us where things were going to be built. What was going to be built, how much it was going to get, how much it was going to cost where the money was going to come from, and when it should be finished. And that was just wonderful information. And I expect we will get similar types of information in terms of updating the CIP some issues that we've had problematically in the past have been continuity between reports. there often isn't a lot of continuity. Staff change when staff change what things get called the names change. And sometimes it's hard to follow what was in the CIP related to what is in the equity plan and so on and so on. We don't need to be sticklers about that. But it it's much easier to look over the whole project from the beginning to the end if there is some continuity between reports. Another issue that we've had is following the money. That's one of the things that tad has really tried to do. And it's been very difficult because it's a very complex project with many, many sub projects, and many, many funding sources. So some with lots of restrictions on how it can be spent. So it's been really difficult if somebody wants to know. Well, I actually used to be able to say, what the three miles of the west side trail cost, because we had that in our information for the bus tours. There was money from the feds there was money from or an in kind contribution from the GA D O T. There was money from the Tad and there was a lot of philanthropic money. So those were maybe the four main sources, but if you go to any many of the other trails or the parks or anything else, it's very hard to say where the money came from for any particular piece of the project. So if if we can have continuity and if we can do a better job of fun following the money by the end of the project, that would be really good. You have probably seen and look looked carefully at the CIP report that tadhack has done. We started that about a year and a half after the first phase of the CIP and we've tried to update it as we have gone. So we've tried to show things like how much money was estimated to have been spent on trails or on the whole project by such and such a year, and how much has actually been spent, and look how much we've gotten done when we didn't get all that money that they said we needed. So we'd like to be able to continue tack being able to analyze this, the CIP update and keep reporting annually on how ABR is able to do in terms of meeting what is in the CIP. Even though they don't get all the money then Lucy, thank
you so much for for your comments and you raise some critical components of what's expected and I have to tell you that the idea of this SAP update is to pull all of the existing previous reports in one that's going to create significant transparency and an opportunity for you to talk easily about, you know, the source of funding, the timing, the sequencing of the projects. And most importantly, you know, you know, continuity, because I think that is a significant point you've raised and as staff transition, you know, we've really established a framework both from a design and construction set a naming convention, as well as from the way you know, various parts of the projects have funded. I think there's real clarity and line of sight for the completion of the trail so being able to document all of that as part of this update, I think, is part of the intent. And the goal of this update. So the CTG team is taking notes, and we will make sure that as we begin to draft, the outline and the components of the plan, that we will make sure that all of what you've shared with us this evening gets incorporated into the final document.
Wonderful and then tadhack will try to do a good job as we continue each year trying to do our analysis of where we are in the CIP and where we are ahead or behind or on target, those
types of things. Fantastic.
Thank you. Certainly want to continue the conversation and invite any other members of tadhack to share the comments question. I know a lot was shared and we want to make sure that we offer the opportunity and create the space for this dialogue. Again, this is a significant update that's taken place. He as Lucy mentioned, so many components of the project as has happened over the last several years and this is a chance to bring it all together and I see that Don has raised his hand and Don we want to offer you an opportunity to ask questions off of comments. Donnie audio is off. You may want to unmute. Thank you.
I'm very interested in Mass Transportation and what's going on with barter which has been somewhat of a neglected area I think we could all agree on and getting people around the city. Cars are terrible, but just wanted to bring that up and also something that I haven't heard much about lately is security. And how keep the Beltline safe no matter what kind of work is put into it. But thank you very much. That's all I wanted to say.
Awesome, thank you so much for your comments, Don and on mass transit, so I'm going to invite Sean I believe Shawn is on the call with us. Certainly. There's a lot of planning work that is going into transit and I certainly want to invite Shawn to offer up his his thoughts on that question. Shawn, if you're on the line Yeah, no
problem. Yeah, I appreciate your comments are done. Avi has been working with Marta. Specifically on the streetcar East extension project. I have really no sense of time anymore. I apologize. But the the intergovernmental agreement that Andrea noted during her presentation that was executed in summer of 2020. So there are conversations obviously leading up to that execution. It puts basically in the context of the more Marta funding program, which is based upon that half penny sales tax from the 2016 referendum. It puts Marta in charge of basically the city is identifying Marta as the official transit entity for the city of Atlanta. And what that did basically from a beltline perspective is beltline is still has the at least in my mind, beltline still has the obligation to to kind of push and pull and prod and then kind of get that 22 mile light rail streetcar loop on the Beltline to fruition. Now based upon the program that Mark has put together with that funding stream based upon their 2018 2019 Somewhere in there board vote that put together that more and more to program with a with a number of projects and a timeline. We're not going to Atlanta BeltLine Inc at the end of 2030 when the tax allocation district expires is really only going to see the implementation of the streetcar East extension which is supposed to be in revenue service carrying passengers in 2027. Think the next segment of beltline transit was supposed to be delivered in an open a revenue service in 2032. So the majority of the transit program would come after the tax allocation district expires. But we are working hand in hand with city of Atlanta and Marta pushing to make sure that as Marta goes to implement that this project and bring rail transit to the BeltLine, that it's going to be as beltline as we can make it in the context of MARTA driving the train. So it's not a dig on Marta it's more of a trying to make Marta as aware as possible as to all of the planning work that's been done over the last 1516 years. And and get them to really appreciate the vision of what rail transit on the Beltline is and how it is significantly different from the Marta, heavy rail as it currently exists as well. So hopefully that gives you at least a little bit of context as to what we've been up to on the transit front.
Yeah, thank you so much context, but not optimism.
I mentioned the federal dollars that we have in the study that you're leaving up.
Yeah, that's it's fair. Thank you. So we're still in an active procurements, but the city of Atlanta in 2018 secured a Federal Transit Administration. Grant. There's 2.7 Excuse me $2.8 million of federal money being matched by 700,000 of beltline money to give us a three and a half million dollar transit planning study. And so the intention of this is I'd say probably round numbers, a half of that money is going to go into studying transit alignments in the northwest quadrant because we don't have an abandoned railroad corridor. We've gotten some pushback on the trail front from Norfolk Southern we've got some pushback on the trail front from CSX. We're taking that information as a scope out a scope schedule budget with a consultant team right now. We're going to be looking at you know what, what transit in the Northwest generally speaking Bankhead to Lindbergh, what that can look like and then also because there's still the other half of the money we're going to be doing some transit planning work for the the balance of the Beltline corridor. Say from if you if you go clockwise, Marta has looked from Lindbergh to Glenwood. And what we're going to do with the three and a half million dollar project is to look from Glenwood back up continuing clockwise to Lindbergh. So, like I said, we've got the Northwest where we're gonna put a lot of energy into Alternatives Analysis, and then we're gonna go with the with the balance of that grant funding, and really kind of go back and validate and confirm or contest previous assumptions that have been made, because it's, it's been a minute since the south side of 20, has been looked at from a transit perspective. So we really want to make sure we're, we're planning ahead for that and looking at all the things that have changed since the last time that was looked at.
Thank you, Shawn. And I think the other part of your question done might have been focused on security and I'll touch on it quickly and certainly invite our DNC team to jump in as it relates to just the security cameras and all of the consistent elements that focus on safety and security. But the Beltline continues to partner with APD and have the presence of the path force on the Beltline trail and that continues to be a key relationship to maintaining safety and security on the Beltline. And we expect that to continue as we move forward. And so with that being said all of the other elements of the trail construction continues to emphasize you know, safety and security. And I'll invite Kim, our VP of design and construction to talk about the work that continues to happen as we build out the trail from a safety and security perspective.
Yeah, I think the main thing we do is we put cameras and lights on everything and we even in the last year have added cameras and lights to connect our trails. So that's that's the key element of the physical infrastructure that we add. And obviously we're always thinking about from a design standpoint, trail safety, you know, not creating blind spots and things like that when we put in ramps, you know, things like that just common sense things to make the trail safer. Awesome.
Thank you, Kim. And Don, I hope that answers the question. Want to turn over to Lucy I see your hand is raised and you may have another question for us. Go ahead.
It's more of a comment than a question building on Don's issue related to transit. I would certainly hope that the CIP update will have a section in it related to transit. And Shawn, I would hope that that section could be used to help ABR and tat AK and all of its community partners and business partners to help as you said push and pull Marta toward light rail on the Beltline all the way around the whole 22 miles.
Thank you, Lucy. And yes, the Yep, we will certainly take that into consideration. David. See your hand is raised. Go ahead.
One thing so I've restructured some of my question to give it what about where what you have listings for all these meetings be virtual when you haven't be in person? Will you be going to the communities and the spaces where these things are going to be happening? So some of the conversation we can be in this space for the individuals or the area of where beltline we're going through we'll be touching on will you be going to those spaces and hosting meetings there and in those spaces.
Yes, and I'll invite the community engagement team to talk about that we do have a mapped out a very comprehensive community engagement plan. And I'll invite either Beth or Nathan to talk on exactly how we will be engaged in the geographies across the Beltline throughout the CIP update process.
That was about to say I'll let you go first. Nathan, go ahead.
Okay. Yeah, so our current plan is is and I don't know if we want to go back to the timeline. Slide There is for rounds two and three to have in person at the very least have in person touch points. Both those rounds recalling rounds of combined study groups, the study groups, we'd like to change up the time of day and the type of day that kind of thing. So we're looking at doing to sort of traditional evening virtual meetings like you've probably gotten used to and in the past over the last couple of years, we're looking at doing a lunchtime meeting. Again, virtual. We want folks to be able to jump in there on their lunch break if possible. If that's if that's the time that works best for them. And then we want to do something that's feels less like a like a hour and a half meeting and more like a opportunity for in person engagement on a Saturday. We're still kind of working out exactly what that looks like. Is it an open house? Are there some other days that could be attached to it if we have some sort of materials that we could leave in a unstaffed place so that you had staffing at a particular time, but more availability beyond those hours depending on people's schedules? For a self guided tour? We're still exploring what that looks like. But we do intend to have a couple in in person touch points. I hope that answered your question, David.
Kind of does. I mean, I get it. I just I think at some point, are we going to stay virtual for this predominant out of this process? Are we going to start moving into the more because we will the Beltline is all about people being together. So it seemed like having meetings working together rather than this kind of now use the word and not against you. And I know that you and Beth are kind of my handlers in this situation. But you know, the the thing about it is is that you know, it'd be nice to kind of get out of that. I guess corporate kind of methodology and in transactional and get into the more relational getting people because the Beltline is, you know, we've all hate COVID I know I do. So I can say hey COVID and it ruin everybody's life and cause life problems. But if it wasn't for the BeltLine, people walk around the BeltLine, they couldn't even had you know, at distance, you know, human contact of how are you I hate this some sort of conversation. It'd be nice for us to be normal again. I mean, I like seeing all of you like this, but I do think it'd be impactful for people to see and be able to understand that this is our city and at least see somewhere in others start to bleed in like cultural identity component. And move away from this kind of corporate structure, checking boxes and really getting into people's communities and spaces and appreciating what they're experiencing and how the Beltline is going to impact them. So yes, you answered my question, Nathan, but I'm I don't I'm getting burned out. 23 is back together. 22 It's over. That's kind of how I feel about it in a certain way, but I get it.
Yeah. Well, let me expand on my answer just just a little further. You know, I think and I don't want to get too far out in front of the department or the organization as a whole. But we have had some success in doing some in person sort of outdoor events or creating spaces that are flexible so that if somebody wanted to go in and engage without, you know, staff there, for example, the the workshop, the design workshop that we did to answer the model for SEBRAE. Six, we've had some of those successes. What I can tell you for sure is that virtual is not going to go away, but we want to complement it with getting back into the community and having more touchpoints our data, our numbers of attendees. You know the the larger number of people that we've engaged virtually means that it really is a tool that can't go away it also provides a chance for a clean recording. We've had quite a bit of feedback about people who couldn't attend the meeting, but had a chance to go back and watch the video. So, you know, I think about it less about having a, you know, a hybrid meeting where we've somehow figured out the technology to be coinciding or coexisting with the in person component and more so about, you know, are we able to do more pop ups on the trail and build those relationships? Are we able to do vacant storefront kind of work wearing for presents or office hours in the community. So, we're going to play with some of that in the CIP process. And we're going to continue to push those initiatives as we move into FY 20 For our budget starting in July, so stay tuned as to see kind of how that plays out. But I appreciate your comments. You know,
Nate, I manage a few things. Michael has our product team. With Andrea and Beth. And I do think Nathan put it best. I think there have been some tried and true methods, David, but but but I think again, as Nathan indicated, you know, as we approach more outward events, I think I think a balance of both I think would be critical. And as Nathan indicated with Beth and our team and Andrea we would definitely keep this in mind and look for opportunities to connect again because I think that's what the Beltline is all about. So dancers, Nathan has said it best but we will work with him as part of the consultant team to make that happen.
I'm excited now to have you part of my life, Mr. Hightower because Beth and Nathan have been dealing with me so it sounds like you've just joined in so congratulations. So I
mean, I work with it's a pretty advanced but we understand and we heard you
alright.
Thank you, Nathan. And Michael. Certainly want to continue the conversation. Anyone else with thoughts or comments on what's been presented? think we've had a very rich conversation and this really sets us up well for the city wide conversation that will be happening this Thursday. So certainly want to make sure that we have sufficient space.
Can I go back to the community engagement question? Yes, yes. And I will ask anyone on on tadhack that may have ideas as to where we can go and meet the public, where the public is gathering, to please let us know the wealth of knowledge on how to do community engagement does not lie squarely on our shoulders, but we invite you to provide opportunities for us to connect with folk in your communities, your neighborhoods, so that we can get the word out and deeper into the community. So there's no and
Beth I will go ahead on on record everything. I'm happy to host a meeting here at the Atlanta preservation center. I can host up to 60 people. So anytime, Kelvin. I'm looking forward to meeting you, Mr. Hightower. Very excited about this. The Atlanta preservation center 327 St. Paul Avenue, southeast Atlanta, Georgia, 3031 to 2023. I'm looking forward to seeing you again.
Thank you so much. Thank you,
David. I'm looking forward to meeting you as well. In person. Awesome, Nathan. And Matt. It seems that we have answered all questions for today. And we've listened intently to the comments and we will certainly with the help of the seats and QI team take all of those into consideration and continue this dialogue as we attempt to have a very comprehensive SAP for the public to review in the next several months. But the dialogue will will continue through a series of meetings. So back over to you, Matt and Nathan.
On behalf of the committee, I thank you guys very much. And I guess we have to dismiss this formally, Nate, you can't vote anyway because you don't have a quorum. So we could just call it
a call about this and affectionate love and to adjourn to let all these wonderful people who have suffered me this evening and looking forward in 2023 to grow in the role of historic preservation and abi, we're gonna make it happen in the CIP and everything. And with that, wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and letting everyone get home safe and bet I'm very excited. 2023 is me and you. All right. Pepsi, you know so let's make it happen. Well, bye, everybody. Happy holidays.
