Buckhead may soon be able to buck its image as an area with a dearth of green spaces. With Path400, the six-mile trail along the length of Georgia 400, now has funding secured and a recent announcement of a new Buckhead park coming to Lenox Road, the area may soon offer residents an abundance of parks.
In a May 2012 study from the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that conserves land for parks and playgrounds in urban and rural areas, northwest Atlanta and southwest Atlanta are what planners say is "park poor."
The 2012 Trust for Public Land study ranked Atlanta's overall park system as below average, ranking it as No. 26 out of 40 cities studied.
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The land trust’s “Park-Score” ratings were based on the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park (about half a mile), a city’s median park size and the percentage of total city area dedicated to parks and investment in parks.
Green Space Wins in Buckhead:Keeping in line with Mayor Kasim Reed’s goal of having a park within a one-half mile radius of all Atlanta residents, the city recently approved a $1.17 million land purchase for a new 2.54-acre Buckhead park at 3162 Lenox Road.
Find out what's happening in Buckheadwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
On June 11, the PATH Foundation announced that it had reached its $14.3 million "Make the Connection" campaign goal, which will enable the organization to create an Atlanta trail hub at Centennial Olympic Park and 37 miles of additional trails, including the six-mile PATH400 Greenway Trail in Buckhead.
According to the Buckhead CID's website, "The PATH400 Greenway Trail will be the spine of Buckhead’s Trails and Greenways Subsystem, part of the Buckhead Collection, connecting parks, trails, schools and neighborhoods to the urban core of Buckhead and ultimately to the Atlanta BeltLine."
Editor's Note: Denise Starling, director of Livable Buckhead, emailed Buckhead Patch and said the PATH400 Trail is not fully financed, but that the PATH Foundation has committed $3.2 million of the now estimated $12-14 million cost of the trail. She also told Buckhead Patch that Livable Buckhead now has an actual cost for the first phase of the trail, but she did not have the figure immediately available at the time and will supply it at a later date.
The announcement from the PATH Foundation regarding reaching its campaign goal reads:
"The PATH Foundation announced today that it has reached the $14.3 million goal of its "Make the Connection" campaign.This milestone enables PATH to establish Atlanta's trail hub at Centennial Olympic Park and create 37 additional miles of trails, including a new six-mile trail along the length of Georgia 400. "
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