Atlanta’s forgotten $55 million greenspace (Washington, Millen: 2014, lease, movers)

[demonta4]

http://m.clatl.com/atlanta/atlantas-...t?oid=15269339

More than three years ago, city officials brokered a deal with one of Atlanta's most prominent residents to turn more than 16 acres of barren land in Vine City and near English Avenue into Historic Mims Park, what could be one of Atlanta's most picturesque green spaces.

A retaining pond would be created on blank parcels purchased by the city after a flood ravaged the area in 2002. Urban farms and greenhouses would be built. More than a dozen statues honoring local civil rights heroes, including Martin Luther King Jr., who lived one block away as an adult, would dot the green space. Tomochichi, the Yamacraw chief who welcomed Georgia founder James Oglethorpe from Britain in 1733, would stand atop an 80-foot-tall column.

Today, the land looks no different. Pollution is partly to blame. But there's also been debate over whether the ambitious vision first presented in 2012 can actually become reality. And city officials, nonprofit bigwigs, and the park's visionary are set to try to break the logjam and iron out the next steps.

Historic Mims Park is the brainchild of Rodney Mims Cook, an Atlanta native and creator of the Millennium Gate, Atlantic Station's faux Arc de Triomphe. Cook is one of Atlanta's blue bloods, a descendant of a former mayor and movers and shakers, and the founder and president of the National Monuments Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to classical architecture and monuments.In July 2012, the Atlanta City Council gave Mayor Kasim Reed the green light to enter into an agreement and ink a 50-year lease with Cook. It included a provision that the estimated $55 million, privately funded park's first phase, a basic build out, would be complete by July 2014.

But city officials and Cook never hammered out that agreement. Since then, a more-than-$100 million wave of public, private, and philanthropic investment pegged to the new Atlanta Falcons stadium has started to crest over the surrounding neighborhoods. Historic Mims Park sits idle.

One of the hiccups is the fact that the vacant parcels, like other pieces of land in traditionally underinvested parts of town, are polluted. The city conducted tests of the soil on the parcels and, in June, the state Environmental Protection Division gave permission to move ahead with a clean-up plan to dig up lead from the future park's dirt, among other tasks.

There is also chatter that the delay has been over just how much of Cook's original vision is feasible. No one opposes the park being built, sources tell Creative Loafing, but disagreements have arisen between the city, Cook, and the Blank Foundation, which has become a major player in the neighborhood because it's investing in the area. (Cook was traveling and unavailable for comment. The Blank Foundation says it's "very supportive" of making the park become a reality.)

Sources tell CL that there have been differing opinions over the placement of park features. The urban agriculture component might have to be downsized to accommodate other features. A retention pond to catch most of the storm water that flows from the Georgia World Congress Center and the new stadium to prevent future floods might need to be larger. Atlanta City Councilmember Ivory Young, who represents the communities, says the pond would "rival what's been done in Historic Fourth Ward Park." Young says there is "absolute energy being placed to produce a team that can produce the concept the community developed. That concept is unprecedented in parks that I've seen."

On Sept. 4, the three sides are scheduled to meet and discuss next steps and whether the initial vision can be realized. New legislation would have to be introduced to finalize the lease and details. Funds must be raised. Teams must be selected. And if the vision changes substantially, park boosters might have to win community support a second time. Young says it's vital the park's initial focus — "healing wounds" caused by segregation and discrimination and honoring the men and women who advocated for peace and equality — is kept intact.

Jenna Garland, a spokesperson for Reed, says the mayor plans to "listen to all perspectives about the park's features and design and looks forward to weighing in with his opinion."

"When Mims Park is completed, the City of Atlanta will have a new, best-in-class park in a neighborhood with little green space," she says. "This park will be a significant improvement over what we have now ... Where we end up will be far better than where we started."

[cqholt]

Historic Mims Park project gets financial boost | www.myajc.com

[cqholt]

The Trust of Public Land has reached an agreement with CoA to fund and build Mims Park at cost to the city.
TPL to build long-awaited park in Vine City, near new Falcons stadium - SaportaReport

After years of discussion, the Historic Mims Park, in Vine City, is to be designed and built at no cost to the city through an agreement Atlanta has reached with The Trust for Public Land.
Mims Park, NMF edit
The Trust for Public Land has reached an agreement with Atlanta to build a park in Vine City that’s often called Historic Mims Park.
TPL has agreed to raise the money necessary to design, develop and build the park planned along Joseph E. Boone Boulevard. The 16-acre site is a few blocks northwest of the future Falcons stadium. Though the park has long been called Mims Park, its official name has not been established.
TPL also has agreed to acquire about seven parcels that have long been associated with the park, but are not part of the 13.1 acres now owned by the city. These tracts encompass about three acres.
A construction timeline is not included in the memorandum of agreement the Atlanta City Council approved at its Dec. 7 meeting. The agreement states that TPL can opt out if it can’t raise the necessary funds.
The agreement addresses an historic sticking point regarding the planned park – flooding in the Vine City neighborhood. The agreement specifies that the park, “will not materially impede and/or diminish,” a sewer capacity relief facility the city intends to build on a portion of the park property.
The Department of Watershed Management is now conducting a remediation of soil at the park site under a voluntary remediation program that’s overseen by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Park construction isn’t to begin until after the remediation has been completed.
The plan also requires that area residents be involved in planning the park.
This is a significant step, in the context of Atlanta moving ahead with efforts to sell Turner Field even before a master plan for the ballpark and its community is complete. The Atlanta Regional Commission provided $212,000 for the plan through its Livable Centers Initiative. Atlanta matched the grant with $63,000 in city funds.
Mims Park, map
The area shaded in blue is the site of the park The Trust for Public Land plans to build. The Georgia Dome is located at the bottom right side of the map. Credit: wdanielanderson.wordpress.com
Here is the language in the memorandum of agreement regarding community involvement:
“TPL and the City shall work together in conducting appropriate local community engagement in order to inform the public about the Park and gather input regarding desired amenities for the Park.
“TPL and the City shall work together and coordinate efforts in making any announcements, issuing press releases, or conducting public events related to the development of Mims Park and the implementation of this Agreement.”
The agreement recognizes the planning for the park that’s been conducted by the National Monuments Foundation. “To the extent practicable,” the city and TPL have agreed to consider the conceptual plan the foundation have completed. But they will not be bound to the previous plan.
The city and TPL also agree, “where practicable,” to consult with the foundation on elements of the Olmstead Linear Design of the former Mims Park. All features and amenities of the park are to be approved by two commissioners – for the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Department of Watershed Management.
TPL has a long history of helping to acquire land for public use in Atlanta.
Most recently TPL has been involved in buying land in the corridor of the Atlanta BeltLine, including Historic Old Fourth Ward Park, Boulevard Crossing Park (the first fully assembled new park on the BeltLine), and the Bellwood Quarry/Westside Park.
Starting in the late 1970s, TPL helped buy more than a dozen properties for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. The purchases helped protect the historic integrity of the neighborhood where King was born.

[roadtrip75]

How are you going to keep the addicts & bums out of it? If not, why would you spend lots of money to beautify a resting place for them?

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

How are you going to keep the addicts & bums out of it? If not, why would you spend lots of money to beautify a resting place for them?

They created a great greenspace in another area that suffered from homelessness and addicts; Historic 4th Ward Park, and it has been a huge success.

[arjay57]

Great point, cq.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

How are you going to keep the addicts & bums out of it? If not, why would you spend lots of money to beautify a resting place for them?

So just leave it as it is then -- a polluted wasteland?

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." -- Proverbs 29:18

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

...
"Where there is no vision, the people perish." -- Proverbs 29:18

Amen.

[ATLfromJAX]

What about Washington Park, it's less than a mile away, with trails, baseball, playground, and swim center for Vine City community.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

So just leave it as it is then -- a polluted wasteland?

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." -- Proverbs 29:18

Preach it newsie.