page_title: Westside Reservoir Park
section_title: Status
hierarchical_section_title: Westside Reservoir Park / Status
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking west, the border to the Quarry itself is to the left of a field
context_page_description: Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry is an under construction park in the City of Atlanta located on the site of the former Bellwood Quarry. The park is between Johnson Road and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and between the neighborhoods of Bankhead and West Midtown and immediately to the northeast of the neighborhood of Grove Park, of which a large portion of the park falls within the Grove Park boundaries. Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry will be a major green space project of the Atlanta BeltLine master plan. The park will have trail connectivity to the BeltLine, as well as the Proctor Creek Greenway Trail. On August 27, 2019, Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry received a major boost with the announcement that the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has awarded a $17.5 million grant for the project. The Blank grant will accelerate the development of parks and trails along the 22-mile circular corridor – especially on the Westside.
context_section_description: The land, which had been owned by Fulton County, was in a long-term lease to Vulcan Materials.  On December 10, 2005, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced a plan to acquire the lease and the land in order to create a 351-acre (1.42 km²) park with a 45-acre (180,000 m²) lake which would also serve as a drinking water reservoir.  The plan is a portion of the extensive BeltLine project to construct a ring of parks, trails, and transit surrounding the core of Atlanta. The proposed Westside Reservoir Park is nearly twice the size of Atlanta's premiere greenspace, Piedmont Park. 
  On December 29, 2017, outgoing mayor Kasim Reed unveiled plans for phase one of the park's construction.  The first phase will take about 24 months to complete.  The cost of the first phase, which has already been approved and funded by the Atlanta City Council, will be approximately $26.5 million.  Phase one includes a gateway to the park, a "grand overlook" of both the quarry and the Atlanta skyline, and pedestrian connections to the Proctor Creek Greenway. The following year, Mark Teixeira and a development team announced plans to build a mixed-use development, Quarry Yards, adjacent to the park.
  On September 6, 2018 the official groundbreaking took place for Westside Reservoir Park. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and others hailed the park as a new attraction for the city that will also become an economic engine for long-forgotten neighborhoods west of Georgia Tech. The promised 280-acre park has been a driver for new development on the city's Westside, a historically industrial area surrounded by generally lower income neighborhoods, that has seen a rush of real estate speculation since the Great Recession. The rise in development has stoked fears by residents of potential displacement from rising prices, particularly in the Grove Park neighborhood.
  The $26.5 million first phase of the park will include a new gateway entrance to the property along Johnson Road as well as new lighting, and pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Phase 1 of the new park is scheduled to open in the spring of 2020.
caption: Looking west, the border to the Quarry itself is to the left of a field
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