When Terri Montague moved from Baltimore to Atlanta to lead the largest redevelopment project in the country, she saw decades of neglect firsthand. Transportation routes separated neighborhoods. Annual walkable cities lists put Atlanta near the bottom for its dependence on cars and lack of sidewalks. Most civil servants drive out from the city center where they work until they can afford to buy a home, which can be miles away. Commutes that used to be half an hour turned into two-hour ordeals. Unchecked urban sprawl disproportionately affected African American communities here, leading to soaring asthma rates and epidemic juvenile diabetes.
Such interrelated problems can’t just be fixed merely by planting a few trees and extending bus routes. For Montague, environmental sustainability is part of a larger smart growth movement. “People don’t live in silos,†she says. “The wave of the future is to plan and grow with more integration across disciplines. We’ve got to get rid of the silos.â€
Developing a concept
Montague, 43, is president and CEO of the quasi-governmental organization Atlanta BeltLine Inc., which is leading coordination and planning for the massive BeltLine project. When completed around 2030, the BeltLine will connect Atlanta by creating green space, trails, transit, and new development along 22 miles of historic rail segments that encircle the city’s urban core.  The BeltLine will primarily affect African American communities, particularly along the loop’s southern and western sides. “It will also feature extensive new public transportation routes to ease travel for the city’s quarter million daily commuters,†Montague says.
The $2.8 billion project began as a 1999 Georgia Tech student thesis that was championed by the city council, studied for feasibility, and supported by Mayor Shirley Franklin. It currently includes plans for 1,300 acres of new parks and green spaces, 28,000 new affordable homes, acres of environmental remediation, job centers, and landmarked sites all linked by an electric light-rail system along a historic rail corridor. In order to accomplish all this, Montague must convince traditionally underserved communities that the ambitious project will be achieved with their input.
The Atlanta BeltLine’s motto is “Atlanta connected.†“There are many dimensions to that,†Montague says. “It’s reaching across what are, right now, distinctive neighborhoods and communities. I think that distinctiveness will be celebrated, but it will be more accessible.â€
“The BeltLine is a big concept that will forever change the face of Atlanta. It will knit together those neighborhoods that were disconnected by geography, railroads, segregation, and federal highway development,†says Carl Patton, president of Georgia State University and an early adviser to the project. “A lot of the success I think we’re going to see with the project is the way Terri has organized the process so far, her ability to work with the city council, with community groups, the lending community, the bankers, the private sellers.â€
Implementing smart growth
Montague’s multidisciplinary background prepared her for the complex project. Her father, a 27-year civil engineer in Washington, DC’s metro system, provided her with an insider’s view of transit. She majored in economics at the University of Chicago and got her master’s degree in city planning and real estate from MIT. But it was her community advocacy work that taught her the power that smart growth has to transform lives.
As CEO for the nonprofit Enterprise Foundation (now Enterprise Community Partners), Montague brought affordable housing to cities across the country. Under Montague’s leadership, the foundation developed a Green Communities Initiative to promote environmental building practices in an effort to reduce carbon emissions in urban areas. Montague used the organization’s heft to bring in funding for planning grants. Those investments offered developers incentives to green the way they built, and Enterprise then made sure that the energy and resource-savings would be passed on to residents.
“There has got to be an integration of concerns and stewardship for people and places,†Montague says. “That’s what the environmental sustainability movement represents for me.â€
The BeltLine’s green spaces are expected to counteract smog, lower asthma rates, and encourage more healthy physical activity. A Georgia Institute of Technology health assessment of the BeltLine reported that proximity to nature has been shown to reduce stress and lengthen life.
Finding solutions
The project, while still in the early stages, has
presented Montague with myriad challenges. In order to develop the BeltLine, the city must purchase swaths of land mostly owned by rail companies. A key stretch along the northeast corridor was owned by a private developer who originally wanted to build two dense condominium towers there. “Many people said it would be impossible to secure for the city,†Montague says. Even though the financial sector is in crisis, she convinced two commercial banks that had previously worked with the city to participate in a bond sale. The city issued $64.5 million in bonds and used part of the money to purchase the land.In northeast Atlanta, the Department of Watershed Management proposed a necessary but unsightly 800-foot stormwater tunnel on a former industrial park site. Residents protested the ugly addition. Montague was able to diffuse the land-use landmine by bringing environmentalists, community members, and city departments to the table. Under her direction, the city merged priorities and came up with plans for an aesthetically-pleasing water feature that enhances the park while providing an emergency water supply. By accomplishing two goals at once, the facility will also save the city $10 million.
Community inclusion
“Atlanta is a city that has long been experiencing pressures that might potentially displace residents,†Montague says. “Because part of what we’re doing is investing resources, planning things for future land uses, there is a concern.â€
Earlier this year, that tension
bubbled up when a citizens group that advises the BeltLine published a letter accusing the project’s top officials of not providing enough opportunity for public input. “We have to find the right balance between process and results,†Montague told the Atlanta Journal Constitution at the time. While defending the letter, the group’s chairman also told the paper he was encouraged by Montague’s responsiveness.Patton says that the problem isn’t that Atlantans don’t want the BeltLine. The problem is that everyone wants it in their neighborhood first, and it can’t all be built immediately. “I’ve been impressed by [Terri’s] ability to bridge all these different groups that she has to have come together in agreement,†Patton says.
In October, ground broke in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood on the BeltLine’s first major park. The same month, residents participated in a 5-K run-walk along a new path that connects three parks, a school, and a shopping center in the West End and Westview neighborhoods. Then, in November, the project saw a major victory when Georgians voted to allow school tax revenues to be used for redevelopment projects–a decision that is expected to free up crucial funds for the BeltLine.
“You have to have a lot of drive and perseverance and poise under pressure. It gets honed in the crucible every day,†Montague says. “But Atlanta is a big city of dreams.