Atlanta -- Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard, Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Boazman, other council members and the Trust for Public Land hosted a greenspace clean-up of “Swann Preserve” - to celebrate the City of Atlanta’s purchase of 57 acres of woodlands in a diverse urban neighborhood in Southeast Atlanta that will become a nature preserve.
The purchase is being made possible by the City of Atlanta’s $25 million Greenway Acquisition Project to acquire and protect targeted streamside areas in perpetuity.
“The acquisition of this nature preserve is part of this administration’s commitment to protect Atlanta’s rapidly disappearing natural lands,” says Mayor Shirley Franklin. “Protecting greenspace is a major part of our effort to revitalize our city. Although the consent decree mandated Greenway Acquisition, greenspace has always been a priority in our plan to provide Atlanta a world-class system of parks, open spaces and clean water.” In addition, the City used Georgia Greenspace Program funds to acquire the property.
The Greenway Acquisition Project’s intent is to acquire “buffer” areas that protect streamsides from development, thus providing a vegetated filter for surface runoff. – The intent is to protect water quality by reducing erosion and non-point source pollution. This effort was undertaken in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action taken jointly by the EPA, the Georgia EPD, the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Fund, Inc., the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Inc., and W. Robert Hancock, Jr., for violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and Georgia Water Quality Control Act.
Other recent Greenway acquisitions by the city include a 10-acre property along Peachtree Creek near Ridgemore Road, and a 74-acre tract adjacent to Utoy Creek. The City’s Greenway acquisition efforts are currently concentrating on areas along Proctor Creek, Utoy Creek, Intrenchment Creek, and the South River. Protection efforts will eventually include other streams in the City of Atlanta, as well as other Metro area streams.
Councilman Boazman, who was the leader of this project and whose district contains most of the preserve, is elated over what he hopes will be the first of many such greenspace initiatives in Southeast Atlanta.
“This is going to be a magnificent preserve,” he says. “It’s going to be an asset that ties one side of the district to the other in a significant way. We (the city) quietly worked with TPL and we’ve been able to acquire the land before developers could get at it. We have been blessed on the south side in that a lot of people don’t know what a beautiful part of Atlanta this is, so we have been able to protect land that makes a difference in our community.”
Additional Press Contacts List:
Ø TPL-Georgia Public Affairs Manager Chris Lancette at (404) 873-7306, x230 chris.lancette@tpl.org
Ø City of Atlanta Bureau of Planning, Susan Rutherford (404) 330-6787