Westside Park Equitable Development Task Force Resources and Upcoming Meetings

Mar 11

About the Westside Park Equitable Development Task Force

In February 2020, City officials and councilmembers attended a special called meeting of the Grove Park Neighborhood Association. Residents were increasingly concerned about the Westside Park’s impact on the community, including transportation and mobility, small businesses and the Donald Lee Hollowell business corridor, quality of life, and most importantly, housing affordability. The work on the first phase of the park was nearing completion, and little had been done to engage the residents who live closest and would be most impacted around issues of housing, transportation, and other critical quality of life issues.

During that meeting, we obtained a commitment from the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office to form the Westside Park Equitable Development Task Force (WPEDT). The WPEDT would include representatives from our neighborhood, key city departments, and partner agencies. The goal would be to create an equitable development framework, ensuring that the long-time residents of our neighborhoods are protected by and benefit from this catalytic park development, and all the investment spurred as a result. We had begun to hear buzz about a spring ribbon-cutting, while watching a housing crisis unfold before our eyes.

In March 2020, the Task Force convened. Included were representatives from Grove Park and nearby neighborhoods, Center Hill, Almond Park and Howell Station. Despite delays resulting from the pandemic, neighborhood representatives began to meet regularly to review previous neighborhood plans, engagement feedback, and community asks gathered over several years. The City committed to forming four subcommittees in September 2020 in the areas of housing, economic mobility and development, transportation, and quality of life where city staff, community members, and key partners would work together and create a collective Equitable Development Framework. To support this effort, community Working Group members met regularly to develop a list of critical and high priority needs, based on what we’ve heard from you and other neighbors to present to the City in the Working Groups.

We’ve listed below a list of all the documents we’ve compiled, the list of critical needs, project updates from the City, and other resources. Please visit this page frequently to get updates on the work we are doing.

As you know, the majority of our neighbors are not connected to the neighborhood association or our social media platforms. It is critical that we engage the nearly 4000 residents we haven’t heard from yet, and we cannot do this without the support and resources of the City. In the meantime, you can help by inviting your neighbors to attend some very important upcoming meetings. If you have questions, feedback or concerns that you would like to share, please email taskforce@groveparkatlanta.com.

NEXT WPEDT MEETING: TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021 AT 7 P.M.

The City of Atlanta will be joining the Grove Park Neighborhood Association meeting to provide an update on critical action items from the Westside Park Equitable Development Framework. Details coming soon.

DOCUMENTS FOR YOUR REVIEW:

Resident Feedback Requested! Send any suggestions regarding the documents below to taskforce@groveparkatlanta.com.

City of Atlanta Updates:

12/2020 City Initiatives Updates

Past Meeting Resources:

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M.

The Department of Parks & Rec and Department of Watershed Management presented Westside Park updates and discussed the recent trail construction in Grove Park that was started recently without community engagement. Join this meeting to help hold city departments to ensure that we have a Southside entrance that meets our needs.

Immediately following, the EDT community volunteers presented Working Group recommendations to the community to get input.

Meeting documents:

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021 AT 6:00 P.M.

The City of Atlanta Department of City Planning, Department of Transportation, Invest Atlanta, and Worksource Atlanta presented updates from the City around their efforts.