East Point digs into 25-mile trail system

By the spring of 2019, walkers, cyclists, skaters and strollers can blaze a new trail.

Called the East Point PATH Model Mile, the 10-foot-wide surface will begin at Sumner Park and connect to Main Street on its way to Harris Park and Tri-Cities High School.

Its benefits include more pedestrian safety and better-looking streetscapes along main thoroughfare Norman Berry Drive, according to its master planners, the PATH Foundation and Kaizen Collaborative.

But the $2 million amenity is only the beginning of a vaster system with an even deeper impact on city life, officials said recently.

In one of her last acts as mayor, Jannquell Peters told attendees at a Dec. 29 groundbreaking ceremony how a journey towards a trail network of 25 miles began with a single meeting with foundation Executive Director Ed McBrayer.

“I wrapped up the pitch by telling him the phrase that truly sums up East Point to me – ‘We are where Main meets metro,’” she said. “I explained that we were truly cultivating opportunities to offer the charms of small-town living with all the amenities of an urban community.”

That was in 2016, shortly followed by city council support to proceed with a trail master plan.

“In between, there were community meetings and much traversing the nooks and crannies of the city of East Point by designers, engineers and project managers,” Peters said.

The team “scoured the city” to identify corridors to link together, according to the $40,000 plan earning final city council approval in November 2016.

It was the same month Fulton County voters approved a transportation special purpose local option sales tax, of which East Point is allocated $35 million over its five-year collection.

Those funds will kick off the first six miles and $7.2 million of trail network, set to include connections with two schools and Camp Creek Parkway by 2022.

Overall, the 16-segment project will cost about $31 million, by 2016 price estimates.

“Completed, the nearly 25-mile project will be an intergenerational catalytic project that will connect pulse points of the city in a really meaningful way,” Peters said.

She said credit rating agencies as well as prospective families and employers look for attractions like the connectivity, greenspace and art installations planned.

“Proportionately investing in catalytic projects simply makes smart business sense to me,” Peters said.

City Parks and Recreation Director Jonathan Penn agreed.

“We’ll truly become a livable, walkable community and that’s something that is spurring so much economic development within communities as well,” he said. “A lot of the Millennial generation are moving into the city and these are the things they look for – good schools, fitness, exercise, health benefits.”

Other generations can benefit, according to 72-year-old East Point Historical Society vice president Gordon Draves, who rode his bicycle to the ceremony.

“It’s a wonderful thing out there,” he said about the Atlanta Beltline, one of the trail network’s projected destinations. “It’s just a great thing that we are getting these now.”

The trail steering committee includes community and city staff members Bettee Allen, Robert Evans, DeAndre Pickett, Wayne Whitesides, Ariann Wilkins, Frederick Gardiner, Greg Hart, Vincent Reynolds, Reuben Thuman III and Penn.