Wayne Mason, the Gwinnett County developer who owns a 5 mile stretch of the proposed 22 mile loop known as The Beltline, has dropped out of the project and is unsure how he’ll use his 70 acres of land.

Arguments between Mason and Atlanta city officials and Beltline executives came to a boiling point when Mason withdrew his rezoning request from Atlanta’s planning department. One of the bigger issues was Mason’s desire to build close to 3,000 residences on five different pieces of his land, including two condo towers near Piedmont Park. Midtown residents weren’t too happy as they felt the already bursting at them seams area was too congested for that kind of development. City officials also saw a different plan for Mason’s land as the city had planned to use the land next to Piedmont Park as an extension of the park, not condo towers and retail space as Mason had hoped.

The city still says it is moving forward with the Beltline project even though Mason says he’s unsure whether he’ll sell his land to developers, sell it to the city, leave it for his grandchildren or develop the land using the current zoning restrictions in place.

Developer backs out of Beltline [ajc.com]
Is Atlanta’s Beltline now broken? [ajc.com]

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