In 2008, the City of Atlanta’s Project Greenspace identified the City of Atlanta as significantly lacking in green space when compared to peer cities across the nation. Project GreenSpace also identified Atlanta City Council District 7, greater Buckhead, as having fewer parks per capita than any other district in the entire city.

In October of 2010, working at the request of City Councilman Howard Shook, the Buckhead Community decided it was time to take green space seriously and began to develop a vision for the commercial core of Buckhead and its adjacent neighborhoods. That vision, The Buckhead Collection, is complete and has become the responsibility of Livable Buckhead to implement.

The Buckhead Collection is an interconnected network of parks, trails and green spaces serving the social, economic, mobility and environmental needs of Buckhead residents, workers and visitors. Each element of the Collection will be planned and designed to meet the following objectives:

• Continue to make Buckhead one of the most desirable places in the world to live, work and play
• Provide a network of trails, bikeways and sidewalks to provide opportunities for alternative modes of transportation
• Provide residents, workers and visitors with access to a meaningful greens pace within a convenient distance from their home and business
• Provide adequate athletic fields and recreation facilities to meet the needs of Buckhead
• Maximize real estate values through proximity to green space
• Provide opportunities for the community to gather for festivals, performances, special events and other cultural activities
• Provide opportunities for public art, historic preservation and interpretation, storm water treatment and environmental protection throughout the system.

The Buckhead Collection is comprised of seven subsystems, each having its own individual plan. Explore each subsystem.

The Buckhead Collection proposes to provide residents, employees, and visitors of commercial and retail establishments within the Buckhead CID boundary access to a Plaza within 800 feet of their work or shopping location. These spaces will provide users with opportunities to rest, reset, relax, have lunch, meet, and enjoy the outdoors.

Plazas should be located for southern exposure and be located on the exterior edges of properties adjacent to the right-of-way. They should be a minimum of 900 – 2,500 sq. ft. and include, deciduous shade trees, movable tables and chairs, fountains, public art, etc.

Each year, Buckhead attracts over 600,000 visitors for a variety of events, activities, and festivals. However, there is no central space to host these events. The Buckhead Collection proposes to remedy this and provide residents, employees, and visitors in Buckhead with access to two Central Gathering Spaces located within the Urban Core of the Buckhead CID that function as the focus of community activity and civic identity. One will be located in the Buckhead Village and will be a minimum of 1 acre in size and the other will be located in the Lenox Area and will be between 3 to 5 acres in size. The Central Gathering spaces should be strategically located and designed to facilitate programmed festivals and events.

The Buckhead Collection proposes that all Public art be integrated throughout the Green Space System to:

• Attract visitors
• Enhance the parks experience
• Interpret cultural and historic sites

The public art should be curetted as an interrelated Collection to maximize benefits to the community.

Traditional Community Parks are typically 20 to 50 acres in size and serve to meet the recreational and social needs of several neighborhoods or larger
sections of the community. In Buckhead, land is simply not available to develop a traditional Community Park.

The Buckhead Collection proposes to take a facilities approach to Community Parks and de-compartmentalize the concept of a Community Park into Community Park Facility Components. This will enable neighborhood groups in under-served areas to identify desired specific Community Park Facility Components to strategically insert in suitable areas within their community.

The Buckhead Collection proposes to maximize access to existing sports facilities to meet the tournament and non-tournament recreational demands of residents. The demand for organized sports is addressed by continuing to strengthen relationships with existing school and churches within the study area that allow use of their sports facilities.

Additionally the Buckhead Collection proposes to address the practice needs of the community through Multi-Purpose Community Greens that meet the non-tournament recreational and sports related demands of the community while providing multi-purpose community gathering space.

The Buckhead Collection proposes that all natural areas in Buckhead be planned, designed, and managed to generate multiple objectives including:

• Protect natural resources
• Improve water quality
• Encourage passive recreation
• Promote environmental education
• Sustain or enhance wildlife habitat (in patches or corridors)
• Protect and restore floodplain
• Link natural lands in a greenway system

Where ever possible and appropriate, natural areas should provide opportunities for passive recreation + education including:

• Multi-purpose trails, nature trails, boardwalks
• Picnic areas
• Environmental education + interpretation

The Buckhead Collection proposes that roadway corridors with wide rights-of-ways be planned and enhanced as multiple-purpose greenways providing
for stormwater treatment, wildlife habitat protection and pedestrian | bicycle circulation wherever possible.

Creek corridors should also be planned and enhanced as multi-purpose greenways providing for flood protection, stormwater management, water quality treatment, wildlife habitat protection and restoration, pedestrian bicycle circulation wherever possible.

The Buckhead Collection proposes that all cultural and historical sites be physically connected and integrated into the greenspace system wherever possible, through land acquisition, signage, exhibits, bikeways, trails, and digital media.

Cultural and historical resources and events should be interpreted and communicated throughout the greenspace system to “tell significant Buckhead stories” such as early settlement events, civil war battles, rural agriculture, natural systems, and/or others.

Greater Buckhead is home to over 30,000 dogs. The Buckhead Collection proposes to address the recreational and social demands of dogs and their
owners through a variety of facilities:

• Dog Waste Disposals | Clean-Up Facilities should be located in all Parks + Public Spaces
• Small Dog Parks | Runs should be located within 1/2 mile of every urban resident, either within neighborhood | community parks and civic spaces or at other locations
• Larger, Destination Dog Parks should be provided within 2 miles of every suburban resident, either within larger community parks or at other locations