Atlanta City Council approves funding, plans for the ‘Stitch'
At Monday's Atlanta City Council meeting, three ordinances passed to approve the Interstate 75/85 'Stitch' project to move forward.
The three ordinances create an ad valorem tax on properties in the Stitch Special Services District, approve financing from partners of the City of Atlanta and formally create the district and set its boundaries, according to officials.
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The project, first proposed in 2019, is intended to reconnect communities in downtown Atlanta that were separated by the creation of the Downtown Connector.
As proposed, the project would build an urban park above the connector as a physical cap.
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$400 million project would put park, buildings over Downtown Connector
Channel 2 Action News previously covered when Atlanta-area U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams secured additional federal funding for the project, saying it would help transform the community.
Other supporters of the project previously told Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes that the Stitch will correct what some call an intentional effort to 'tear neighborhoods apart' to make traffic better.
Mike Green, the developer, told Fernandes that the Stitch is meant to both provide affordable housing and reconnect Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s neighborhood to the city.
'Really the idea is to bring those two histories together through this development and do something that not only serves what we need now, but also can serve that place for the future of our city,' Green said previously.
Now approved by the Atlanta City Council, the 14-acre project will be able to take the next steps toward construction.
Details of the Stitch master plan are available online here.
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