The Atlanta-based Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has announced grants of more than $2.5 million to two organizations involved in developing the Atlanta Belt Line, a proposed greenway connecting parks, trails, and transit hubs throughout the city.

The project, which was conceived by Georgia Tech graduate student Ryan Gravel in 1999, calls for turning more than twenty miles of old railroad tracks and other land into a recreation-and-transit loop connecting dozens of neighborhoods, schools, historic and cultural sites, shopping districts, and public parks. The Atlanta office of the national Trust for Public Land will receive $2.5 million for right-of-way and green space acquisition along the proposed corridor, while the Atlanta-based Friends of the Belt Line will receive $30,000 for general operating support.

In 2004, the foundation helped fund the development of a plan to explore open space opportunities along the Belt Line, resulting in the proposal of more than 1,400 acres of green space for the city, including four new parks and five park-centered mixed-use developments. The plan also calls for adding three new train stations to link the Belt Line to the city's transit network. Working with city and county officials, civic and neighborhood associations, and environmental groups, the Blank Family Foundation, through its Inspiring Spaces strategy, has helped preserve more than 1,100 acres to date within metropolitan Atlanta.

"We're proud to play a supporting role in the larger public-private partnership that will be needed to bring the Belt Line to life," said foundation chairman Arthur Blank. "And we hope that our involvement will serve as an inspiration to others to join the effort. It's going to take a broad coalition of partners and a great deal of collaboration to make this initiative succeed."