One of Atlanta's most flood-prone blocks is turning into something the southside has wanted for years: a real park. Just north of the newest BeltLine section in Peoplestown, a 5-acre greenspace is taking shape on what used to be a residential block, according to Urbanize Atlanta.
Officially it carries a mouthful of a name, the Custer Avenue Capacity Relief Multi-Benefit Stormwater Vault project, run by the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management. Underneath the future lawn sits the real engineering: a vault up to 30 feet deep, built to capture 20 million gallons of stormwater in an area that has flooded for decades.
Construction started in earnest about a year ago. When it wraps, the site promises a new destination for Peoplestown and its historic southside neighbors, with the flood control tucked out of sight below.
It is the kind of project that does two jobs at once, fixing an old drainage problem while handing the neighborhood green space it has long been owed.
