Edge on the Beltline
United Consulting received the prestigious American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia (ACEC Georgia) Engineering Excellence Award in 2020 for its exceptional environmental work on North American Properties’ Edge on the Beltline. This mixed-use luxury apartment community is part of the Atlanta Beltline, a sustainable urban redevelopment project that will eventually connect 45 intown neighborhoods through a 22-mile loop of multi-use trails, parks, transit options, and affordable housing built along historic railroad corridors. The property was only a vision when North American Properties retained United Consulting to assess environmental conditions, regulatory status, property acquisition guidance, and assistance with enrolling in and completing the Georgia’s Brownfield redevelopment process. The initial goal was to transform the 4.5-acre long-blighted site into a premier mixed-use development featuring 350 multifamily units, 20,000 square feet of retail and 10,000 square feet of office space, all connected to a new section of the Atlanta Beltline. We played a major role in bringing North American Properties vision to life by delivering an environmental plan that leveraged Brownfield redevelopment, facilitated site cleanup, and providing a feasible approach to removal of the restriction prohibiting residential use. We guided the developer through every phase of the project, from pre-acquisition to final occupancy.
Key activities performed by United Consulting included preparing a Brownfield application via a Prospective Purchaser Corrective Action Plan (PPCAP), which was later amended to incorporate soil cleanup standard calculations. Following construction, United Consulting prepared the final Prospective Purchaser Compliance Status Report (PPCSR), detailing compliance with residential cleanup standards and addressing vapor intrusion risks. We also collaborated with North American Properties’ environmental legal counsel to draft termination documents, securing the Environmental Protection Division’s (EPD) approval for removing the first-ever Environmental Covenant restricting residential development on a Brownfield site in Georgia, setting a new precedent for revitalizing challenging Brownfield sites.
