Central Atlanta Progress

Central Atlanta Progress (CAP), founded in 1941, as the Central Area Improvement Association, is a private, not-for-profit corporation, chartered to plan and promote Atlanta's Central Area, that strives to create a robust economic climate for downtown Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States.

CAP was formed by a merger of the Central Atlanta Improvement Association with the Uptown Association on January 1, 1967.

Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) defines the central area as the central core of Atlanta bounded by the railroad cordon from West End on the south to Brookwood on the north and Boulevard on the east to Vine City on the west.

The membership of CAP consists of the chief executives of approximately major corporations and property owners in Central Atlanta, The Board of Directors includes business leaders from the Atlanta area. CAP is funded through the investment of businesses and institutions.

The first Central Area Study of the city of Atlanta was performed by Central Atlanta Progress. Completed in 1971, the first Central Area Study (CAS I) dealt with the areas of economic development, transport, housing, urban design, public safety, human services, and marketing. The study focused on transport conditions and related land use and urban design in the areas proximate to downtown and midtown in Atlanta. The idea that attracted press attention was the "four level Peachtree corridor" concept which would have buried the vehicular travel along Peachtree Street below the surface of the current road.

The Study states:

"The Goal of this study is to recommend policies, plans, programs, and projects which will permit the study area - Central Atlanta - to reinforce its role as:

Capitol [sic] of Georgia, and center of the metropolitan region;

The cultural, educational, business, and transport center of the Southeast; -The focal point of a national and emerging international city; and

A model in the field of improved human relations."

When the study was written, freeway (and tollway) mileage within the city was expected to be significantly more than it became. Among the abandoned highways were an I-85 separate from the Downtown Connector by the construction of a west-side freeway, construction of I-485 as an east-side parallel to the connector, extension of the Lakewood Freeway, and construction of the Stone Mountain Expressway and its symmetrical sister, the South Cobb Expressway to relieve I-75 northwest of the central business district. Fifty specific local surface street improvements were also recommended, at a cost of $69 million (of the total of $326 million in improvements recommended by the study.)

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