Images: Chastain Park nears $13M goal for creek-side expansion

As its 80th birthday approaches, Atlanta’s second-largest city park is nearing its fundraising goal for ambitious plans to improve accessibility and functionality. 

Chastain Park—dedicated in September 1946 to Troy Chastain, the Fulton County commissioner who led development of the county park system and died a year earlier—covers 268 acres today. 

But not all of that land is public-accessible, or particularly useful. 

The nonprofit Chastain Park Conservancy is aiming to change that, beginning with a partially wooded, undulating section called the Palisades near the park’s south end, along the winding streambanks of Nancy Creek. 

Design plans from the late 1930s indicate H. Chandler Egan excluded between 30 and 40 acres of land south of the creek, possibly reserved for excess fill dirt during construction of North Fulton Golf Course. Expansion planners have recently described the Palisades section's current state as “an 80-year-old dumping ground situated within a significantly unhealthy and ecologically challenged upland forest,” where “countless mounds of imported fill, construction waste, and trash can be found.” 

The Conservancy’s plans call for regenerating and activating about 40 total acres around the Palisades along Lake Forrest Drive. 

Designs include three public greens totaling 3 acres with “breathtaking, never-before-seen views” from roughly 40 feet above the park’s public golf course, per project officials. Other additions are set to include a pedestrian bridge over the creek and a mile of soft nature trails linked to existing PATH Foundation trails around the park. 

“One particularly exciting aspect of this effort,” reads a project description, “is that the Palisades site… has been selected as the gateway that connects PATH400 to the Atlanta Beltline, which will further enhance connectivity and recreation opportunities for park patrons.” 

So far, the Conservancy has raised $12 million of its $13 million campaign goal to help fund the Palisades project. 

To get over the funding finish line, so to speak, the Conservancy plans to debut a gala “VIP philanthropy” event called The Gilded Trail on Aug. 8. 

That calls for a chef’s dinner at The Chastain restaurant from 5 to 8 p.m. (tickets from $2,000 for a table of four, with perks), followed by a Boots & Bubbles hoedown at the St. Regis Atlanta (tickets from $750 apiece) with live music, line dancing, and more.   

Rosa McHugh, Conservancy president and CEO, called the August fundraiser an opportunity to bring to life a park vision “centered around creating more spaces where people naturally want to spend time outdoors together.”

Designers and planners involved with Chastain Park’s Palisades project and other planned enhancements include Lord Aeck Sargent, Perez Planning + Design, Kimley Horn, and PROS Consulting. 

Find more context and imagery in the gallery above. 

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