Chastain Park Is About to Get Bigger Without Adding an Acre

How much of Chastain Park can you actually walk into? The PATH loop, the playground, the tennis courts and Park Drive are all open to anyone. In the middle of the golf course, though, there is a stretch of woods and slope that almost nobody can get into. The Chastain Park Conservancy wants to open it next.

The Conservancy calls it the Palisades Project. It covers about 30 acres the Conservancy itself calls "underutilized natural landscape." The land is already part of the park. What it has lacked is a way in.

The Woods in the Middle of the Golf Course

Rough Draft Atlanta reported in June that the Palisades site is overgrown with invasive kudzu and ivy and is almost impossible to reach on foot. According to that report, the Conservancy first identified the land in the middle of the golf course as an opportunity in 2008. During COVID it worked with the city to open parts of the golf course as greenspace, but the arrangement fell apart because the course stays so busy with golfers.

The idea came back during the 2025 Chastain Park Comprehensive Plan Update, which the Atlanta City Council approved. The Conservancy says one request came up again and again during the public process: more passive greenspace, meaning places to walk and explore rather than more fields, courts or stages. The Palisades is that request built out.

Conservancy President and CEO Rosa McHugh described the goal to Rough Draft Atlanta this way:

"What we're trying to do is create a park within the park. That's our goal, to really have this be the heartbeat of the park, where you can just go and be and enjoy and be this place for mental health, where you're really in nature."

That is a different kind of park from the one most of Chastain's calendar uses. The concerts, the arts festival, the ballfields and the pool all draw crowds. The Palisades is planned for walking at your own pace.

What the Plan Puts There

Lord Aeck Sargent designed the project, and SG Contracting is set to build it. The Conservancy's July 14 announcement lists what visitors will find when it is finished:

1. A one-mile trail system through mature forest
2. A native tree arboretum of Georgia species
3. A natural play space built for open-ended outdoor play
4. An outdoor native plant garden
5. Overlooks with views across the golf course and the Nancy Creek valley
6. Habitat restoration along the creek corridor

Some of the planting is already in the ground. Rough Draft Atlanta reported that native flowers have started going in around the park's edges and that McHugh wants plants chosen for "color and interest," so the park looks different from season to season.

A one-mile trail is a big addition to a park where most walkers stick to the loop around the edge. It would put a long walking route through the middle of the property, away from the traffic on Powers Ferry Road and in the woods instead of beside the fairways.

The Road Is the Change Golfers Will Notice

The trails get the attention, but the access changes will matter more day to day for anyone who drives into the park.

Rough Draft Atlanta reported that the only road cars can use to reach the lower half of the park runs through Chastain Park Golf Course, which it calls one of the busiest public courses in Atlanta. The plan moves that road and turns the old asphalt back into fairway.

The Conservancy says the project includes a new 153-foot pedestrian bridge over Nancy Creek leading into the Palisades. It also includes a new entrance drive and parking area serving the Conservancy offices, Farm Chastain and the new trails.

Once the road moves, cars headed to the lower park no longer cross the golf course, and the fairway gets back the strip the asphalt now covers. For people on foot, the bridge opens a way across the creek into land they have never been able to reach.

Farm Chastain, which the new drive will serve, has its own role. A Northside Neighbor report quotes the Conservancy describing the farm's goal as a "teaching garden," with educational programs, benefits for biodiversity, and produce for local food banks. The farm also hosts Conservancy events. This year's Dine Chastain fundraising dinner was held there on October 8. A new drive and parking area would make the farm much easier to reach.

The Start Date Depends on the Last Dollars

The official timeline has been firm in some places and loose in others, and it's worth reading closely. Here is how the three public sources lined up over the summer and early fall:

As of the September report, the start still depended on the last of the money. The Conservancy's August 8 gala, The Gilded Trail, was the event Rough Draft Atlanta said could finish the Palisades campaign. The gala's site says its proceeds support the Conservancy's capital campaign.

Taken together, the published estimates put the opening anywhere from late 2027 into the first half of 2028, depending on the actual start date and which build estimate holds. The Conservancy's own words in July were that it looked forward to "breaking ground this fall." The Conservancy's events page is the place to watch for a groundbreaking date or any notices about work zones.

This Weekend, the Park as It Stands

While the plan for the middle of the park moves forward, the familiar side of Chastain has a full calendar of its own.

The Chastain Park Fall Arts Festival returns for its 17th year this Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, along Park Drive. It brings about 175 artists, and the organizer says up to 185 painters, photographers, sculptors, glass blowers, jewelers and other craftspeople. Here is what to know before you go:

• Hours: The organizer lists Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Discover Atlanta lists 11 a.m. on both days, so a Saturday-morning visit may start an hour later than planned.
• Location: The festival uses 4469 Stella Drive as its map locator for the park. It is not a mailing address.
• Cost: Free. The festival includes a children's area, gourmet food trucks and local acoustic musicians.
• Who runs it: The Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces organizes it with volunteer artists. The festival benefits a scholarship fund for local artists administered by the Georgia Foundation for Public Spaces.

The spring edition is already set for May 8 and 9, 2027. By then, if the November start holds, the Palisades would be about six months into construction.

After Glow Chastain on October 30, the next family event on the Conservancy's calendar is Holiday Chastain on Saturday, December 5, at the Chastain Park Playground. It is free and includes hot chocolate, cookie decorating and activities for kids.

Both events use parts of the park people already know, Park Drive and the playground. The Palisades work is planned for the land between them that has been part of the park all along without being open to anyone. Once the trail, bridge and new entrance drive are finished, families coming to future festivals and holiday events will have a mile of woods and a creek crossing to walk.

If you own near Chastain, the park is part of what your home is worth, and big changes like this deserve a careful look when you plan a sale or a renovation. Neumann & Co follows Conservancy projects like the Palisades along with the sales on nearby streets. If you'd like to know how your home sits in today's market, Get Your Home Valuation and we'll walk through it with you.