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Blank Family donation to help link Atlanta to Chattahoochee River Josh Green Thu, 10/17/2024 - 13:58 A donation from Atlanta Falcons and United owner Arthur Blank’s foundation will help bring to fruition better access points to what’s generally considered an underappreciated resource: the Chattahoochee River.

Trust for Public Land officials announced this week the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has contributed $2.5 million to the ambitious Chattahoochee RiverLands project, a planned 100-mile linear park that would link 20 cities and seven counties along the river through metro Atlanta.

The Blank foundation’s contribution brings fundraising tallies for the RiverLands initiative to north of $49 million—with more than $22 million of that sourced from private donations, and the rest from public funding coffers.

According to TPL officials, the RiverLands recreation destination—billed as “metro Atlanta’s ultimate outdoor experience”—will eventually stretch 100 miles from Buford Dam down to Chattahoochee Bend State Park in Newnan.

In between will be trails, parks, and amenities that connect nearly 1 million residents nearby to outdoor options such as kayaking, hiking, cycling, swimming, and camping, according to TPL.

But first things first.

The initial RiverLands projects, both under construction now, will serve as smaller-scale examples of how the broader riverside concept could look and function.

Blank’s contribution is “essential” to closing out needed funding for one of those projects, the Camp + Paddle Trail, George Dusenbury, TPL’s Georgia state director, tells Urbanize Atlanta.

The Camp + Paddle Trail, which broke ground in November, will span 48 miles and provide visitors a three-night, four-day itinerary for exploring the river with three campsites, restrooms, pavilions, and other amenities included. It will start at Peachtree Creek in north Atlanta and wiggle down to a 1,400-acre greenspace called McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County, marking the southern end of the RiverLands.

The trail will also include a kayak launch at Atlanta’s Standing Peachtree Greenspace, a historical site in Buckhead.

Scope of the five sites considered destinations along the Camp+Paddle Trail between North Atlanta (top) and Carroll County. Courtesy of TPL

Dusenbery said construction on the Camp + Paddle Trail and its amenities is scheduled to finish in the next few months, and that planning for ribbon-cuttings is underway.

The second initial project has its purpose baked into its name.

The Cobb County Showcase site—a 2.7-mile greenway and trail—will connect Mableton up to Smyrna along the Chattahoochee’s banks.

Dusenbery predicts the showcase project will demonstrate the RiverLands’ functionality and impact in a way that’s similar to how Ponce City Market and Historic Fourth Ward Park showed Atlantans what’s possible with Beltline redevelopment.

Future plans for RiverLands Gateway Park in Cobb County. Courtesy of Trust for Public Land

Highlights will include a new 12-acre greenspace—RiverLands Gateway Park in Mableton, a former industrial site near Six Flags Over Georgia—along with three river access points, ecological restoration, and improved amenities at two existing parks, among other upgrades.

RiverLands Gateway Park will also connect to the Mableton Parkway Trail, providing a vital trail link between the Chattahoochee RiverLands project and Silver Comet Trail.

Planned phasing for the Chattahoochee RiverLands showcase project in Cobb County. Trust for Public Land

Dusenbery told Urbanize the Cobb County Showcase project is expected to finish sometime in 2026. But a TPL ribbon-cutting for the first section of finished trail could come in December alongside Cobb County officials, Dusenbery said.

In the donation announcement, Fay Twersky, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation president, said access to the Chattahoochee River “will bring metro Atlanta another connection to the outdoors, which is vitally important to our community’s overall well-being.”

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