Cumberland CID Plans To Rehab $5 Million ‘Urban Gateway Park’

The parking surface has deteriorated; it’s difficult to walk and drive through. The restrooms need repairs; drainage issues “plague the facility” and “the overall look of the facility has deteriorated.”

Cobb County business leaders are looking to spend $5 million to improve what they call the Urban Gateway Park.

“Part of the effort of the Cumberland CID [Community Improvement District] is to create a very strong and usable greenway and urban trail system that connects seamlessly,” Malaika Rivers, executive director of the Cumberland Community Improvement District, said. “People that live, work and come to recreate here will be able to access both greenway and urban trails.”

Rivers said, working with the National Park Service, one goal of the project is to improve the park’s connection to the Bob Callan Trail.

The southern section of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation area hasn’t had a major update since the 1970s.

“What this project will do is provide a more functional look and feel to it,” Rivers said. “We’re looking at giving it an aesthetic upgrade as well as a functional upgrade as well as asking the firm that we engage to work on this project to understand it to be a gateway to an urban area and urban park and to provide good recommendations on how to utilize it as such and make it stand out to be the shining jewel that it really is.” 

Rivers said the exact function of the area will be up to the design team they are looking to hire.  

The upgrades are projected to cost about $5 million and could start in about four years.

The project are is 2 miles south of the new Atlanta Braves Stadium, SunTrust Park.