ATLANTA — While the mighty Chattahoochee River flows around Atlanta, few people in the city rarely see it up close.
But Atlanta City Councilman Dustin Hillis, who represents District 9, said that will soon change thanks to $6.5 million in funding approved by the city council. The money will go toward a trail that will start at the Standing Peachtree Park and wind for a mile down to Marietta Road NW.
"Just because the City of Atlanta doesn't have a river running through downtown in the middle of it doesn't mean we can't take full advantage of the river," Hillis said. "This is going to do exactly that."
The Standing Peachtree trail will start a 48-mile Riverlands Camp and Paddle Trail that's expected to open by the fall. It's part of the Atlanta Riverlands Project, which will hook up to the Silver Comet Connector trail and allow people to go from Downtown Atlanta to the Chattahoochee River.
"This is a great place to get away, great place for education for our children so they can learn about nature, our river, and what it means for our city," Hillis said. "We're working with PATH, who's designing the trails, engineering our trails, getting contractors in to build our trails.”
These paths will form a 100-mile linear park known as the Chattahoochee Riverlands. It will link 19 cities across seven counties and serve about one million people, according to officials with Atlanta Parks and Recreation.
"This is not just to have parks and trails but to be able to get to them safely," Hillis said. "Mayor Andre Dickens and I both have a goal of getting this trail connection from downtown to the river completed by the World Cup in 2026, hopefully by the end of 2025, to give some buffer there."
This would only mark phase one of this particular project. There are environmental concerns, and the entire project is slated to take at least 20 years to complete. The project could cost more than $2 billion by some estimates, which is about as much as the reconstruction project at Georgia Highway 400 and I-285.
Last year, the Atlanta City Council gave Atlanta Parks and Recreation $500,000 to come up with a citywide trails master plan. The council hopes to have that plan and vote on it by the end of the year.