An Atlanta teacher spent years warning students away from a locked 26-acre forest outside their school; community organizing has now secured $3 million to begin turning the hidden city land into a public park

Mount Gilead Lake in the Falling Water Park

An Atlanta teacher spent years warning students to stay away from a locked forest outside their school. Now, after years of community organising, the 26-acre Falling Water Park in southwest Atlanta is set to receive $3 million to help turn the inaccessible greenspace into a public park.Renette Scott, a teacher at Therrell High School, had spent years telling her students not to venture into the woods near the school. The area was closed to the public, and Scott did not know at the time that the city of Atlanta owned the land.The 26-acre forest, known as Falling Water Park, was bought by the city in 2004. It was classified as a “park-in-holding”, which meant the greenspace was protected but remained closed to the public.Scott later joined hands with community members, the nonprofit Park Pride and city officials to push for the development of the land. The effort eventually grew into a community group called Friends of Falling Water Park, which worked for years to bring the forest back into public use. “This is a jewel that we don’t know exists,” Scott said.

Years of community organising

The campaign involved meetings, surveys and other activities aimed at building support for the park project. Community members living near the property also became involved in efforts to develop the land.“We had meetings, we did surveys, we had all kinds of activities,” said Deborah Hall, a community organiser involved in the project who lives right outside the park.

The campaign involved meetings, surveys and other activities aimed at building support for the park project.

After years of advocacy, the city of Atlanta was awarded a $2 million state grant to help make the park accessible. The city has said the community’s advocacy helped secure the grant.Atlanta will also provide $1 million to match the state funding, taking the total amount available for the project to $3 million.The proposed development includes trails, a boardwalk for fishing and birdwatching, educational signs about wildlife and outdoor recreational areas.

Forest and lake could open to visitors

The planned park would include the wooded property as well as Mount Gilead Lake. Community members involved in the project see the area as a possible destination for birdwatching, fishing and other outdoor activities.Dexter Clemons, a member of Friends of Falling Water Park, said the property could offer several opportunities for visitors.“There are many species that we can put there,” Clemons said. “But to have a fishing area cove over the water where people can come and just relax, of course probably shaded overhead, the trails coming through, there’s just so much.”The plans would provide trails through the property and a boardwalk where visitors could fish and watch birds.The project is also expected to change how the land around the park is maintained. Hall said formal development could help remove overgrowth that is not natural to the area while keeping the landscape’s natural features.“If it’s more formalized, then some of the overgrowth that we see that’s not natural to the area will be removed so that we’ll have a beautification with what is naturally a part of Georgia,” she said.For Scott, the proposed park is part of a wider effort to address the needs of the surrounding community. She pointed to challenges involving the local economy, greenspace and housing.“This whole area is a desert. We’re in a desert economically, a desert with our green space, a desert with our housing. But I think the key to it is how we not only develop it but how we make it sustainable,” Scott said.