The Chastain Park Conservancy is a non-profit whose mission is to restore, enhance, maintain and preserve Chastain Park, with a goal of making the park safe, clean and green for all. The majority of the conservancy’s board and staff live in the Chastain Park neighborhood and serve or previously served on the Chastain Park Civic Association (CPCA) and NPU-A boards.

As the Reporter article of June 13 indicated, the conservancy, with the city of Atlanta, is undertaking the construction of a new tennis center coupled with additional community green-space at the corner of Powers Ferry and West Wieuca roads. This transformation is one of 37 enhancements in the Chastain Park Master Plan approved in March by the mayor and City Council after an 18-month public input, planning and development process.

The public input process began with an “unaided” survey of more than 1,100 people from December 2006 to March 2007. The responses came largely from neighborhoods surrounding Chastain Park, with 66 percent of respondents from 30342 and 30327, but included the broader input of stakeholders across the city. This provided an initial basis for developing alternatives in conjunction with monthly stakeholder meetings (CPCA, NYO, the Horse Park, Arts Center, Tennis Center, American Golf and city officials).

This was followed by six “open house” meetings that included 59 drawings of alternatives. The tennis center-neighborhood park concept drew an 88 percent positive rating among those who responded. The broad-based input did not identify a need for an additional tennis court, nor was this expressed by the Chastain Park Civic Association.

The master planning process culminated with the unanimous support of the Chastain Park Civic Association as well as strong support from Neighborhood Planning Units A and B, the Urban Design Commission, the mayor, and the City Council. This process also included presentations to all 25 neighborhood planning units across the city of Atlanta in addition to the monthly stakeholder meetings.

As outlined in the Master Plan, the conservancy formed a study group to help implement the tennis center concept based on the project scope defined in the Master Plan report, which is available at www.chastainparkconservancy.org. The input from several of the study group members indicated a desire for an additional tennis court. Given that an additional court was not part of the approved Master Plan, the conservancy is developing a process for validating this feedback with the broader community and gaining approval for this modification.

The conservancy is proceeding through the city of Atlanta approval processes for the tennis center project with a design that is consistent with the approved Master Plan and also allows space for an additional tennis court to be constructed pending approval.

J.P. Matzigkeit,

President

Justin Wiedeman,

Co-chair Master Plan Committee,

Chastain Park Conservancy