Cook Park

In 2002, a torrential flood descended on Atlanta's historic Vine City and English Avenue communities. In its aftermath, 160 families lost their homes. While the City worked to relocate those impacted by the flood, the land where they once lived lay vacant. Flooding has continued to plague the communities, which also suffer from polluted runoff and sewer overflows.

Beginning in 2015, The Trust for Public Land began working with the City of Atlanta to build the new 16-acre Cook Park on the site where those homes once stood. The park will feature a playground, splashpad, great lawn, and public performance space. The park also will highlight the many contributions of community residents to the national civil rights movement; wth Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the movement once lived just blocks away.

Beginning in 2015, The Trust for Public Land began working with the City of Atlanta to build the new 16-acre Cook Park. A focal point of the park will be a 1.5-acre pond that, in combination with other sustainable features of the park, has the capacity to store up to 10 million gallons of stormwater during a 100-year storm event. Not only will Cook Park help revitalize a community suffering from population loss and divestment, it will eliminate flooding in 150 acres of residential neighborhood surrounding the park and reduce flooding further downstream.

The Atlanta-based National Monuments Foundation plans to honor the neighborhood’s Civil Rights Movement legacy by including statues and monuments that recognize Civil Rights leaders and influential individuals who lived or worked in Vine City. NMF is responsible for fundraising, building and maintaining these elements in the park.

Construction of the park began in late 2017, and we expect it to be open to the public in early 2019.