Ask a handful of Mableton neighbors what's happening with "the river project" and you'll get renderings. Someone will pull up a photo of a plaza with kayaks and a boat ramp, maybe mention Senator Ossoff showing up for a groundbreaking a few years back. One part is already finished: a paved trail behind Discovery Park at the River Line that's been open to walk since December 2024.
For a closer look at what that open segment offers, start with the trail itself.
What's Underfoot Right Now
The trail in question is short. Roughly six-tenths of a mile, running along the Chattahoochee through Discovery Park, a 103-acre passive park that already carries more than a mile of river frontage and a stretch of Civil War-era earthworks listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's the pilot segment of the Chattahoochee RiverLands, the 100-mile trail vision that eventually aims to connect nearly 20 cities along the river from Buford Dam to Coweta County. Mableton was picked as the pilot site, and this piece of it has been walkable for almost two years.
It doesn't show up in press photos the way the next phase does, mostly because it's modest. No boat ramp, no plaza, no event lawn. Just river, trail, trees. Its modest scale contrasts with the larger plans for what's coming next door.
Why The Timeline Gets Confused
The confusion has a clear cause. The 12-acre RiverLands Gateway Park sits at the corner of Mableton Parkway and Discovery Boulevard, between I-285 and Six Flags Over Georgia, and it has generated headlines for years without opening. Ground broke back in 2023. The Trust for Public Land, which bought the site, officially handed the property over to Cobb County in the spring of 2025. State funding brought nearly $15 million in total investment to the RiverLands project, including a $3 million Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program grant specifically for this park. As of the most recent project updates, the site is still described only as expected to open sometime in 2026, with no firm date attached.
The Gateway Park project has reached several milestones (funding secured, land transferred, renderings released), but, as of this fall, it still hasn't opened. Meanwhile the smaller trail that already opened got a fraction of the attention.
Here's how the two pieces actually compare right now:
| Discovery Park Trail | RiverLands Gateway Park | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Open since December 2024 | Land transferred to Cobb County; expected 2026, no confirmed date |
| Length/size | About 0.6 miles | 12 acres |
| What's there | Paved path along the river | Planned: boat ramp, ADA kayak launch, restrooms, parking, picnic pavilion, event lawn |
| Access | Walk in from Discovery Park now | Still under construction |
The Boat Ramp Is The Real Headline
The reason the Gateway Park keeps making news before it exists comes down to one detail: the boat ramp. Right now, if you live in Mableton and want to put a kayak in the Chattahoochee, you can't do it from here. The nearest boat ramp is 13 miles away, according to the Trust for Public Land's own announcement when the project broke ground. That's not a rounding error. That's the entire South Cobb stretch of river currently locked out of direct public boat access, which is a strange gap for a city sitting right on the water.
Mayor Michael Owens has framed the project as a way to revitalize the Veterans Memorial Highway and Mableton Parkway corridors, and the ambition tracks. Once finished, the Gateway Park will anchor the southern end of a 2.7-mile greenway eventually linking Mableton to Riverview Landing in Smyrna, home to the Eddy apartments, Reformation Brewery, Grand Champion Barbecue and Chattahoochee Coffee Company. That connection between two river towns is planned, but it isn't built yet.
The Trails That Were Already Doing The Work
None of this means Mableton has been waiting around with nothing to walk. Heritage Park has quietly been the neighborhood's actual river-adjacent hiking spot for years. Its unpaved trail follows Nickajack Creek roughly four miles round trip, passing old mill ruins and a small waterfall before reaching the Concord Covered Bridge, and it connects directly into the Silver Comet Trail.
That connection matters more than it sounds. Cobb County's stretch of the Silver Comet runs 12.8 paved miles starting in Smyrna, and the Silver Comet Depot, the trail's information hub, sits right off Floyd Road in Mableton. Between Heritage Park's creekside path and the Silver Comet's paved miles, there's already a real network here, dog leashes and all, that doesn't depend on any grant timeline.
A Fall Weekend Built From What Actually Exists
If you're planning a Saturday around the river this season, here's what you can string together without waiting on anything:
- Start at Discovery Park and walk the open river trail segment. It's short enough to pair with something else.
- Head to Heritage Park for the longer Nickajack Creek walk out to the Concord Covered Bridge. Bring water if you're doing the full four miles.
- Finish or start at the Silver Comet Depot on Floyd Road, where the paved trail stretches west for miles if you want to keep going.
None of that requires a kayak, which is fine, because there's nowhere in Mableton to launch one yet anyway.
The Gateway Park will change that math when it opens. A boat ramp and kayak launch this close to home would be a genuine first for the area, not an upgrade to something that already existed. That's worth being excited about. It's just not a reason to skip the river this fall while you wait.
Mableton keeps getting treated like a city in progress, which it is. It secured Qualified City Status only last year and is still building out basic municipal functions. But the river access story here isn't only about what's coming. Part of it already opened quietly in December 2024, and most people who live two miles away from it don't know that yet.
If you're weighing what a stretch of river frontage means for property values in this corridor, or thinking about how projects like this tend to move the market in South Cobb, that's a longer conversation. AllenCo Homes tracks these shifts across Mableton and the river corridor as they happen, not just when the ribbon gets cut. Reach out anytime you want a read on how projects like these may shape the river corridor.
