Hi, everyone! Recently I’ve had the pleasure of talking with a few former CPNO presidents and board members to learn more about their experiences during their tenure serving this
community. One of the things we discussed was something that I admit I’m less familiar with than I should be: the Candler Park Master Plan.
Originated in 2013, this document is a fascinating walk down memory lane of how things used to be and a vision of how things could be in the future in the Candler Park neighborhood. There’s a number of notable successes in there, a few “swing and a miss” ones that never came to fruition, and even a couple of ones that may have made sense at the time but now make one blink and say “hmmm, interesting.”
Foremost among the successes was the formation of the Candler Park Conservancy (CPC), the premise of which matches the current reality, given that Candler Park has and abundance of greenspace and an organization was “needed to enable these neighborhood assets to be better promoted, maintained and improved.” CPC now handles many of the improvements and activities in the park, including those mentioned on their project website
(https://candlerparkconservancy.org/projects) such as the pavilion and trails improvements, as well as the Candler Park movie night. CPC is still one of CPNO’s biggest non-profit partners, and we can’t wait to see what they do next.
Other successes took a little longer, such as the traffic calming measures along McLendon Ave. and the removal of the “suicide lane” on DeKalb Ave., but they did occur. Check out the artist rendering for the vision of DeKalb Ave.; it’s still an optimistic view of a yet-unrealized future.
On the “miss” side, the dog park is the most notable. Candler Park is an amazingly dog-friendly place (witness the Pet of the Month here), but that part of the plan still lies dormant.
I recently spoke with the president of the Edgewood neighborhood organization about how
they updated their Master Plan to align with the ideals and intent of their community as they are now in 2026. It was no small endeavor, but their result is also worth a read
https://www.edgewoodatl.org/neighborhoodplan.
We on the CPNO Board have discussed doing the same. I’d love your input on that, so please email me at president@candlerpark.org with your thoughts.
Take a look at our Master Plan here: https://candlerpark.org/cp-master-plan/.