Big Rock's New Plan Is About How You Get There

Big Rock sits in the southeast corner of Cherokee Park. It covers about 12 acres, and Beargrass Creek runs through it. The area forms the natural connection between Cherokee Park, Seneca Park and the Highlands. For anyone in Cherokee Gardens, it is the part of the park system you can reach by several routes: over the creek from Seneca, along the park roads, or from the parking lots on either side.

This winter the city is rewriting the plan for that corner. The plan's stated scope starts with traffic, safety and the connections between paths, bike routes and roads. At the same time, a separate $1.45 million project will close in the Gaulbert Pavilion. Both projects respond to the same fact. Big Rock gets more use than its roads, paths and one old pavilion were designed for.

A Park Plan With a Transportation Department at the Table

Mayor Craig Greenberg started the Big Rock Master Plan refresh at his September 10, 2026 press briefing. The city said the plan would review existing facilities and "public safety and traffic concerns," look for better connections for "pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles," and consider the ecological health of Beargrass Creek and the historic landscape around it.

The list of partners shows the plan's priorities. The project website names three: Louisville Parks and Recreation, Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the Louisville Department of Transportation. At the same briefing, Louisville Parks and Recreation Executive Director Michelle King described the plan in terms of how people move through the area:

"From how people walk, bike, and drive through the area to protecting its natural identity and historic character, there are many pieces to consider, and we want the people who use Big Rock to be part of that conversation."

The Highlands Douglass Neighborhood Association borders Big Rock directly and reaches Seneca Park through a newer bike and pedestrian connector. It reports that Metro Parks and Olmsted Parks Conservancy hired the design firm MKSK to produce the update. The association's Safe Routes to Parks page quotes the project's own aim: to examine "the suitability of existing facilities and connection between Seneca, Cherokee and neighborhood for bike, pedestrian and car."

The Same Question Came Up in 2000

Big Rock has been planned before. The Highlands Douglass association notes that the area has more than 125 years of history as a park. It says Big Rock was redesigned in the early 2000s, and that redesign added the parking lots on both sides.

The document behind that work, the Schematic Design for the Restoration and Renewal of Big Rock, dated December 2000, is posted again on the project's Documents & Resources page. It sits next to the Middle Fork Beargrass Creek Watershed Based Plan. According to the neighborhood association, the 2000 plan's main recommendation on walking and access concerned Park Boundary Road:

"Create a safe pedestrian access route along Park Boundary Road between Millvale Road and Valletta Lane. This route could be a raised and separated lane adjacent to the existing roadway or a trail at the base of the wall along the downhill side of Park Boundary Road, or perhaps both."

So the 2000 plan was already concerned with how people on foot get to Big Rock and how they share the roads with cars. Twenty-six years later, the refresh lists the same subject among its first concerns. This time the city's transportation department is formally one of the partners.

The way the project describes itself fits this. The project website says the refresh will combine "the original historic plan with the community's current needs and ideas." Cherokee Park itself dates to an 1891 design by Frederick Law Olmsted, and his firm worked on its development until 1935, according to the Olmsted Network. Olmsted told the park commissioners to work with local natural conditions and avoid unnecessary roads, walks, buildings and fences. A plan that has to add safe walking routes while respecting that advice will be limited in how much it can build.

Why the Gaulbert Pavilion Is Getting Walls

The pavilion is the clearest sign of how heavily the area is used. In its write-up on the Metro fiscal year 2026 budget, Olmsted Parks Conservancy said the pavilion "has been loved to death and is in desperate need of repair." It said the plaster was badly damaged and that the building's poor condition invited graffiti and vandalism.

The Conservancy's fix is to change how the building works. The interior will be enclosed so it can be rented and no longer left open to vandalism. A kitchenette and new bathrooms will be added, along with a storage room for the Olmsted Park Stewards volunteers. The Conservancy expects that storage room to bring more positive activity to the area. WHAS11 reported that the city's plans also include a warming kitchen and accessibility improvements around the space.

The pavilion has gone a long time without major work. According to the Conservancy, the last investment was $75,000 for a new roof and gutters in 2009. The current project costs $1.45 million, about 19 times that amount.

Olmsted Parks Conservancy President and CEO Mary Grisson explained the building's origins at the September briefing. "The Gaulbert Pavilion was given to the people of Louisville by the family of George Gaulbert to enhance the restorative experience of connecting with Beargrass Creek and the surrounding natural areas," she said, according to the city's release. Enclosing the pavilion keeps that original link to the creek. It also turns the building into a space people book ahead of time.

The pavilion is the second Big Rock project in recent years. In 2024 the Big Rock playground got poured-in-place rubber surfacing across its whole footprint. The old mix of rubber and mulch had made it hard to use a wheelchair or walker there. Olmsted Parks Conservancy described that work as the first phase of a broader restoration of Big Rock. The playground addressed access at one spot. The master plan is meant to address access across the whole 12 acres.

Where the Plan Stands This Winter

The city scheduled a public meeting on the Big Rock area for Thursday, November 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Douglass Community Center, and asked attendees to bring ideas for the refresh. That meeting is one step in a process the project's information sheet describes as a six-month planning and design effort running from summer 2026 through winter or spring 2027. The work happens in three phases:

1. Understanding Big Rock. Site visits and park walks, data collection, an inventory of existing conditions such as circulation, vegetation, water and park use, and community pop-ups.
2. Imagining What's Next. A summary of community input, more pop-ups, design concepts and a plan framework.
3. Building the Final Plan. One more round of pop-ups and community input, then a draft master plan and a final master plan.

When the process ends, Louisville Parks and Recreation will adopt the master plan document. Pop-ups are part of the final phase too, so neighbors will have more chances to comment before the draft is written.

The public survey is available in English and Spanish. The project site also has a "Share Your Ideas" page. The information sheet invites people to share their "BIG idea," what they love, what should be protected and what could be improved. The Documents & Resources page includes a section for community engagement summaries, which is where the project will post what people have said so far.

For a Cherokee Gardens household, the most useful input concerns the trip to Big Rock. That means where you park and how you get from the Seneca side to the creek. It also means whether walking along the park roads feels safe enough to bring a child or a dog. These are the questions the plan was set up to answer, and they are the ones a planning firm cannot answer from site visits alone.

The park's regular schedule continues while planning goes on. Olmsted Parks Conservancy will close Cherokee Park's Scenic Loop to cars on Sunday, November 29, and Sunday, December 27, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. On those two Sundays you can walk the roads to Big Rock without cars, while the plan for those roads is still being written.

If you live near Cherokee Park and want to know how plans like Big Rock's tend to change daily life on the streets around it, the Stough Barlow Team follows these projects from the first survey to the final plan and is glad to talk them through with you. Contact Us.