The newly formed Friends of Brook Run Park has gathered 667 names on a petition that asks the city to return to its original plans for an 8-foot-wide trail in Brook Run Park.
Former City Council member Danny Ross presented the petition to City Clerk Sue Lowery Monday morning.
Many of the people who have signed the petition live in Dunwoody and nearby areas such as Brookhaven, Sandy Springs and Chamblee, according to a list of ZIP codes of the signers.
City officials have said they plan to build a 12-foot-wide concrete path through Brook Run that they say will require the removal of more than 330 trees in its first phase. Opponents to the city’s plan have said they think it requires removal of too many mature trees and will create run-off problems when it rains.
“Mayor [Mike] Davis has stated that opposition to the city’s plans for the multi-use trail in Brook Run Park is coming from a “tiny minority” of people,” Jeff Coghill wrote in a weekend email to supporters. “We want to demonstrate that we are not a tiny minority and that opposition to the city’s current plan comes from numerous people from a cross section of the citizens of Dunwoody.”
Coghill and his wife, Carey, are handling communications for the new advocacy group.
On Feb. 4, after DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Tangela M. Barrie lifted a temporary order halting trail construction, Davis was asked if he considered hundreds of citizens a tiny minority. “I haven’t seen the numbers, so I can’t respond,” he said.
Members of Friends of Brook Run Park circulated the petition by “putting boots on the ground,” said Barbara Pryor, a member of the group.
Members collected signatures at the park and from friends and neighbors, including members of the Dunwoody Garden Club and Dunwoody Woman’s Club. The petition also is posted online at http://www.change.org/petitions/brook-run-park.
The Friends of Brook Run Park will continue to gather signatures on both the paper and online petitions. The group plans to present the updated petition to the City Council at its Feb. 11 meeting, Coghill said.
–Tom Oder