The Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods invited guest speakers to discuss plans for parks, greenspace, trails, and paths in the city during its annual meeting on April 18.
The council was first updated on some news: Colonial Pipeline has begun removing the structures used for its pipeline project under the Chattahoochee River.
“They’re starting to disassemble the trestle bridge and pull out so you will see a lot of trucks in the near future, but then they’ll be finished,” Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area Superintendent Ann Honious told the group at its annual meeting.
Honious was one of the speakers invited to speak about greenspace in the city.
The park has 48 miles of river from the first of its 15 land units at Buford Dam down to Peachtree Creek. Sandy Springs has 854 acres within its city limits of the 7,000 total acres of the park
Ronda Smith, president of the Council of Neighborhoods, said that the group supported parks and greenspaces as they help protect neighborhoods and provide quality of life for residents. That led to the choice of speakers for the group’s annual meeting.
Recreation and Parks Director Brent Walker and Parks Assistant Director Steve Ciaccio updated the group on the city’s projects.
Walker said the Abernathy Greenway South trail, Old Riverside Park, and phase III of the Morgan Falls Athletic Complex improvements are in design. The Morgan Falls Dog Park grading plan has been created to fix drainage problems. Dog park improvements are being planned and public input is being sought.
“Old Riverside is right up against the Chattahoochee River to south of Johnson Ferry Road, not far from the Old Riverside and Riverside Drive intersections. And we’d like to see limited parking. It’s going to be a passive park,” Ciaccio said.
He said they hope to have designs for Old Riverside Park done by the end of the year. Being next to the Chattahoochee River makes the permitting take longer.
Jack Misiura of the Sandy Springs Conservancy said the group’s mission is to “build partnerships that create, conserve and connect parks and green space in Sandy Springs.”
The conservancy championed the Sandy Springs Trail Master Plan and paid for half of the cost to develop it. After its adoption in 2019, they wanted to build a model mile of trail to draw support. The city chose the Morgan Falls Loop Trail which was 5.7 miles long instead. The first phase is under construction and on its way to completion.
Misiura said the conservancy pledged to provide matching funds for a $3 million Outdoor Stewardship Program grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for the trail.
The Path 400 trail section that Sandy Springs will build should start construction this year. Allen Johnson, the city of Sandy Springs TSPLOST program manager, said the city doesn’t have the $37 million needed, so they will use the $20 million available to build a section from the city limits with Atlanta up to Windsor Parkway. Another section will start from the path that the Georgia Department of Transportation is constructing as part of the Transform GA 400/I-285 project. It will extend down to just behind Ridgeview Middle School, he said.
The GDOT section will connect to a Peachtree Dunwoody side path, which will connect to the Mount Vernon corridor side path and it ties into the Johnson Ferry-Mount Vernon Path.
“Hopefully, in the next two to three years, you can go from Ridgeview to City Hall,” Johnson said.
Brittany Jones is the executive director of the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy, the official nonprofit friends group for the Chattahoochee National River Recreation Area.
“Our mission really is just to support them and address critical needs and something that we just like to bring awareness to is that this park is grossly underfunded,” she said.
The conservancy raises funds and builds community engagement in support of the park, she said. They get volunteers to work on trail upgrades and infrastructure repairs, such as bridges, overlooks and boardwalks. Just shy of 5,000 volunteer hours were performed on the trails.