A proposed concrete and boardwalk path has stirred up controversy in a Decatur neighborhood, with some residents who live near South Peachtree Creek vehemently opposed while others eagerly await the day it will open.

Jessica McGowan/AJC/ (ENLARGE)

Maurice LeCroy (left in foreground) and Fern Garber walk along the proposed path of the South Peachtree Creek Multiuse Trail, which they oppose, calling an environmentally unsound plan.

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On one side is Kent Moore.

Tired of congestion and development, he moved to Decatur a couple of years ago after living in Midtown for 20 years. He found an acre that backs up to South Fork Peachtree Creek.

"This is such a nice wooded area," Moore, said recently, kneeling as he looked out over the creek. "This is what I found, and I love it."

But Moore's oasis will be crossed by a multiuse trail wending from Medlock Park to Mason Mill Park.

The PATH Foundation and DeKalb County are planning to begin the South Peachtree Creek Multiuse Trail possibly by the end of the month.

When Moore refused to sell two-tenths of an acre behind his house for the trail, the county condemned it.

"It is bad for the environment, bad historic preservation, bad for private property rights," Moore said.

Kathy Masterson, who walks to the park from the home she grew up in, has a different view. She grew up playing in the Mason Mill woods and still hikes there. She initially opposed the path, but she changed her mind after walking the proposed route with DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader. Masterson decided the path would serve a growing community.

"A lot of us have a small perspective," Masterson said. "I understand wanting to keep it natural, but we've gotten so global."

The trail has been planned since 1999, said Ed McBrayer, executive director of the PATH Foundation. It will allow more people access to the parks, he said, and will provide a safe link for pedestrians and cyclists who want to travel between Emory University and neighborhoods to the east.

PATH's history

PATH, founded in 1991, has created other trails, such as the Silver Comet Trail and the Arabia Mountain Trail.

Building the trails can be controversial. Some homeowners protest the loss of privacy and green space, but the paths are popular among walkers, joggers and cyclists.

Ed Carroll, who lives about a half-mile from the Decatur trail route, said it will bring health and recreational benefits to the community.

Carroll owns the Silver Comet Depot, a bicycle shop in Mableton.

"Yes, I have a commercial interest, but from a personal standpoint, trails are great things for the community," Carroll said. "People talk about the negative environmental impact, and they said that about the Silver Comet Trail. But we have seen tremendous growth around the trail. I don't see any negatives."

McBrayer said the South Peachtree Creek Multiuse Trail, at seventh-tenths of a mile long, will cost just under $1 million. DeKalb taxpayers will pay $600,000, with PATH paying the balance, he said.

Rader, the DeKalb commissioner who represents the district, said the project is unique.

"It is an attempt to accomplish a critical transportation need. It also provides a wonderful and unique access to the Mason Mill woods area using a very long boardwalk section."

'Final planning stages'

On a recent Saturday, Rader led Masterson and other residents on a hike along the proposed trail in an effort to gather input from the residents.

"We are in the final planning stages in order to try to make it the best project that it can be," Rader said.

Still, a group calling itself the Three Forks Heritage Alliance — which includes residents from Heritage Hills, Clairmont Heights and University Heights — said not enough has been done to get the community involved in the project.

Carrie Williams, a member of the group, said about 20 neighbors helped start the organization, which now has more than 100 people on an e-mail distribution list. She said they are seeking nonprofit status.

"It was clear that there was no community buy-in," Williams said. "There seems to be a large amount of community concern about this."

But Nancy Ciliax, president of the Clairmont Heights Civic Association and a member of a PATH oversight committee for the project, said there have been efforts to educate the public. A community meeting was held Jan. 10, she said.

"PATH has gone out of their way to address every concern, including those of Three Forks," Ciliax said. "We have many, many people in the neighborhood who want to see PATH go through."

Last week, as a drizzle fell, Williams, along with Fern Garber, Maurice LeCroy, Bill Gowen and Doug Denton, took their own walk along the proposed route.

"I have lived here for 20 years on the creek," Gowen said. "The first I heard about this was three months ago. I am opposed to this on every ground. It is a waste of money and an environmental disaster."

They point out hardwood trees they say will have to be taken out to construct the path.

"It is rare for any large urban area to have such a mature forest," said LeCroy, who has lived in the neighborhood for four years. "There are up to 1,000 trees that they could take out. There are more than 20 species of trees out here, some more than 100 years old."

Concern over trees

Rader said the county will require approval by PATH and its landscape designers for the removal of any hardwood trees over six inches in diameter or pines over 12 inches.

"I don't think that there's anyway to justify that statement about 1,000 trees," said Rader. "I would like someone to show me their math."

Carroll, the bike shop owner, is already making plans to use the trail.

"I would use that on my off days [from the Silver Comet]," he said. "My wife and I walk a lot and ride a lot. This will be very good."