Stalled path has allies, foes

Residents seem to either love or hate the PATH Foundation’s latest work — a mile-long stretch of boardwalk and pavement that cuts through a forest between two county parks.

Fern Garber smiled last week when a judge shut down the project near Decatur and kicked PATH and its contractor, Lewallen Construction, off the site. But Katty Marks Crews was disappointed when she heard the news.

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Renee' Hannans Henry/rhannans@ajc.com

Katty Marks Crews walks the path with her dog, Rocky.

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Garber, whose home fronts the construction entry to the path, said it “has turned out to be at least as ugly, if not uglier, than I had feared.”

Crews, whose lives nearly two miles away and walks the path with her dog, sees something different.

“It definitely is an amenity,” she said. “The construction company has done a really good job.”

The battle over a multi-use trail has divided the community, and there is no end in sight. The county appealed the case to the Georgia Supreme Court, and a decision could take a year.

DeKalb County hired PATH, which has built a network of paved bike paths in and around Atlanta, to build the $1.7 million multi-use trail and link Medlock and Mason Mills parks. The foundation’s long-term plan is to connect neighborhoods in the area to Emory University, so people can bike or walk to work.

Joggers, walkers and families with baby strollers already are using the unfinished route — until they get to the gap in construction and have to turn around.

“I really can’t wait for them to finish the thing,” said Phil Parks, who lives a couple of miles away and drives here. He has a bum knee and likes the nearly flat slope.

Construction stalled because of the lawsuit brought by Garber and two others whose homes abut the trail. They led a group that complained the county and PATH were “clear-cutting” their forest and opening the woods to criminals.

Their lawyer, Brian Daughdrill, argued successfully that the path is illegal because it strays near a stream and because the county never competitively bid the contract. Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams issued a 30-day stop work order last week.

DeKalb might have avoided this outcome had it jumped through the proper hoops. Officials permitted the path as a road. The process for a road permit is less involved than the one for a multi-use trail, but roads can’t legally hug a stream the way trails can. Officials also failed to bid the project, and didn’t get commission approval though the contract is over $100,000.

Charlie Bleau, the president of the Clairmont Heights Civic Association, said he thinks the path is “a world-class facility.” He said all the nearly two dozen neighbors he’s talked to about it would like to see it finished.

Some previously opposed it, he said, but now like what they see. Others figure it would be a waste to leave it unfinished or to tear it out. “The thing they don’t like is how it was done,” he said, referring to the permitting and bidding processes.

But their attitude is pragmatic, he said. “If the county pays, then we pay.”