Sandy Springs cited for clear-cutting riverbank

At first it was going to be a dog park. On a prime piece of riverfront property, Sandy Springs decided to build a 5-acre park for dogs to romp without their leashes.

Once the wisteria and bamboo were cleared to reveal a stunning view of the Chattahoochee River, the city’s leaders decided the grandeur of the park was more on the human scale.

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Courtesy of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

The city of Sandy Springs received a warning from the state this week for cutting vegetation down to the edge of the Chattahoochee River for a new park.

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But the way Sandy Springs cleared the land that close to the river is illegal.

Now the dog owners are ticked, the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is outraged, and Sandy Springs has to restore at least some of the vegetation it removed.

In a letter sent to Sandy Springs last week, the state Environmental Protection Division issued a violation notice and demanded a plan to restore the buffer to prevent erosion along the riverbanks. The EPD said Sandy Springs had no right to clear the land without permission. No deadline was set for completing the restoration.

Sally Bethea, the Riverkeeper’s executive director, called it one of the worst buffer violations she had seen in the 15 years since her river advocacy group was formed.

Blake Dettwiler, the city’s assistant director of land development, said the revegetation plans would be presented to the public Monday night at a City Hall open house.

“Our goal was to remove invasive species,” said Dettwiler, who is one of the city’s contract employees through CH2M Hill OMI, a Colorado-based company that provides most of the city’s day-to-day operations. He said native trees, shrubs and grasses would be planted.

Dettwiler said the city believed it could remove bamboo and dead or damaged trees without special permission because the work was done by hand, and the law allows some thinning next to the river. He insisted no healthy trees were cut down along the riverfront, which is part of a greater 26-acre plan for Overlook Park.

Dan Brown, superintendant of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area, which surrounds the Sandy Springs park, said he asked city officials to consider the people who boat past the site.

“You look back and what you see is this naked gash through the vegetation,” Brown said. “A good view from one direction is not necessarily a good view in the other direction.”