Dunwoody spends $5 million for more parkland

By Joel Anderson and April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dunwoody officials are continuing their push to turn their parks and green space plan into a reality, announcing on Thursday a $5 million purchase of a 16-acre piece of property in the southeast part of town.

The property is located at 4000 Dunwoody Park in the city's high-priority Georgetown area, bounded on the west by Chamblee Dunwoody Road and on the east by North Shallowford Road. City officials will purchase the land from Wells Fargo Bank and plan to close on the property sometime near the end of April.

Following the announcement of the acquisition, Dunwoody officials were nearly unanimous in their approval of the move.

"If you're looking for controversy, this isn't the issue," council member Robert Wittenstein said. "This is a big deal for us. We've been needing this."

Since incorporation a couple years ago, city officials have painstakingly put together a comprehensive plan for parks, complete with artist renderings, spending projections and even ideas for where to place water fountains and parking spaces.

But to make it happen, Dunwoody needs both money and land.

They got a little closer to securing both this week, following the deal for the 16-acre property and the passage of a bill in the state House of Representatives on Thursday that would let the city issue bonds or create tax allocation districts.

If the bill from state Rep. Tom Taylor, a former Dunwoody city councilman, makes it past the state Senate and the governor, the bond would go before voters in November to see if residents would agree to take on debt.

"I think we're going to get almost universal public support," City Manager Warren Hutmacher said. "The demand for additional parks, especially one this size, is significant."

City officials have consistently pointed to surveys showing residents have been clamoring for more parks, noting Dunwoody is well below the national average in greenspace per 1,000 residents. According to the city's numbers, Dunwoody provides about 3.23 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents while the National Recreation and Parks Association recommends at least 6.25 acres.

Dunwoody took control of 165 acres of parks from DeKalb County last June, paying just $100 per acre as required by state law.

But it's unclear how much more money Dunwoody would need to make its comprehensive parks plan happen. Dunwoody is currently suing DeKalb, claiming the county owes it more than $7 million for Brook Run Park alone. That’s the amount left of the $11.5 million county voters approved be put into the 104-acre park in a 2005 referendum.

For now, Dunwoody used funds from its reserves to purchase the 16-acre tract in Georgetown-North Shallowford.

Wittenstein called the $5 million purchase a great deal, noting the cost was about $11 million when the city inquired about the property two years ago.

"That's part of the reason we had to do it now," he said. "That's much lower than it has been or will be again."

City officials also said the purchase prevented another owner coming in and using the land to build more apartments.

"In our opinion that was not the right thing to do with the property," Hutmacher said. "That's what it was being marketed for. But we've already got our fair share of apartments."