Legislature gives Dunwoody control of county-owned parks

By Ralph Ellis and Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dunwoody residents broke away from DeKalb County by forming a city in December 2008.

The divorce wasn't painless. Dunwoody residents complained because the 102-acre Brook Run Park and other recreation facilities inside the city limits remained under DeKalb County control.

That changed this week. The General Assembly approved a bill allowing Dunwoody to take over the parks by paying DeKalb $100 per acre. The deal is similar to what Sandy Springs and other new cities in North Fulton paid Fulton County. DeKalb has about 165 acres of park space in Dunwoody.

DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader said he expects the county to sue.

“There is a provision for the thing to be referred to a court and I think there is a pretty good chance that will happen,” he said Friday.

Earlier in the week, Rader complained DeKalb was getting a bad deal.

“We have about $13 million sunk in the park already,” Rader said. “We bought the land from the state and spent quite a bit of county money taking down obsolete buildings and all that entails. We have operated the park without any compensation whatsoever from Dunwoody."

Dunwoody City Council member Tom Taylor said DeKalb hasn't done a good job of keeping up the parks. "They're being maintained, but at a minimum level," he said.

Language was added to the bill to allow the DeKalb Development Authority to issue bonds for private construction projects without a voter referendum. That could result in DeKalb receiving millions in federal stimulus funds.

Bill sponsor Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Atlanta) introduced that part of the bill because of a 2009 Georgia Supreme Court ruling that said a referendum was required for all construction, whether public or private, receiving bond financing through the DeKalb authority.

"The law will be parsed back to make certain the referendum requirement only applies to public facilities projects," Jacobs said.

The bill, which now awaits Gov. Sonny Perdue’s signature, also gives Dunwoody $7 million in county bond proceeds earmarked for Brook Run improvements.

Taylor said the city will survey residents. The other parks in the city limits include the Dunwoody Nature Center, senior baseball fields, Winwood Hollow Park and the historic Donaldson-Chestnut House.

“We’ve got to figure out what the community wants,” he said.

The bill passed the Senate 40-6 and the House 109-45 on Wednesday.

The bill would also allow Dunwoody to pay $5,000 each for three county fire stations. The city contracts with DeKalb County for fire service at this time but might form its own fire department in the future, Taylor said.