Mountain Park regroups after lake trial verdict

By Ralph Ellis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mountain Park’s future has turned as cloudy as its lake waters.

Enlarge photo

Phil Skinner, AJC A pick-up truck lumbers up an old bridge in Mountain Park. The little north Fulton town spent a lot of money the past five years to sue subdivision developers accused of polluting the lakes with work site runoff.

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The little north Fulton town spent a lot of money the past five years to sue subdivision developers accused of polluting the lakes with work site runoff. Mountain Park emptied the reserve fund and raised taxes to pay the lawyer bill, expected to top $2 million.

But this week, the jury in U.S. District Court awarded the town only $45,000 in damages -- the town sought between $1.3 million and $3.8 million -- and said Mountain Park didn’t deserve to be reimbursed a penny for legal fees.

The jury's decision may inflame old antagonisms in Mountain Park, a wooded enclave that's home to 550 people. Some residents had urged city leaders to settle out of court, arguing the lawsuit could bankrupt the town.

Mayor Jim Still didn't address that possibility Thursday, but in a statement posted on the city web site said the City Council will have to decide what to do next. A town hall meeting will be called to review the verdict; a date has not yet been set.

“While we respect the jurors’ service and decision, I am disappointed with the jury’s overall verdict in the case,” Still said in an e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The jury's decision dumbfounded some residents, especially the finding that Mountain Park -- not the developers -- contributed about 80 percent of the silt in its lake.

“I feel pretty confident I know where the dirt came from,” said 16-year resident Steve Goldsmith, who said he saw mud running into the lake from work sites. “It certainly wasn’t 80 percent from us.”

Chris Post, a member of the jury, said the jury thought defense lawyers made a credible argument that Mountain Park had silt problems for decades. The lawyers presented decades-old letters from mayors and other officials seeking government help to clean out the silt.

“After failed attempts to seek financial assistance through voluntary channels, it seems [their] silt problem became a legal matter with their new neighbors,” Post said in an e-mail.

Post said the jury was skeptical of allegations by Mountain Park lawyers that the developers sent 40,000 cubic yards of silt and sediment into Lakes Garrett and Cherful.

“The jury thought if there was 40,000 cubic yards over a period of five years, it would have resembled something like the Cherful cove incident,” Post said, referring to a time when a retention pond break caused thick silt buildup in Lake Cherful.

In 2005, the town sued nine business entities that built subdivisions and renovated the Brookfield West Country Club in Roswell, saying silt runoff from construction sites discolored and ruined the lakes. A few companies settled out of court. The last defendants were Lakeside at Ansley subdivision and its parent company, Chatham Holdings Corp., and Peachtree Residential Properties Inc. and Day Investments II, which teamed to build Huntington Estates and Park subdivision.

Still noted the jury found two defendants violated parts of the Clean Water Act. It was unclear how that might benefit Mountain Park.

“We will wait upon the trial judge’s final decisions and then consider our next course of action at that time,” he said.

Goldsmith said Mountain Park is used to operating with few resources and little money.

"We need to make sure we've seen this all the way through," he said, "then we need to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off."