Simpsonwood Park is a nature lover’s dream.
It sits on 227 virtually untouched acres, a mere 45-minute drive from the heart of metro Atlanta. Frequent visitors describe it as a mini-Appalachian Trail, right in Atlanta’s backyard.
But the park’s neighbors in Peachtree Corners are afraid much of that is about to change.
Gwinnett County purchased the property from the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2014 and plans to increase access to the park. A citizen steering committee that's looking into ways to make the property more appealing to families will submit a plan recommending a 1.5-mile-long multipurpose asphalt trail (similar to the Beltline) and a 35,000-square-foot learning playground.
That’s the last thing the area needs, said local conservationists.
“We have quite a few concrete parks. We have quite a few playgrounds. We have quite a few river access points. We have quite a few mixed-use trails,” said Chris Adams, a local environmentalist.
She, along with members of the group Save Simpsonwood, would rather see the park remain as natural as possible.
“We’re glad it’s not turning into a development, but that doesn’t mean we want a standard Gwinnett County Park,” said resident Theresa Frayer.
Frayer and nearly 40 other group members marched in a picket line outside the steering committee’s meeting last week. Changes to the park, they said, will bring unwanted noise, trash and crowds to the quiet dirt paths they love.
“A lot of the people out on the street and sitting in the back of the room know Simpsonwood 10 times better than some of the people sitting in the front of the room making the decisions,” said Preston Chappell, who is at the front of the room with his fellow steering committee members.
An avid naturalist, Chappell visits Simpsonwood almost every day. He’s documented more than 500 different species of plants, animals and insects in the park, and writes about them in an email newsletter to other park-goers.
He’s very conscious of conserving the park’s natural state, but said he can live with minimal development.
That’s exactly what the steering committee is recommending, said Grant Guess, who oversees the 28-member board for Gwinnett County’s Parks and Recreation Department.
“I think the environmental concerns are completely overblown,” he said. “We’re impacting a small percentage of the park, and it was purchased to be an open-space park.”
The changes to the park are intended to allow more people to enjoy it, especially bikers, roller bladers and families with strollers. The multi-use trail also will benefit visitors with disabilities.
The public will have a chance to comment on the plan at a meeting at the Simpsonwood United Methodist Church on June 30. Feedback from attendees will be taken into consideration before the plan is officially handed off to the parks department.
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