Park brings Sandy Springs together

Infrastructure is a catch-all word in government circles that can mean anything from roads to water lines to other building blocks of communities.

In Sandy Springs, it also means playground equipment shaped like a spider web, swings with a stunning view of the Chattahoochee River and a stacked stone chimney that pre-dates the Civil War.

All are of part of Overlook Park, 27 acres of green space at the end of Morgan Falls Road that is more than the city’s first major park. It also has become a people-magnet in a city with no downtown or other traditional public gathering point.

“We’d usually have to go to Roswell for something like this,” said Ray Moss, a retired sales manager who took his grandsons, ages 9 and 10, to the park during a recent visit from Jacksonville. “The park is now a destination place for Sandy Springs.”

City leaders were so proud of the $3.4 million site and its vista that they moved up the annual celebration of incorporation – usually held in the winter – to coincide with the park’s opening on July 28.

Several hundred people turned out. And many of them have since gone back.

Catherine Fuss – who takes her youngest children to the park when son Will, 9, is at football practice – said she’s been at least four times in two weeks.

“I think greenspace and parks, creating space for everyone, is money well spent,” said Fuss, whose daughter Virginia, 7, and son Robert, 5, are smitten with the jungle gym. “I see teens hanging out, parents playing on the equipment. It appeals to a broad range of people.”

Sandy Springs became a city five years ago, largely over anger that Fulton County had neglected traditional infrastructure in the area.

The city has since paved more than 81 miles of road in its borders. The $19 million price tag also included putting in sidewalks on all main roads and around schools.

It still spends millions on its paving and sidewalk programs. And parks have long been on its to-do list: the city bought the Morgan Falls land in 2005, with help from the Sandy Springs Society, planning to turn it into a dog park.

But the park became a new priority last year, after removing overgrowth of wisteria and bamboo revealed that great view.

The state cited the city for illegally clearing the vegetation, but by then, leaders had developed a $1.8 million plan -- all funded from city taxes -- to create a massive passive recreation area that also restored the buffer with new trees and native plants.

That vision included trails along the river bluffs, a 300-person pavilion and highlighting the 170-year-old stone chimney, the last standing part of a home belonging to the settler Powers family.

“You feel like you’re somewhere up in the North Georgia mountains,” said Mayor Eva Galambos. “It was just too good to wait. We wanted a showcase for the city.”

Tracie Bernstein was so eager to see it for herself that she brought her 8-year-old twins Beck and Caroline and 6-year-old daughter, Natalie, to the park a week early.

There was a gate across the entrance, so they turned around. But the kids were just as unwilling to leave as they had been to get there when the family finally got in as part of the grand opening.

“I could barely pull them off the playground,” Bernstein said. “That is a wonderful feeling.”

With a clear victory in their pocket, city leaders are already talking about additional park projects.

Overlook Park, for instance, has a dock that juts into the river for canoeists and kayakers. But the city owns 10 acres just below the Morgan Falls dam that it may develop into a launching point for rented watercraft or tubing.

The city also plans to spend $1.3 million to add a veranda and spiff up the Bluestone building at the 4-acre Heritage Green Park on Sandy Springs Circle.

The park, just north of I-285 and two blocks off Roswell Road, has been the city’s main gathering spot by hosting free concerts and the annual Sandy Springs Festival.