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COMMUNITY
Attorney Jenny Culler, who repre
sents 25 plaintiffs in the case against the
city, said immediately after the ruling
that she felt confident that the plaintiffs
would continue with their legal action.
If the legal action does continue, Culler
said she has asked for a jury trial.
“We will have to work efficiently
with the lawsuit,” Barrie told both par
ties. The issue becomes timing, she said,
and the city’s construction schedule. The
city is facing a December deadline on
the trail, due to a grant the city has re
ceived to build the path.
Barrie also put the city on notice that
if it does begin building the trail it should
be mindful of requests the plaintiffs have
made. She specifically mentioned the in
stallation of a storm water storage system.
She also pointed out that the city could
be at risk if it begins construction and the
plaintiffs win the lawsuit.
“The court wants this on a fast track,
and the judge is leaving open the possibil
ity the plaintiffs will prevail,” Culler said.
Barrie said the burden of proof in the
hearings on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 fell on
the plaintiffs to show that building the
12-foot concrete trail would cause irrep
arable damage to the homes of the plain
tiffs, all of whom live in the Lakeview
Oaks subdivision that abuts the western
edge of Brook Run Park.
She said that even though they had
done a hydrology study, they failed to
meet the high legal burden of an in
junction because they did not do a flood
analysis study that would show what
damage might happen to the homes of
the plaintiffs if the city builds the trail
according to its current plans.
The plaintiffs say that it’s the city’s re
sponsibility to do the flood analysis.
The judge said the hearing also came
down to a battle of hydrology experts.
Every time the plaintiffs made an effec
tive argument, the city came back with
an equally effective argument, she said.
In the end, she added, “it became a
tilting scale.”
The plaintiffs’ arguments were not
convincing, Barrie said. The city had
voted to do the project, and therefore
she said, she was denying the plaintiffs’
motion for an injunction to stop the
trail in its tracks.
“We have options,” said Beverly Ar-
mento, one of the original plaintiffs in the
lawsuit. “Water is not the only issue.”
Other concerns about the trail cited
by opponents of the city’s plan include:
— In a survey leading up to the
city’s master plan, 80 percent of the re
spondents asked for a walking trail, not
a multi-use trail.
—The trail plan originally ap
proved by City Council was an 8-foot-
wide trail.
—The original plan called for
the trail to be 1.2 miles long and cost
$132,000. With a $100,000 grant, the
final cost to the city was $32,000.
—The new plans call for a trail
.7 miles long in Phase 1 that will cost
$420,000.
—The city has not yet conduct
ed an impact study on Phase 2 of the
project or set a completion date.
“The ideal outcome would be to go
back to the original plan for a previous
path that would require very little tree
removal,” Ross said.
The original plan is also less costly to
the city, he said.
“Our view is that we have 47,000 resi
dents we have to concern ourselves with,”
Dunwoody Mayor Mike Davis said. “We
understand the view of the plaintiffs, but
we need to make our park available to our
entire cast of citizens — the handicapped
and moms with strollers.”
The city plans will actually reduce wa
ter going into the Lakeview Oaks sub
division where the plaintiffs live, Davis
contended. “We’re actually doing them
a favor,” he said.
New board
members appointed
City Council on Jan. 28 named
new members to several city boards.
The council appointed Sam Verniero
and Debbie Montgomery to three-year
terms on the Community Council; Jim
Gaddis and Robert Miller to four-year
terms on the city Development Authori
ty; and reappointed Bill McCahan, Kris
tin Wescott and Gerri Penn to four-year
terms on the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Counting birds
The Dunwoody Nature Center will
take part in the national Great Backyard
Bird Count on Feb. 16 and 18. On Feb.
16, the center will offer free, short semi
nars for people interested in taking part
in the count and then turn the counters
loose on the center’s 22 acres. Classes are
offered at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Similar
classes and bird counting opportunities
BRIEFS
will be offered on Feb. 18. Those class
es are scheduled for 10 a.m., noon and
2 p.m. The Great Backyard Bird Count
is a annual program intended to create
a snapshot of how many birds there are
and where they are.
CVB produces new
promotional video
The Convention and Visitors Bureau
of Dunwoody has created the city’s first
tourism promotional video. According
to the CVB, the video is intended to in
troduce Dunwoody to potential visitors,
businesses, and residents by providing a
glimpse into a typical Dunwoody day.
To see the video, go to www.Report-
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