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TOM ODER
Larry Ruff, with Lewallen Construction Co., carries orange
construction fencing for installation in the forest in Brook Run Park.
City starts work on
controversial Brook Run trail
BY JOE EARLE AND TOM ODER
City officials began work on a con
troversial trail at Brook Run Park days
after a DeKalb County judge’s decision
to lift a court order halting construction
of the trail.
“It is moving forward,” city spokes
man Bob Mullen said.
Construction workers brought ma
chinery and orange construction fenc
es into the park to begin outlining the
area where the $425,000, 12-foot-wide
concrete trail is planned. The first phase
of construction of the trail, which will
create a .7-mile path, is expected to take
two to three months, Mullen said.
Both supporters and critics of the
city plan turned out for the Dunwoody
City Council meeting Feb. 11 to present
their arguments publicly. Opponents
of the plan presented to the city a peti
tion against the trail that they said bore
1,125 signatures.
“I’ve spoken to hundreds of people
about it and only eight people said, ‘We
want this trail,”’ trail critic Bobbi Sedam
told members of the council.
Sedam objected to the width of the
trail and the use of concrete, saying a
permeable surface should be considered.
“Concrete is a travesty,” she said.
But resident Travis Reid praised the
plan for the trail and other improve
ments to Brook Run Park.
“I look forward to these projects
coming forward that I might enjoy with
my wife and my sons,” Reid said.
Critics of the trail have complained
that its construction will require the re
moval of too many mature trees from
Brook Run Park and create flooding
problems in nearby neighborhoods.
The initial order halting construc
tion of the trail was issued Dec. 13, four
days before construction originally was
scheduled to start. On Feb. 4, DeKalb
Superior Court Judge Tangela M. Bar
rie lifted the order after a two-day court
hearing.
She told the about two dozen plain
tiffs in the lawsuit that their arguments
were not convincing, and that they
didn’t show the amount of damage that
would be done to their homes if the city
followed its plan for the trail.
The plaintiffs appealed Barrie’s deci
sion to the Georgia Supreme Court.
On Feb. 8, as part of an announce
ment that work would soon begin, city
officials reduced the estimate of the
number of trees to be felled for the proj
ect. The city said a pre-construction sur
vey of the site showed that 253 trees
— 84 fewer than originally projected —
would be cut to make way for the trail.
The city said the 102-acre Brook Run
Park contains an estimated 12,000 trees
and that no trees larger than 25 inches
in diameter will be removed for the trail.
Of the trees to be removed, the city
said, 35 are pines, 62 are hardwoods
with a diameter smaller than 6 inch
es, 111 are hardwoods with a diameter
of between 6 and 13 inches, and 45 are
hardwoods between 13 and 25 inches in
diameter.
But the reduction in the number of
trees to be removed did not seem to sat
isfy the trail’s critics.
Jeff Coghill, communications di
rector for the newly-formed Friends of
Brook Run, said the group’s members
were “saddened” by the city’s decision to
go ahead with the trail work.
“ITowever, we are not surprised
by their eagerness to begin construc
tion. Citizen opposition to their deep
ly flawed project has been growing dai
ly,” he said.
“They apparently want to get this
trail completed as soon as possible to
avoid any further criticism ... ,” he said.
“I think they believe that once the trail
is begun, citizen objections will fade
away.”
2 | FEB.22 —MARCH7,2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
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