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Community | 7
DECEMBER 14-31,2018 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Dunwoody marks a decade of cityhood
Above right, Mayor Denis Shortal and Bev Wingate, who both
worked to create Dunwoody 10 years ago, cut a birthday cake at a
small ceremony Dec. 10 at City Hall. (City of Dunwoody)
Top left, state Sen. Fran Millar. Bottom left, Ken Wright,
Dunwoody’s first mayor. (Special)
BYDYANABAGBY
dyanabagby@reportemewspapers.net
At midnight on April 1, 2009, dozens
of people gathered in the parking lot at 41
Perimeter Center East to witness officers
with the Dunwoody Police Department
drive out on their first patrols of the newly
formed city. Blue lights flashed and sirens
wailed as the local residents cheered.
“I’ll never forget it,” Ken Wright said of
that night. “The sights and sounds and ex
citement were incredible.”
Wright stood with the crowd that night
as Dunwoody’s founding mayor. Just four
months prior, on Dec. 1, 2008, nearly 82
percent of voters went to the polls and vot
ed “yes” to create their own city. Wright
and a team of volunteers and other council
members quickly took on the job of form
ing a city from scratch, from hiring a po
lice chief and police officers to awarding
bids for management services to signing
the lease for City Hall.
“I’m proud of the foundation we poured
for Dunwoody and future leaders,” Wright
said. “There were a lot of tough decisions,
tough conversations, as we tried to make
the right decisions on behalf of our com
munity.”
Dunwoody’s path to cityhood and creat
ing a new government was not an easy one.
State lawmakers and DeKalb County offi
cials at the time, led by the controversial
and colorful CEO Vernon Jones, success
fully fought off the cityhood efforts by Citi
zens for Dunwoody and Yes Dunwoody or
ganizations for three years.
Opponents to Dunwoody argued the
maj ority black DeKalb County would lose a
sizable chunk of its tax base if the wealthy,
mostly white community of some 35,000
people in north DeKalb broke off to form
its own city and government. The loss in
tax dollars would result in reduced servic
es for the more than 700,000 county resi
dents, they argued.
Cityhood proponents claimed their
tax dollars were being wasted by a coun
ty government mired in controversy and
scandal, including the CEO being accused
of illegally using campaign funds in 2005
to promote passage of a $95 million parks
bond referendum.
Desire for more local control of zoning,
better police service and more infrastruc
ture improvements, such as paving, were
among the driving forces to create Dun
woody, said state Sen. Fran Millar.
“The number one thing was to get the
services we were not getting,” Millar said.
“It was not about race.”
Millar was in the state House at the time
and assisted former state Sen. Dan Weber
in getting the legislation to incorporate
Dunwoody approved in the General As
sembly.
“Dan Weber was the guiding force. It
was his vision,” Millar said. “Vernon [Jones]
made it easy, but Dan deserves the credit.”
Wright said he was also inspired by
Eva Galambos, the
founding mayor of
Sandy Springs, to
take up the fight to
create Dunwoody.
When he was pres
ident of the Dun
woody Homeown
ers Association and
“she was trying to
get pigs to fly” in
neighboring Sandy
Springs, Wright said
Galambos would of
ten attend DHA’s an
nual meeting to give
updates about the
lengthy legislative
battle to put the city
of Sandy Springs to
a vote.
The “when pigs
fly” reference is
popular in San
dy Springs lore as
a comment former
state Sen. Vincent
Fort supposedly said
about the chances of
Sandy Springs be
coming its own city.
Sandy Springs
was finally ap
proved in 2005, becoming the first city to
split from Fulton County control. Their
success spurred Dunwoody to follow suit
and after three years of tough battles, Dun
woody became the first city to separate
from DeKalb County in 2008.
“We were the first to break the mold,”
Wright said. “It was a firefight for two to
three years.”
The next 10 years
It was apparent Millar was still stinging
from his loss to Democrat Sally Harrell in
the November election as he talked about
the city’s changes over the past 10 years.
A Dunwoody resident for nearly 40 years
who represented the city at the General As
sembly for 20 years, he only won the city
by a few points.
People living in single-family dwellings
were the backbone of the cityhood move
ment starting in 2005, Millar said. But sin
gle-family homeowners no longer domi
nate the city’s population of 50,000, and
more and more residents are living in mul
tifamily housing, he said.
“And you see changing demographics,
obviously,” Millar said. “It’s a different Dun
woody going forward. And I’m not saying
that’s a bad thing,” he added.
Current Mayor Denis Shortal was on
Dunwoody’s inaugural City Council and
said the mission of the city today is the
same as it was 10 years ago.
“To continue the enhancements of qual
ity of life for our citizens,” he said. “The em
phasis is to make sure all citizens know
they are important. And the whole key is
to keep in perspective the finances we have.
“The spirit of citizens that live here ...
they feel things are better, that’s my feel
ing,” Shortal added.
Major developments on the horizon in
Perimeter Center will shape Dunwoody
into the next decade, Wright said. The mas
sive High Street mixed-use development,
approved by DeKalb County a year before
Dunwoody incorporated, is set to break
ground next year. The development is ex
pected to have 1,500 apartments and 1,500
condominiums as well as a hotel, a new of
fice tower and retail space spanning 10 city
blocks and 8 million square feet.
Grubb Properties’ planned redevelop
ment of Perimeter Center East, where the
former City Hall is located and where the
Dunwoody Police Department’s officers
rolled out on their first patrols on April 1,
2009, includes 900 condominiums and a
new office tower.
“The evolution of our business center
brings with it a lot of new expenses, a lot
of new potential police, strains on our in
frastructure ... things that go along with
growth that the council will have to deal
with,” Wright said.
Millar said that Perimeter Center will
always be the city’s, and the region’s, eco
nomic engine. But the residential neigh
borhoods and communities surrounding
the business center will remain the heart
and soul of the city for years to come, he
said.
“The bulk of our residents continue to
see Dunwoody as a bedroom community,”
he said. “We don’t consider ourselves an ur
ban nexus.
“But much of Dunwoody is new and
fresh and young people new and fresh,”
he added. “That’s fine. You go with the flow
and see what people want. That’s the world
we live in.”
The bitter battle between Dunwoody
and DeKalb County that raged a decade
ago has mostly subsided, Millar said. He
noted his work with DeKalb County CEO
Michael Thurmond to get a special local
option sales tax and a freeze on property
taxes approved.
“The relationships are pretty good,
much better than the previous regimes,”
Millar said.
Wright, who lost a bruising battle with
Democrat Mike Wilensky for the state
House seat once held by Tom Taylor, said
he believes it is important for current local
leaders to make sure national political at
titudes don’t impact local policy and elec
tions.
“The political divide 10 years ago was
not as harsh as it is today,” Wright said.
“Keeping that divide away from our local
governments — I hope that can be main
tained. It’s nothing but harmful.”