Newspaper Page Text
SO MUCH
MORE THAN
JUST A
SHOE STORE.
Buckhead
The Peach Shopping Center
2900 Peachtree Rd
Atlanta, GA 30305
404.231.2324
Sandy Springs
Sandy Springs Plaza
6307 Roswell Rd
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
404.252.8001
COMMUNITY
DAN WHISENHUNT
From left, Chad Plumly, Cortne Pappas, Tom Hayes, John Schneider
and Dan Berger, members of the Walking Brandon Mill Coalition.
Brandon Mill residents want
their sidewalks to be a priority
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
City Council has the option of putting
Brandon Mill sidewalks at the top of its
“to-do” list in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget,
which begins July 1 this year.
Whatever decision the council makes
about sidewalks will be based on need
and funding, said City Manager John
McDonough. Every year, council mem
bers rank sidewalk and paving projects us
ing recommendations from city staff. The
practice is intended to keep politics out of
the process.
Residents living along the road went
to the council before the Fiscal 2013 bud
get was approved, but the project didn’t
make the final list. The group hopes two
major parks the city is building will con
vince city leaders to change their minds
about their request.
The members of the Walking Bran
don Mill Coalition said as the city
makes progress building the Abernathy
Greenway Linear Park and Lost Cor
ners Preserve, it needs to re-examine its
project list. These two parks are locat
ed at opposite ends of Brandon Mill,
and sidewalks could create a continuous
walking path between them.
“It’s about prioritization,” said Cortne
Pappas, who lives in Riverside Estates.
Our thoughts are, as things change with
the parks coming online, how about re
scoring and reprioritizing? Because you’ve
got seven or eight neighborhoods with al
most 2,000 people attached to this that
have to traverse Brandon Mill to get to the
parks, and the only way to do that safe
ly is via automobile. We think that’s kind
of insane.”
Since incorporating in 2005, the city
has built nearly 10 miles of sidewalks. In
Fiscal 2013 City Council approved a $2.6
million budget for its sidewalks program.
Chad Plumly, another member of the
Brandon Mill Coalition, said the city
did build sidewalks at the north end and
south end of Brandon Mill, but the com
munity still needs another mile. The esti
mated cost would be $1.5 million, Plum
ly said. He said the neighborhoods would
support the city building the sidewalks in
phases so it would not have to spend all of
that money in a single budget year.
The city manager said the show of sup
port for Brandon Mill sidewalks helps
City Council better understand what the
community’s needs are. That’s not a guar
antee the neighborhoods will get what
they want, however.
“We’ve always based ourselves on hav
ing an objective scientific approach, a fair
needs-based approach, to funding pub
lic projects, and this is another example,”
McDonough said.
One of the factors council members
consider when ranking projects is the
availability of right of way. The city al
ready owns all the right of way it needs for
the Brandon Mill sidewalks, Plumly said.
Plumly said Fulton County also did
some of the work prior to the city’s incor
poration.
“Fulton County government almost
put sidewalks in 50 years ago,” Plum
ly said. “They were ready to go. They
put gravel in and they just never put the
concrete in. So it’s been graded ... and
no trees would be impacted. There are
some issues with topography and we un
derstand that, but we also understand it
would connect two parks.”
Plumly and the group members say
they plan to keep up their campaign to
convince City Council to add their proj
ect to the list as hearings on the Fiscal
2014 budget begin.
Dan Berger, another member of the
group, said the neighborhoods on Bran
don Mill want the same treatment the city
gave to other neighborhoods that received
sidewalks.
“I think the city recognizes that it needs
to be done,” Berger said. “We would just
like it to be a little higher on their priority
list than it has been up until now.”
4 | APRIL 19 —MAY2, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
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