DUNWOODY — At an April 27 virtual meeting, the Dunwoody City Council moved forward on two smaller park projects at Perimeter Center East and the Waterford Swim and Racquet Club.

Dunwoody Waterford

The Waterford Tennis and Racquet Club will be refurbished into a public park.

Although several projects have slowed down or been placed on hold as the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the city’s coffers, the council has not wavered from its prioritization of greenspace.

The council unanimously approved a $91,000 contract with Wrecking Corp of America for demolition at the site of a future park on Perimeter Center East and for removing the pool house and pool deck at the Waterford site on Delrose Court.

“What we determined was the bathroom facility and pool house were just too far gone to try to rehabilitate,” Parks and Recreation Director Brent Walker said. “It wasn’t ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant. It would have required a significant amount of money to bring it up to code, and it had a lot of rotten wood on it.”

The council purchased 7 acres from the Waterford Swim and Racquet Club late last year. The city plans to refurbish the exiting tennis courts and in the long term build a playground, small gazebo and trail network.

The Perimeter Center East pocket park will be located behind the Endeavor Montessori School, within walking distance of several Perimeter apartment and townhome communities as well as accessible to residents of Georgetown via the new pedestrian bridge over Nancy Creek.

In 2017, the city adopted concept plans for the Perimeter park, which included a playground, picnic shelter, restrooms and trails. Both park projects will bring public greenspace to areas of the city where there currently is none.

The council also unanimously approved a $102,000 contract for designs and permitting of the Perimeter Park. The Perimeter Center East project is to be funded with hotel tax revenue, while the Waterford project will draw from the city’s general capital fund.

With $1.1 million rolling over from last year’s hotel tax revenue, the city expects to be able to pay for the designs and demolition even if no new dollars come in.

While the smaller parks are moving through their early stages, Dunwoody’s largest park project, improvements to Brook Run Park, is nearing completion.

With delayed due to weather and erosion control, the project originally scheduled for completion last December is now on track to be completed this May. Depending on how the grass is established, the city staff said they expect families will be able to play on the new fields by June.

“I was out there again today, and it looks really great,” Project Manager Eric Johnson said. “It’s been quite a struggle out there with the weather, but all in all we feel it’s just been a tremendously successful project as it relates to the quality and the product that Dunwoody is going to have.”

Though the city is making progress on these and other projects, things are far from moving full steam ahead. For example, at the meeting city staff explained their decision to press pause on building a sidewalk along Peeler Road.

The city recently received bids to build sidewalks and bicycle lanes along the border of Brook Run Park, from Equestrian Way to east of Cherring Lane.

The city received a high number of bids, and under normal circumstance the council would have the opportunity to approve a contract in May. However, the staff has decided to punt any decision until June.

The bids the city has already received will remain valid through July. By that point, staff will have received bids for the Georgetown Gateway project and have an additional month of sales tax collections to inform their decision.

“I think this is a good way to move forward,” Councilman Jim Riticher said. “Every day, every week, every month we’ll have a little bit more clear picture in our crystal balls than we have now when things are quite cloudy.”

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