Lost Corner Preserve has rich family history
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December 30, 2021 | AppenMedia.com | An Appen Media Group Publication | Ser ving the community since 1976
City made up for lost time throughout 2021 By CATHY COBBS newsroom@appenmedia.com DUNWOODY, Ga. — If not much happened in 2020, the year 2021 more than made up for it. As the world emerged, then retreated, as the fallout from the world pandemic shifted, so did the city of Dunwoody. Major restrictions were lifted, then again reinstituted, but throughout the year, Dunwoody citizens, and its government, managed to keep moving forward with initiatives to improve life within the city’s borders. COVID-19 and its impact With virtually every city-sponsored event cancelled in 2020, the following year saw a cautious return to city traditions, as well as routine business. The city opened its parks in spring. City Council meetings allowed in-person attendance, while also continuing the option to follow the proceedings online. The city’s major events — Dunwoody Nature Center’s Butterfly Festival, the Dunwoody Arts Festival, Fourth of July Parade, Lemonade Days and Light Up Dunwoody — all returned to the calendar, albeit with modified schedules and COVID protocols in place. The relocation of the arts festival to Brook Run Park, which will be a permanent move, was lauded by organizers and spectators alike as a better option than its previous site on Dunwoody Village Parkway. Slowly but steadily, the Perimeter Center area saw a return of hotel visitors and shoppers, but officials cautioned that the recovery would not reach prepandemic numbers until 2023 or beyond. The slow trickle of workers returning to
FROM THE DESK OF THE MAYOR
Retail rebound, parks growth give Dunwoody bright outlook By LYNN DEUTSCH Mayor of Dunwoody
office space. By a narrow margin, the City Council approved a high-rise development at 84 Perimeter Center East to include retail development and 225 over-55 apartments. Council members Joe Seconder, Stacey Harris and Tom Lambert voted against the plan, while Mayor Lynn Deutsch, and council members John Heneghan, Jim Riticher and Pam Tallmadge supported the zoning that would allow for its construction. In other development-related matters, the council passed in October the long-discussed Dunwoody Village Overlay District
We enter 2022 feeling like we simply can’t shake the uncertainty created by Covid-19. Vaccines, boostDEUTSCH ers and new treatments are available or will be soon, and we know much more about managing this pandemic. Despite these complicated times, Dunwoody continued to move forward in 2021 with successes in public safety, parks, public works, and community and economic development. Public Safety remains our top priority. In order to attract the best and brightest to the Dunwoody Police Department, City Council approved a significant salary increase as well as providing excellent benefits. Ambulance response times, which had improved before the pandemic, have not returned to an acceptable level. We are working with DeKalb County Public Safety officials and our county commissioners on this important issue. A key takeaway from the pandemic is the importance of outdoor public space. We acquired new parkland and opened a new park in 2021. We will begin construction on a new park in Perimeter Center and are working on
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CATHY COBBS/APPEN MEDIA
Santa greets children at Light Up Dunwoody’s annual event in November. the office was filled with stops and starts, with some organizations moving to permanent work-from-home arrangements and others offering staggered in-office shifts to allow for social distancing. Despite a murky economic outlook, plans for major projects moved toward realization. High Street, a 36-acre, mixeduse project that had been discussed for more than a decade, received funding in October, with construction expected to begin in earnest in 2022. The first phase of the project will include 150,000 square feet of entertainment-driven retail and restaurants, 600 luxury rental apartments, 90,000 square feet of loft office space and 222,000 square feet of existing