Inside
Dunwoody Reporter
Head for the Hills
Fast, then feast Muslims celebrate Ramadan FAITH 6
Pocket money
www.ReporterNewspapers.net
JULY 10 — JULY 23, 2015 • VOL. 6 — NO. 14
Some to see property tax refunds COMMUNITY 25
Strike up the band
PAGES 10-17
City appeals DeKalb judge’s ruling allowing Manget Way facility BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
Mandy Gillis, leader of the flute section for the Dunwoody High School Marching Band, warms up before the start of the city’s Fourth of July parade. Despite inclement weather, the event stepped off at 9 a.m. on July 4. See more photos on page 5.
PHIL MOSIER
The Manget Way debate is moving through the courts. When neighbors discovered last year that a company called the Center for Discovery had purchased a house on Manget Way and planned to use it as a place to treat teenage girls with eating disorders, their reaction was “apoplectic at best,” said lawyer Josh Belinfante, an attorney for the California-based company. They turned to city officials, who said the facility couldn’t operate on the residential street. Now a DeKalb judge has ruled the city was wrong to deny the company permission to open its facility. City officials are appealing the decision. Belinfante on July 6 asked the court to reject the appeal, writing the court “should not expend its valuable resources assisting the city in its discriminatory, political game-playing.” “We should know soon if the Court of Appeals wants to take it,” Belinfante said. “If they do, it would be another year or so [until the case is decided]. If they don’t take it, SEE DEBATE, PAGE 27
How tall is too tall when it comes to weeds? BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
Though some people may be more likely to track their children’s growth than the height of their grass, penalties exist for unkempt lawns. Melanie Williams said she’s heard people recommend all sort of strategies for maintaining property—including renting goats. “I thought they were kidding,” Williams said, describing a recommendation made to the Dunwoody Preservation Trust volunteers who work to maintain historic cemetaries. Property maintenance in many suburban subdivisions is policed by residents and the groups homeowners join when they buy their homes and that often also provide upkeep for common amenities such as pools or tennis courts. But local governments get in on the act, too. Let your grass grow too tall and you face a visit from the local lawn police. A first offense in Brookhaven costs $100, a second offense by the same property owner costs $200—even if the violation occurs at a second property in the city—and a
third offense is $500. Dunwoody and Sandy Springs can impose fines once weeds or grass exceed 10 inches. In Brookhaven and Atlanta, the allowable height is a foot. In an informal survey recently, several Dunwoody residents had no notion of the height at which they must trim grass and weeds under city law. Their guesses ranged from 4 inches to 18 inches. “You can’t make somebody cut it at 4 inches,” 20-year Dunwoody resident Marty Johnson said. “That’s too short; those people are crazy.” Johnson lives in Mill Glen, where he said everybody cuts their grass and keeps their weeds down. Johnson prefers his homeowner-association-free neighborhood because he’s happier not living under the rule of “little old ladies with nothing better to do” looking for violations. “I don’t want to live anywhere where somebody can tell SEE HOW TALL, PAGE 28
ELLEN ELDRIDGE
Shape up!
From left, Cheryl Summers, Dolores Lauderdale, Jim Williams and Melanie Williams discuss the city’s long-range Master Plan at a workshop on June 30. See page 2.