Sandy Springs Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
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Spooktacular!
Water hazard Are local dams safe? COMMUNITY 12-15
Serious sparkle
OCT. 16 — OCT. 29, 2015 • VOL. 9 — NO. 21
Elgant Elf goes live OUT & ABOUT 18-19
I’ll take this one!
COMMUNITY 9-11
City Springs construction budget confuses council, may alter project BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Gabriel Williams, 17 months, selects his favorite pumpkin while shopping with his family at the North Springs United Methodist Church’s annual pumpkin patch on Oct. 10. The patch, located at 7770 Roswell Road, is a fundraiser for the church’s youth ministry.
PHIL MOSIER
A request to more than double the $12.6 million early construction budget for the City Springs redevelopment— and to delay setting the final budget until January—confused members of Sandy Springs City Council at their Oct. 6 meeting. The council put off any big decisions until its Oct. 20 meeting, when a new budget estimate will be available from Holder Construction. The City Springs project’s schedule and overall budget—previously announced at about $220 million—are not changing, City Manager John McDonough said. The request for additional funds came because Holder is struggling to estimate an updated budget due to plans that still lack details, city consultant Ennis Parker said. In turn, the final budget may force changes to the plan—including possibly removing a surface parking lot proposed along Mount Vernon Highway. “We’ve added scope to the project south of Mount Vernon [Highway]. We may not be able to afford that,” Parker told the council. The confusion and the potential changSEE CITY SPRINGS, PAGE 7
Senior condo owners protest Mount Vernon roundabout plan BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
The city’s plan for double roundabouts in front of the Mount Vernon Towers senior condos is unsafe and will create a “geriatric demolition derby,” the condo’s executive director said. “If the city elects to press ahead…there’s going to be financial and political consequences,” said Scott Jacobson, an attorney representing the 300 condo residents, at the Oct. 6 Sandy Springs City Council meeting, where several residents also showed up to express opposition to the roundabout plan. City spokeswoman Sharon Kraun noted the roundabout design has been around for years, but also that it is still in a concept phase. But Towers residents say it recently changed without notice to eat up most of their building’s front yard and driveway, and that the city’s responses are vague. “There is a difference between concept documents and engi-
neer’s construction design plans, and we have assured the Towers representatives that the project will be built meeting all legal standards,” Kraun said. The plan targets the unusual X-shaped intersection of Mount Vernon Highway and Johnson Ferry Road. Public meetings on possible changes were held eight years ago and resulted in a recommendation to replace the X with double roundabouts. That concept was included in the city’s 2012 City Center Master Plan. The city began moving toward an actual design in 2010 with a public meeting. However, a final design was only announced early this year, and included shifting the roundabouts northward. That design would demolish about a third of Mount Vernon Towers’ treeSEE SENIOR CONDO, PAGE 7
JOHN RUCH
Chris Peterson, executive director of Mount Vernon Towers, questions the need for the double roundabouts.