Sandy Springs Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
NOV. 13 — NOV. 26, 2015 • VOL. 8 — NO. 23
Inside
Making history
‘Sacred space’ New mikvah opens FAITH 20
A woman’s touch Police force shows pink side PUBLIC SAFETY 26
Incomplete sidewalks make it tough to get home
AROUND TOWN 9
City considers hiking impact fees BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Emerson “Bill” Peet, a resident of Mount Vernon Towers, tries navigating along Mount Vernon Highway to visit his mother who lives less than a mile away, but the city’s lack of consistent sidewalks make his journey an hours-long odyssey.
JOHN RUCH
BY JOHN RUCH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
It’s just under a mile from Emerson “Bill” Peet’s home in Mount Vernon Towers to his mother’s home in Sandy Springs. But for Peet, the trip is an hours-long odyssey he has to plan a day around and risk his life to complete. That’s because Peet uses a wheelchair, and Mount Vernon Highway’s pedestrian paths are a jigsaw puzzle of dead-end, broken or nonexistent sidewalks. On a recent trip down that street, Peet pointed out the spot where a police officer stopped him several weeks ago for rolling in the road because there is no sidewalk. “He said, ‘Well, don’t be out here [in the street] anymore,’” Peet recalled, as if he and not the lack of sidewalks was the problem. “If you’re on wheels, you’re forced to break the law.” Peet, 50, has used a wheelchair since 1991, when a brain injury gave him severe balance problems. He’s become a popular figure at Mount Vernon Towers, dubbed its “mayor” by fellow residents, in his three years there. But he’s not new to the area—he’s a Sandy Springs native who grew up in the Mount Vernon Woods neighborhood. As the suburb became a city, he saw the increase in sidewalks. “It’s come in leaps and bounds, and now there’s something, but not near enough,” Peet said of Sandy Springs’
sidewalk installations. The city has spent millions fixing and installing sidewalks, and the City Council regularly debates ways to do more. City spokeswoman Sharon Kraun said the city is also working with the Atlanta Regional Commission on a “Complete Streets” plan, which designs streets for various types of users, not just cars. “We have been, from Day One, attacking the sidewalks, trying to upgrade, improve and add,” Kraun said. “We’ve got a lot of years to make up for. We’re very conscious of that.” City leaders often cite some good reasons for their sidewalk efforts, such as attracting active millennials to shopping districts or getting kids safely to schools. But spending a couple of hours traveling with Peet shows a more basic issue: sidewalk conditions that make it difficult and dangerous for many residents to visit businesses they like and people they love. Peet and his mother both live on the north side of Mount Vernon Highway, but there’s no direct sidewalk route. Peet only got a few hundred feet before the sidewalk abruptly ended, forcing him to cross the busy road. There’s a useable sidewalk in front of the library and Mount Vernon PresSEE INCOMPLETE, PAGE 6
Sandy Springs aims to boost the impact fees paid by new real estate developments for the first time in seven years. With the city in the midst of a building boom, that could mean more money for parks, police and streets. “Our fees have not been updated since 2008,” Assistant City Manager Jim Tolbert said at the Nov. 3 meeting of the City Council, which directed him to hire a consultant to revise the fee structure. “There is room for growth in our fees without pricing ourselves out of the market.” Impact fees are intended to offset the increased costs the city pays to support new developments with services such as policing or infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks. In Sandy Springs, separate fees go to transportation, public safety, and parks and recreation, with an amount that may vary depending on the development’s type and size. The fee must be calculated based on the city’s actual costs—“you can’t just pick a dollar amount,” Tolbert said—so the formula can become complicated. But sample comparisons presented by Tolbert show that Sandy Springs’ fees are generally much lower than those of some neighboring cities. “I think you’ll see other communities have gotten out ahead of us…We’re a little bit behind,” he said. The highest total impact fee for a new residential unit in Sandy Springs is about $1,646. That’s higher than Atlanta, at around $1,500. But Milton and Roswell may charge for $4,000 and Alpharetta may charge nearly $6,500. Sandy Springs currently requires the SEE CITY, PAGE 5
Veterans Day
Nancy Huey shows her support on Nov. 11. See page 7.