Sandy Springs residents will soon have another park to walk and jog in.

At a meeting Wednesday night at City Hall, Director of Recreation and Parks Ronnie Young and landscape architect Dave Blackley addressed concerns and took suggestions as to where to locate the entrance to the park and other ideas for Lost Corner Preserve, the 24-acre property located between Dalrymple Road/Riverside Drive and Brandon Mill Road.

The city purchased the property in 2008 for $833,334 with funds raised through the Sandy Springs Conservancy and state funds from a land conservation program.

Peggy Miles, who lived on her family’s property her whole life, wanted the land to be preserved for years to come.

According to Young, the city has installed a motion alarm system at the house on the property and activated the heat system and recently finished a three-year invasive plant program, which killed all the invasive plants on the property, like wisteria.

Young said the city was looking at stabilizing the house to make it accessible to the public.

For the walking trails, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources awarded the city a $90,000 trail grant, which the city will match by 20 percent, giving the city a $100,000 budget to build the trails.

“The potential layout of the trails is 2½ miles,” said Young. “We’ll be beginning the plans for the trails shortly into the spring.”

Residents at the meeting expressed concern about safety and the possibility of fencing around the property.

“Last year, planning our budget, we felt like there was no need to fund that fence last year. We didn’t think it was a priority because we hadn’t even started it yet,” said District 2 City Councilwoman Dianne Fries. “We will most likely include money for a fence in the next budget, though.”

The park will have 32 parking spaces initially and a space designated for a community garden. Young said the plan is to provide about 60 4-foot by 8-foot plots for residents to rent for garden space.

“We’ve had requests all throughout the community for garden space,” he said.

For now, the entrance to the park will be on Brandon Mill Road. Concerned neighbors offered suggestions for other entrance sites, and Young said the suggestions would all be taken into consideration. The final plan for the park will be presented to the city council at its meeting Tuesday.

What’s Next:

The final plan for the preserve was to be presented to the city council at its meeting Tuesday.