Community Corner

Save Johns Homestead Park From DeKalb County

Editor's note: Park Pride, a Downtown-based, non-profit organization that works with communities all over Atlanta to improve their parks, wrote this editorial on a controversial plan for a no-kill animal shelter in Tucker.

by Ben Bjostad

Johns Homestead Park is a beautiful park in Tucker with a committed Friends of group that has poured hundreds of hours of volunteer work into the beautification of its trails, ponds, and historic pre-Civil War homestead. Purchased with bond money designated for parks and greenspace it has some of the last remaining old growth forest in DeKalb County on its 50 acres. Now the county wants to put a new animal shelter there. It's the right facility, at the wrong place. You can help us do something about it. 

There are three sites to choose from for the animal shelter. Both Advocates for DeKalb Animals, the group that’s persuaded the county to build the new facility, and the Friends of Johns Homestead Park favor a site next to DeKalb Peachtree Airport. It’s owned by the county, is already cleared for construction, and is near many volunteer groups and animal advocates that are critical to the shelter's success. However, the board of commissioners is strongly in favor of the Johns Homestead site despite the near-unanimous opposition of both animal advocate and park groups.

DeKalb County needs this facility, but plopping a large shelter building with a 64-space parking lot into the middle of Johns Homestead Park will gut the park, destroying many of its trees and the historical value of one of the few examples of pre-Civil War farm homesteads in the metro area. Not only that, but it will cost more and take longer to build than the PDK site that is better placed and supported.

How can you help? Call or write to DeKalb County Commissioners and CEO ASAP - 
Your e-mail can be as short as: 
“Vote NO to Johns Homestead Park & YES to PDK for new animal shelter.”
sbsutton@dekalbcountyga.gov, ecboyer@dekalbcountyga.gov, larryjohnson@dekalbcountyga.gov, lmay@dekalbcountyga.gov, stanwatson@dekalbcountyga.gov, ceo@dekalbcountyga.gov, kgannon@dekalbcountyga.gov
Call as well. Full contact info follows below.

We also urgently need available park advocates to attend the Board of Commissioners meeting this Tuesday, June 25, at 9 a.m.!
Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur, GA 30030.
Wear Green! Without the visible show of support of 75-100 people attending this meeting, we will lose...and the precedent will be set that public park lands can be re-purposed for county facilities. Please call, e-mail, and show up for the meeting on Tuesday!

Our DeKalb County Commissioners are:

  • Sharon Barnes-Sutton
  • sbsutton@dekalbcountyga.gov
  • 404-371-4749
  • Elaine Boyer
    • ecboyer@dekalbcountyga.gov
    • 404-371-3681
  • Larry Johnson
    • larryjohnson@dekalbcountyga.gov
    • 404-371-2425
  • Lee May
    • lmay@dekalbcountyga.gov
    • 404-371-4745
  • Stan Watson
    • stanwatson@dekalbcountyga.gov
    • 404-371-3681
  • Burrell Ellis
    • ceo@dekalbcountyga.gov
    • 404-371-2881
  • Kathi Gannon
    • kgannon@dekalbcountyga.gov
    • 404-371-4909


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