Dunwoody Politics

Dunwoody is home to about 50,000 residents.  Offices and stores in PCID around Perimeter mall employ about 100.000.  We have seen it take 45 minutes to go South on Ashford Dunwoody Rd from Mt. Vernon Rd to I-285.

When Dunwoody was incorporated as a city in 2009, we had about 10,000 apartment units and 10,000 single family homes.  Part of the sales pitch to form a city was to get control of zoning.  The DeKalb zoning board had approved too many applications for too many additional apartments and high rises around Perimeter Mall.  These were seen as opportunities for future traffic congestion and school redistricting and were opposed by most Dunwoody voters.  Mostly, we wanted the roads fixed and wanted to remain a residential area of subdivisions with single family homes. I was told by one cityhood cheerleader that we would have a better chance to join North Fulton in a reformed Milton County, but that has not materialized.

We would soon find out that global warming hoax, UN Agenda 21 local environmental initiatives (ICLEI was requiring high density development for transit oriented development to be pushed by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).  (.. so much for local control )  We already had a MARTA train station at Perimeter Mall and that was the high rises were approved to be built.

When the city council formed, we were told that we had to have a master plan, Tourism Bureau, a motto, a logo, stream-buffers, new land-use and zoning codes, new sign ordinances, on-street bike lanes, multi-use paths, to the MARTA train, 10% of our land mass as city parks, a master park plan, a bike path park in the high-line electrical distribution tower alley behind subdivision homes and a sustainability commission and we all laughed. 

In 2011, the homeowners whose back yards joined the high line electrical distribution towers stormed the city council to drop the intrusive park plan and they did.

In 2011 I attended a “Visioning Session” controlled by an ICLEI trained consulting firm to determine the “master plan” for Dunwoody Village.  We had to choose between two pictures of buildings that were very similar, but were not Williamsburg.  The “public input” was rigged.  They used the “Delphi Technique” to get predetermined answers in public input sessions.  This happened all over the country.  I got mad and formed the Dunwoody GA Tea Party.

The city council scheduled a “Park Bond” vote in 2011 to borrow $66 million to buy park land and park equipment and buildings.  The total cost of paying off these 30 year bonds with 5% interest would be $123 million.  Dunwoody annual revenue was $20 million and we needed our roads fixes. So, I bought 300 yard signs that said “Vote No, Park Bonds” and they went into yards across Dunwoody.  Danny Ross bought the “Parks Yes” signs. Dan Weber, Bill Robinson and Stacy Harris made presentations explaining the “park plan”.  The Park Bond issue was defeated by 66% of Dunwoody voters.

2011 was an election year for city council.  I found 4 candidates who also opposed the Park Bonds and two of them won.

In 2013, the city council announced three projects.  One was to replace the intersection of Vermack and Womack with a roundabout for about $2 million.  The next was to knock down over 300 trees in Brook Run Park to build a 12 foot wide concrete multi use path for about $4 million.  The third was to redo Dunwoody Village Parkway from a 4 lane to a 2 lane for about $2.5 million.  I co-founded Save Dunwoody and we put 500 signs in yards across Dunwoody, put up a website and conducted a poll where about 80% of 1400 citizens voted against these projects.  The city ignored us and built the Brook Run multiuse path and Dunwoody Village Parkway, but backed off of the Roundabout.

In 2013, the city council announced plans to add a third lane to Mt Vernon Road and a large intersection redo at Vermack and Mt. Vernon Road.  I got calls from residents, met with them and called the candidates challenging the city council to meet with them. The city council incumbents were also invited to meet with the homeowners.  The city cancelled the 3 lane plan for Mt. Vernon and tabled the Roundabout for Mt. Vernon and Vermack.

2013 was an election year for city council.  I found 3 candidates who were opposed to the current city council’s expensive and overdone road, intersection. park and fire department plans.  They just wanted their roads fixed. One of them won and another came within 35 votes of winning.

2014 was an election year for state senator and rep. I supported 4 Constitutional Conservative candidates.  One was Paul Broun for US Senate, another was for State Senate and two were for State Rep, Dunwoody and Brookhaven. They each got 25% of the vote.  That gave me a benchmark on how little voters have thought about how we got in this trouble by not following the Constitution.  Voters are clueless.

2015 was an election year for city council. I thought I had primed the pump enough and didn’t work on fielding candidates, but some challengers did show up.  I was glad that candidates were coming out on their own.  Sooner or later you’ve got to see if the kids will play together by themselves.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader