The third meeting of the Simpsonwood Park Citizen Steering Committee continued discussions about the development of a park plan that would work for the majority of residents, stakeholders and park enthusiasts.
Despite the effort to come to a consensus, there remains a faction that wants absolutely nothing done to the park — an extreme choice that, according to county officials, won’t happen because every park needs to be managed.
“I’d like to encourage the folks on the committee to read the natural resource assessment,” said CSC member Preston Chappell. ”I cornered Jay [Exum, a wildlife ecologist consulting on the project,] on the tour and said I thought much of the stuff that was in there was never going to be implemented.”
Chappell referred to the verbiage as “boilerplate,” implying that the plan is similar for many, if not all county parks.
“Though some aspects of that report may be consistent with other reports, there’s nothing boilerplate about it,” said Glenn Boorman, Gwinnett County Parks deputy director. “Whether or not the county implements everything that’s in the report, I’d say that’s a legitimate question.”
“We’ll see after tonight, and after this plan, how much of that is prioritized,” he continued, “but some of those priorities from that resource assessment are also going to change based on the input that you all have given us.”
Putting plans into action
Gwinnett County Parks Director Chris Minor pointed out that the plans aren’t etched in stone. They take several years to implement, and as one phase begins to come online, the needs and wants of the community may have changed. Or the ecological conditions at the park may have changed.
“Some of those desired future conditions may change and may take another turn,” he said. “Propose what’s right, propose what is best for the restoration of community, and we’ll talk about how the county can get there. So you’ll see what updates might happen as a result of this plan.”
Boorman went on to add that there are many factors involved in the plan — most importantly staffing, resources and budget.
“When we go through the next phase to fulfill this plan, that gives us the ammunition, for lack of a better term, to request more staff to implement this plan, however it has evolved,” he said. We use this to look at the needs for this park or other parks.”
Plans for resource management
Natural resource management can be tricky. Floods, droughts, pest infestation, natural disasters, extreme heat or cold or a myriad of other factors can make changes to the plan necessary.
“We’ve got several other parts that are going to be coming on board too, which have some other natural resource management kind of issues,” said Minor. “This master plan is going to help further that, but it’s up to y’all and us and working together to develop that plan.”
Minor added that the plan isn’t just about what the parks department will do.
“It’s a part of a multi-agency strategy for how you most effectively manage natural lands,” he said. “Those desired future conditions are aspirational. You don’t want to be really restricted by what you would like to accomplish. The indicators of success are more practical.”
He said it could take as long as 50 years or more to achieve some of the desired effects.
“I welcome the opportunity for anybody to say it’s not what we want to achieve, because I think we want to aspire to great things with natural communities out there,” said Minor. “And if there’s something that’s less than that, I don’t think that’s what we should settle for.”
Community input, ecological sensitivity
Boorman, along with Carlos Perez, president and founder of Perez Planning + Design, led the discussion, emphasizing the importance of community input and ecological sensitivity.
Key points included feedback from a recent bus tour to McDaniel Farm, Little Mulberry and Princeton Lakes parks as well as Simpsonwood Park.
“We got a chance to see different types of facilities and experiences that Gwinnett County has provided in other parks that could be similar to the experiences that would be offered in Simpsonwood Park,” said Perez.
The tour highlighted the need for modern restrooms, better trail signage and natural landscaping.
“I think McDaniel Farm Park was perhaps the closest in theme to Simpsonwood Park,” said Peachtree Corners City Councilman Eric Christ, a member of the steering committee. “It had once been a farm and had some historic buildings on it. At 130 acres, it’s half the size of what we have at Simpsonwood, but it does have neighborhoods all the way around.”
He added that even though the weather during the tour was cold and windy, McDaniel Farm Park had a good number of people visiting it.
“There weren’t any playing fields, so people were sort of spread out throughout the park — on the trails and the meadows and things,” he said.
He added that the restroom facilities were a much better fit at McDaniel than what is currently at Simpsonwood.
“I’m definitely looking forward to more modern restrooms and particularly the security features,” he said. “I like the electronic door locks and the security light that lets an officer patrolling know that there’s someone in that restroom after hours.”
Proposed safety features and trails
Christ also pointed out other features that could benefit Simpsonwood, including trail maps, trail signage, emergency 911 posts and locator signs.
Others were concerned that wide, concrete trails that some of the other parks have would become a feature at Simpsonwood.
Perez addressed the issue of materials used for trails.
“The group talked about the hierarchy of trail experiences, some paved some unpaved, gravel, etc.,” he said. Boorman added that there will be a combination of trail types at Simpsonwood.
“Not all the trails can be natural, for various reasons,” Boorman pointed out.
He cited maintenance and accessibility as two reasons why there will be some paved trails.
Bringing a common park style to Simpsonwood
Perez also talked about a common style at other parks that is missing at Simpsonwood.
“We’re talking about bringing the Gwinnett standard into Simpsonwood and having that done in a way that is context-sensitive to the park, but also provides that quality,” he said, mentioning signage and building styles as examples.
“We spent some time talking about restroom facilities,” Perez explained, showing an example of the restroom style used at other Gwinnett parks. “This is the type of facility that would be proposed in Simpsonwood; the colors and the stone would vary, but those are decisions that would be made later on.”
He also showed the pavilion style. It varied in size, but had similar structure, seating and trash receptacles.
“In terms of other elements — park maps and kiosks — this shows the parking, where the trails are, what different experiences and amenities are available,” he said, adding that the infrastructure hadn’t been updated in 30 years.
Resource protection and repurposing
What might be unique to Simpsonwood, however, is the possibility of reusing excess natural materials that may be on site. During the sewer project, a huge vein of rocks had been discovered. Many of the committee members suggested using some as seating along trails and other things.
Other important elements pointed out during the parks tour were guiding principles, such as natural resource protection, minimizing neighborhood impact and cultural resource preservation.
“We want to protect, enhance and interpret natural resources to increase biodiversity, provide increased resistance to natural hazards, help mitigate the impact of extreme weather and inform and educate residents and visitors,” said Perez.
“We also want to avoid or minimize negative impacts to neighborhoods, such as intrusive noise, lighting, traffic, congestion or housing. And then protect, enhance and interpret cultural resources, to preserve significant sites and artifacts, create a unique sense of place and inform and educate residents,” he continued.
Intensive management for invasive species
Exum discussed the natural areas at Simpsonwood, including the need for invasive species management and the re-envisioning of the labyrinth area.
“I wanted to get everybody through some of the areas that need the most intensive management,” he said of the Simpsonwood tour. “So we walked through this area where it’s labeled as healthy forest, but it’s just the way the pines have grown back in the areas of high service.”
He pointed out that there are several areas of mature, diverse canopies that reflect a very healthy forest, and the county wants to sustain — and not impact — those trees through any kind of intense recreation activities.
“Some other features that we know we need to deal with are encroachment by invasive plants,” he said. “We pointed out along the tour, the leatherleaf mahonia, which many people on the tour admitted was completely rampant in their own yards.”
Keeping invasive plant species at bay at Simpsonwood will require a community effort, said Exum. “Make sure those species aren’t leaving your property and revegetating back at Simpsonwood,” he said.
Although the labyrinth area is quite popular, it’s badly in need of repair — and has been for a long time.
“It’s got trees across it. It’s in a state of disrepair, along with the trail to it,” said Exum. “So we want to re-envision how to make that the centerpiece that it’s always been.”
Community concerns and feedback
As the committee gets closer to crafting the master plan for Simpsonwood Park, the concept with the most votes needs modifications.
Specific feedback included the desire to expand the native meadow, add improved restrooms and provide benches along the trails, while reducing the number of pavilions and paved trails. There are 6.5 miles of trails currently. That’s too much, many committee members asserted.
The committee broke into smaller groups to discuss program elements and potential experiences in the park. The plan emphasized sustainable trail designs, with 1.37 miles of paved trails and 1.4 miles of accessible trails.
The Great Lawn will feature an accessible path. The natural exploration area will be interactive and multi-generational. The committee asked for a more in-depth explanation about that as well as visual examples.
The number, location and size of the pavilions and restroom areas was also a concern. Several committee members said that two restroom areas should be enough. Some didn’t want any pavilions at all. One resident suggested calling it Simpsonwood Forest instead of park.
“This idea of this park seems to mean we have to have pavilions and concrete trails and bike, horses and dog parks and everything else,” said Jonathan Bonnet, “and it makes the county feel compelled to say, well, we have to meet these standards now, because it’s a park and we have to make it just like every other park.”
“We want a forest county park. Almost nothing that we’ve proposed is natural resource protection other than the ecology that studies all of the plants and invasive species,” he continued. “Adding more trails and parks and pavilions is not natural resource protection. It has negative impacts to the neighborhood.”
Sophia Herrington agreed.
“Nobody wants this. I don’t know why you guys are doing this,” she said referring to the 12-foot paved paths. “You can do your concrete, accessible trails, fine, but we don’t need a road.”
Next steps
Further community input on the Simpsonwood Park plans will be collected and incorporated into the final design, organizers said.
The next meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on April 15 at the Pinckneyville Community Center. As with previous meetings, it will be open to the public.
Photos courtesy of Arlinda Smith Broady
