Jay Weaver, a founding partner with Weaver Capital Partners, and Ken Collins, CFO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, speak to Oakhurst residents during a Dec. 1 meeting. File Photo by Dan Whisenhunt

Some Oakhurst residents are rejoicing after the Decatur City Planning Commission tabled a request to subdivide a lot that contains a popular dog park.

Planning Commissioners tabled the request from the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta that would’ve carved off the wooded area of the park on East Lake Drive to be sold to a developer who wants to build single family housing. That wooded area is the only portion of the park that can be developed. The rest sits on a flood plain.  The Boys & Girls Club can resubmit the request in 60 days.

While the city maintains the dog park, it is owned by the Boys & Girls Club, which leases it to the city for $1 a year. The Boys & Girls Club wants to redirect proceeds from the sale back into its programming. At a meeting on Dec. 1, at the Samuel L. Jones Boys & Girls Club on East Lake Drive, Ken Collins, CFO of the Boys & Girls Clubs told residents, “That’s not our mission, to be honest with you. It’s not to provide dog parks.”

Lee Goldsmith, one of the residents fighting to save the park, said more than 50 people attended the Dec. 9 hearing. Residents had a list of concerns, including the impact the houses would have on traffic and how the water run off would affect neighboring properties.

Goldsmith said via email, “We, in turn, pledged to do our best to keep our amazing forest,  to support the Boys and Girls club, and to strengthen our community in our unofficial Oakhurst ‘town square.’

“Thank you all who showed up. It was a tremendous show of caring citizenship. We will be having planning meetings, creative brainstorming-in-the-forest sessions, and other opportunities to help our community.”