Planners give initial approval for Marcus Center expansion

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — After an hours-long discussion April 11, the Dunwoody Planning Commission gave initial approval to a special land use permit to allow the Marcus Jewish Community Center to expand its recreation facilities on Tilly Mill Road.

Dunwoody Senior Planner Madalyn Smith told commissioners the proposal by the Marcus Jewish Community Center, which offers outdoor recreation programs, summer camps and other events, would add 12 new pickleball courts and a multipurpose court to the facility’s eastern grounds.

Because the neighborhood recreation club has been in the community since 1961, Smith said the center operates without a special land use permit.

Dunwoody has experienced a huge surge in interest in pickleball, which is similar to tennis but requires a different style of court and equipment.

Kathy Zickert, an attorney with Smith, Gambrell and Russell representing the Marcus Jewish Community Center, said the recreation center has experienced the surge firsthand and needs new facilities to keep up with demand.

“I don’t, I suspect, have to advise you of the popularity of pickleball that’s arisen over the past couple of years,” she said.

Zickert said the proposed project will add four new open-air pickleball courts to the recreation center and eight covered courts, as well as a viewing platform added to a nearby existing building.

Other improvements include minor upgrades to the center’s west parking lots and pool area.

The Planning Commission heard public comments from a handful of local residents who expressed a mix of opinions about the expansion.

Resident David Abes said he has been a member of the MJCC all his life and regularly visits the recreation center with his family. Abes said that any improvements to the center will only serve to improve the community and make it stronger.

“I think it’s an amazing thing to just keep improving this,” he said. “I think this is going to be an amazing thing for the community in general.”

However, most residents speaking at the meeting voiced concerns about how the project will affect the neighborhoods surrounding the Marcus Jewish Community Center.

Specifically, neighbors said they feared the project would exacerbate existing noise problems they have had with the center.

Nancy Echikson, who lives directly adjacent to the center’s day camp on the property’s western edge, said her life is already regularly disrupted by an outdoor sound system that accompanies the summer camp programs.

“I am woken up at 7:39 every summer morning, for three months with that thumping coming up from my pillow,” Echikson said. “The problem is they are essentially running a business and making decisions the way a business would, and not the way that residents would make decisions in a residential neighborhood.”

Echikson and other residents who spoke at the meeting said they could not support the proposal without, “serious noise abatement measures.”

Responding to community concerns, Zickert said an independent noise study was conducted for the property prior to the meeting, which reportedly showed the project would not impact the surrounding community any more than is reasonable.

She said that according to the study, pickleball courts would have less of a noise impact on the community than basketball courts.

“There is some noise inherent to any recreational opportunity,” she said. “But we do not believe that this one is going to create the problems that have been alleged.”

Zickert said they would consider alternative noise abatement strategies, like soundproofing measures, if they were deemed necessary by city staff.

After several rounds of questions and discussions, Planning Commission members approved the proposal, with a condition banning any public announcement systems from being installed on the new courts.

The motion was approved 4-2, with Planning Commission Chair Thomas O’Brien and Vice Chair Erika Harris opposed, and Commissioner Jackie Edmundson absent from the vote.

This special land use permit proposal will now advance to the Dunwoody City Council for final consideration.