Sassafras Park and Trails Meeting
February 1, 2020
Erma McClain, Nancy Schwartz and I, CTHA board members, attended the preliminary meeting of the new 1025 acre proposed multi-use park with separate trails for mountain bikes, hikers and horses. BCHNG was represented by Robert and Melinda Wagner. There were probably close to 100 in attendance with standing room only. Many were land owners adjacent to the property and concerned about how the park will impact their privacy and the value of their property. The land is located in the southern part of Gilmer county below Ellijay just off of Burnt Mountain Road in the Falling Waters and Georgia Highlands Communities. The area is north of Hwy. 136 and west of Hwy.52 some 35 miles west of Dahlonega. There are three parcels of land, one of which does not intersect with the other two where the horse trails will most likely be designed and built. The land was donated to the Southeastern Trust for Parks and Land to be used as a nature preserve and park for public use. The trust has formed a Friends group and is in the process of raising funds to have a professional trail builder assess the lay of the land and design the trails for sustainability.
It cost the Trust a total of $300,000 to design and build a hiking and mountain bike only park at Talking Rock Nature Preserve with about ten miles of trails on a little over 200 acres so obtaining the funds to build out this new Sassafras park will likely be in excess of a million dollars. It took them a little over two years to develop and complete the Talking Rock park. They propose to put in 30 to 50 miles of horse trails and will want and need initial input from CTHA and the BCHA groups. They are also looking for volunteers and guidance from the horse contingent for ongoing development and maintenance. IMBA, SORBA, NGMGA are heavily involved in the mountain biking trail development and have access to grant money. The trust plans to obtain corporate sponsors, civic groups, grants and donations to obtain the funds to develop this project. They also have 27 seven lots in the Falling Waters development surrounded by the donated land they hope to sell to obtain funds for park development. Those lots will be covered by the rules and regulations of the HOA. So selling them to park users to set up a camper or house trailers for temporary lodging will likely be prohibited. The park will be turned over to the Friends Group and to the Ellijay government to oversee and manage once completed. It is hoped if the money can be raised to do a preliminary study to the tune of around $25,000 that the project can be funded and moved forward quickly. Their website says two to three years b ut more likely will be completed within a five year planning stage. So we may soon have another trail for horses with a donation only box and no other fees. Plans are to make it day use but with the possibility of overnight camping. With that many miles of horse trails, it will likely take a couple of days to explore the trails and cover the distance requiring at least overnight camping. It is located in a mountainous area so should provide some beautiful trails and vistas.
The park will not allow any motorized vehicles and no ball fields but are considering a gun and archery range to be determined later. The land had 65% of the timber harvested in 2016 before it was donated. It will be used for passive recreation only. They will establish park boundaries so as not to encroach on the neighboring developments. They plan on providing progressive trails from easy to difficult and the trails will be designed to be environmentally sustainable. The park will be 90% conserved with no additional limbering ever to be done again. There are likely logging roads cut in now that can by used in the trail system but that will depend on the professional assessment and design.
You can access their website for more information: https://stpal.org/
Ann Wyrosdick
Treasurer, CTHA