Brentwood City Commission approves plan for Windy Hill Park

Nov. 29, 2022

By Sarah White – For the Herald

On Monday, Brentwood City Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a master plan to develop Windy Hill Park.

After receiving community input through public engagement meetings over the last few months, the revised plan will now be passed on to engineers to create a final design.

In 2020, the city purchased the 52-acre site from Wilbur and Lucy Sensing. The area, located just south of Old Smyrna Road, was formerly a part of the historic Sensing estate. The park, along with the remaining 40 acres of neighboring private land belonging to the Sensings, is protected under a conservation easement. This is meant to ensure the land can be preserved and enjoyed by current and future generations. 

As a passive park, the area will have no designated spaces for organized sports and instead will provide recreational trails, open fields, a playground and picnic structures. In addition to more than a mile of trails that meander through the park, there will be a 400-meter loop similar to a track.

The plan includes two entrances with parking lots and one pedestrian entrance. A restroom facility, benches, dog-waste stations and workout stations are also included in the master plan.

When planning began in July, the commission sought public input on amenities and design. However, Brentwood residents were given another chance to voice concerns about the plan at Monday’s meeting. 

Ben Moss, a resident of the Shenandoah neighborhood bordering the future park expressed his concerns about the trail location in the latest plan. 

“I don’t believe anyone here tonight would feel comfortable with a constant stream of strangers walking mere feet from their backyard, and for this we encourage you to consider moving the trail a minimum of an additional 25 to 50 feet from the proposed 50-foot buffer,” Moss said. 

He also expressed concerns about the addition of trees to the western border where an established tree line already resides. 

City Manager Kirk Bednar addressed some of Moss’ concerns by ensuring that the trails will remain at least 50 feet from neighboring property lines as a buffer. Bednar also said that engineers would finalize a healthy and complimentary tree design on the western border of the park. Commissioner Nelson Andrews followed up on safety concerns by sighting police statistics on trail-based incidents in other Brentwood parks. 

“I asked the police department how many incidents we have had on our extensive trail system, [and] what I found is that over the past five years on all of our trails we’ve had a total of 10 incidents,” said Andrews. “We’ve had very few incidents in terms of the police having to address something.” 

After hearing concerns, the commission voted unanimously to approve the park plan. Now, the commission must contract engineering design and start the process of rezoning the area. Currently, the park is expected to open in 2023.