Instead, the city and the district will split the cost for the design of the project, Smith said. This way the trail should be completed by the end of 2020.

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“We’ll be paying for the bulk of construction as it stands right now,” Smith said. The community improvement district would also return more than $250,000 in unused funds to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

In 2017, Dunwoody increased its hotel tax from 5 to 8 percent for the trail. Smith said at least $700,000 has been collected from the tax. Part of that money will go toward a $373,000 design contract with Gwinnett County-based engineering company Wolverton for another portion of the trail.

Talk of the trail began in 2014 when city and community improvement district officials realized there were no safe paths for pedestrians or bicyclists to commute to Dunwoody MARTA train stations.

The trail would be built in two phases. The first would stretch 2,000 feet along Ashford Dunwoody Road between Hammond Drive and Perimeter Center West. The path will be 16 feet wide and will keep bikes and pedestrians separated. A two-way path for bicycles will be 10 feet wide and the pedestrian walkway will be six feet wide.

Later plans call for extending the trail another mile and a half up Ashford Dunwoody Road to Mount Vernon Road.

The ultimate plan for the commuter trail would include similar projects along Peachtree Dunwoody Boulevard to connect Sandy Springs MARTA station to other offices. Three MARTA stations sit inside the Perimeter Business District, which includes Perimeter Mall, Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia and several shopping plazas.

“We’re trying to build a network all throughout the Perimeter,” Smith said. “Of course with the traffic in the area, we want to make it as convenient for people to have other choices to commute in and out of the area.”

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