City of Duluth

3578 West Lawrenceville Street

Duluth, Georgia 30096

Phone: (770) 476-3434

Fax: (770) 623-2765

www.duluth-ga.com

November 21, 2005

Woodehaven Property Owners Association

c/o Eleanor Burris

3570 Riverwood Parkway

Duluth, GA 30096

RE: Replacement of Concrete Stub Streets in Woodehaven

Dear Ms. Burris:

This letter places in writing the options offered to Woodehaven on street replacement discussed at our November 8^th meeting with the homeowners board. There are several things that have made street repair much more costly and difficulty than anywhere else in the City. The first problem stems from the City accepting as streets the concrete areas between carports serving the townhomes. These areas do not currently meet the City’s definition of streets, however, at the time they were built the City had few regulations regarding development. The fact that these areas between carports are made of concrete and appear to have been placed on poorly compacted soil gives few options on repair. We have been told by several companies doing asphalt and concrete work that applying a surface of either asphalt or concrete over these drives will eventually crack due to cracks in the existing concrete. In addition, most of the concrete drives are at the same elevation as the carports and any topping added to them will send water into to carports.

In looking at how to approach repair the City also considered what is done for other residential streets around the City. The standard right of way width on residential streets is 50 feet compared to 32 feet in the concrete areas in Woodehaven. The pavement width on normal residential streets is 24 feet. The concrete width between canopies at Woodehaven is generally 32 feet, however, there are some as wide as 60 feet. The City Council and staff have discussed this problem for years knowing that at some point the streets would meet the City’s criteria for street work. The Council and staff have come up with the following two options:

1. Replace the existing concrete to a width of 24 feet with asphalt to be equal to other residential streets throughout the City. This is the least expensive for the City and it would provide for new sub base and asphalt similar to other residential streets. The negative is that there would still be concrete between the asphalt road and the canopies that would have cracks and not have a uniform appearance. The homeowners or HOA could participate with the City and replace their portion at the same time as an option. With this option the City would continue to maintain the 24 foot wide street. No additional work should be required for 15 to 20 years.

2. Replace the existing concrete from canopy to canopy which in some cases will be greater than the width of the right of way with asphalt and new sub base. This is the most expensive option but it maintains uniform appearance, corrects all broken concrete between canopies, puts down a material that is more easily worked with in the future. There are also opportunities to improve the drainage with better slope and for those really wide areas landscape islands could be installed if desired. With this option the City would deed the streets when complete to either the HOA or homeowner and the HOA or homeowner would be responsible for any future resurfacing anticipated 15 to 20 years later.

When these options were discussed at the November 8^th meeting at Woodehaven there was a suggestion by one of the association officers that the deeding of the streets not take place until all had been repaired. I believe this suggestion will be acceptable to the Council, although they have not taken any vote on the option and will most like wait until they here back from what Woodehaven would like to do. The City would continue to maintain the main asphalt streets located within Woodehaven as they do now and would only abandon those that are currently concrete.

If you should have any additional questions please contact me.

Sincerely,

Phil McLemore,

City Administrator

c.c. Mayor & Council

Audrey Turner, Public Works Director