Can Grass Live on Popular Decatur Square?
Decatur Metro | June 20, 2016 | 3:33 pm
Decatur Square is a popular place, which is a great thing in almost all respects.
But not where growing grass is concerned. For many years the city has struggled to get grass to grow to the east of the Bandstand, where foot traffic is the most frequent.
Back in 2011, the city budgeted a lot of money to replace the drainage and irrigation system on the Square in an effort to make grass and shoes live in greater harmony with one another. Unfortunately, the new grass wasn’t much better than the old grass at withstanding the feet of our many residents and festival-goes.
So now it seems like the City is taking another go at it. On the agenda for tonight’s Commission meeting…
The purpose of this memorandum is to recommend establishment of a project budget of $36,000 and approval of a contract in the amount of $32,792.51 with Plants Creative Landscape for the installation of a new porous underlayment system, new sod and landscape areas in the two lawn areas located east of the Bandstand. This work is designed to reduce the impact of foot traffic in this area. The recommended system, GrassPave2, is a porous underlayment that allows grass to grow up through it while protecting the grass roots from being crushed by foot traffic. The result is a comfortable, grassy lawn that is able to withstand large public gatherings and recover quickly. This system has been successfully used by other municipalities for similar park and outdoor event installations. It also is used by churches and other institutions to provide grassed parking areas.
Photo courtesy of Al
Yes, but the soil has not been properly prepared. And based on the brief description above, I don’t see anything detailing the needed addition of more topsoil. The ‘soil’ that is present is just waste from all the previous construction sites. It needs to be removed and new topsoil needs to go down. Simply adding the soil associated with sod will not resolve the underlying issue.
In addition, actively used grass space require active maintenance. I work at Georgia Tech, and the high-traffic lawn areas (constant student activity) have regular care and maintenance by campus landscaping staff. I live downtown and have not seen the square receive that level of attention — or anything beyond set-and-forget. The city needs to consider not just the project cost, but the ongoing maintenance required to keep the grassy area …. grassy. This is especially true given the entire space is artificial and foot traffic is high.
Maybe we should just lay down astroturf and declare victory. Minigolf course!
I’ve said we need a mini golf over there for years!
Given all the whimsy in COD lately, why not? The Square already has a chess table, right? And a fun fountain. Add shuffleboard or cornhole toss and we’re all set!
There also is the issue of supply and demand. There is not enough public greenspace to meet demand in Downtown Decatur. Demand will continue to increase as the Arlo is completed, bringing the number of new homes built in Downtown to 600 over the past two years. The Callaway building will add another 329. There are no plans to increase supply.
Agree with the comments above. You can’t simply throw money at the problem without a deep analysis of the problem. Want to see the quality of the workmanship that is apparently acceptable to the City? Check out the horrible concrete work on Church St south of Trinity and the dying large trees in Oakhurst. It is clear they have no idea what is required for the job. I have little doubt that the same mentality will be at work on this problem.
I walk that stretch of Church fairly often and don’t recall noticing anything in particular. What’re the specifics?
Same for Oakhurst. What trees are you talking about?
The 38 muscles in your feet make up approximately 25 percent of the muscles in your body and absorb 1,000 pound
1000 lbs.? Are you calling me fat?
Remove the Bandstand, problem solved.
No, remove the bandstand, more grass.
No leaves on the trees, either. Gotta call foul on your photo selection, DM. As that is clearly a Christmastime shot.
Give up on the grass already. Decatur is the city of festivals and they all happen around the gazebo in some way or another and you can not grow grass with 10,000 folks walking, lounging , picnicking ,dancing every week end in the same area. Dear city managers stop wasting the tax payers money trying to grow grass where it will not grow find another ground cover, like something already dead , wood chips , or similar,give up on the grass stop wasting the money
How about some kind of shaded cover? Trees probably wouldn’t be possible because of MARTA, but some kind of roofing, maybe even with solar to power the lights in the area. Several months of the year, the square is virtually empty, and people huddle in the small shaded area near the courthouse.
I was going to say the same thing! I’d rather the money be spent for shading!
“This system has been successfully used by other municipalities for similar park and outdoor event installations.”
Remember the last project vendor, they were so cute. They came in and said “Sure, this won’t last very long, and we’ve never done this before, so it’ll be crap in a couple years. When do we start?”
Though I’d love to see it, color me skeptical that another new “system” could work.
Actually, I don’t remember. What are you referring to?