At the north end of Milton City Park and Preserve, a pier with a pavilion now sits over the water. A creek joins two ponds that used to sit apart, and boardwalks cross the wettest stretches of what was once the Milton Country Club. The city held a ribbon cutting for the work in February, after people had already been using it for a few weeks. The upgrade roughly doubled the trail to 2.5 miles and made it a loop, so you no longer walk out and back.
All of that was built on land Milton calls "passive." That same word is now the open question in the city's Greenprint, a plan for the future of seven bond-funded greenspaces. City staff targeted a Council presentation on Nov. 16 and adoption on Dec. 7. The draft concepts show what the city thinks passive land could hold: fishing piers, a dog park, a restroom, a boat ramp and disc golf. Anyone who walks these properties now is looking at the baseline the plan will measure against.
A Word That Was on the Ballot
In November 2016, 82.86% of Milton voters approved $25 million in bonds to buy land for trails, conservation land, wildlife habitat and other natural areas. The first purchase was the former country club in February 2018. The city set aside 130 of its 137 acres as greenspace. The other 7 acres became the "active" side, home to the Milton City Pool, the Milton Tennis Center and the Community Center in the old clubhouse.
The city's page for the park puts the passive promise plainly. It says there will be no new development in this area, "though there will be trails for the public to use." The trail work that followed brought a pier, a pavilion and boardwalks, so in practice passive already covers more than a footpath.
The Greenprint page says the plan can more specifically define what a "passive" property is, and that the discussion might cover "whether things like bathrooms, benches, a dog park, and facilities for natural activities like bird watching or fishing should be allowed." Every item on that list appears somewhere in the October draft concepts.
Three Places to Walk This Month, Three Versions of Passive
All three bond greenspaces that are open to visitors show the idea in a different form.
Milton City Park and Preserve, 1785 Dinsmore Road. This is the most built-out version. The loop is 2.5 miles, with an asphalt section along Dinsmore Road that connects the natural trail back to the parking lot. The work also added native trees and shrubs and stormwater features such as bioswales and weirs. Part of the funding came from a $1.5 million Georgia Department of Natural Resources grant. The first 1.25 miles opened in April 2022, so in four years the trail has doubled. The passive land has two parts, the North Woods and the South Woods. The North Woods is a narrow U-shape around the two lakes, and Chicken Creek forms its border.
Lakhapani Preserve, 990 Lackey Road. This is the quietest of the three. The preserve sits on a rural gravel road off Arnold Mill Road in southwest Milton. Its 106 acres include a 1.5-mile trail that climbs and drops through trees, crosses creeks, runs past Wolff Lake and passes a pasture where cows sometimes graze. The city bought it from the Wolff family in 2018. The main trail was mostly already there, and the city's largest addition has been a gravel lot for about 15 cars.
Freemanville-Birmingham Greenspace, 15660 Freemanville Road. This one has the most Milton character of the three. It covers 21 acres of mostly flat, pasture-like land at the corner of Freemanville and Birmingham roads, with fenced areas and a parking lot big enough for horse trailers to turn around. The city says people are welcome, and so are leashed dogs and horses, whether led or ridden.
So within the same bond program, passive already covers a boardwalked loop with a pier, a gravel lot at the end of a country road, and a pasture where horses are welcome. The Greenprint asks which of those versions each remaining property should get.
What the Drafts Put on Each Property
The city posted a visual concept and a fact sheet for each of the seven properties ahead of two open houses at City Hall, held Oct. 20 and Oct. 27. Taken together, the drafts look like this:
| Property | Size | Ideas in the draft concept |
|---|---|---|
| Bethany Road | 104.8 acres | 0.87 mile of existing trail plus 0.67 mile proposed, a 1-acre parking area, a fishing pier, wetland restoration |
| Freemanville-Birmingham | 21 acres | A 0.62-mile proposed trail, a community garden, an equestrian and agriculture field |
| Hamby Road | 28 acres | A wildlife amenity, a wildflower field, a scenic overlook, invasive-species clearing |
| Hopewell Road | 39 acres | A 0.23-mile proposed trail, a 0.14-mile boardwalk connecting to Providence Park, an equestrian riding ring and barn, nature education |
| Lakhapani Preserve | 106 acres | Improved parking, a pavilion, a restroom, a boat ramp, a fishing pier, biking trails, a possible bridge |
| Milton City Park and Preserve, incl. the Kennedy property | 130 passive acres | A 1.33-mile proposed trail, 0.30 acre of parking, disc golf, wildlife planting, a possible bridge connection |
| Webb Road | 4.8 acres | A dog park, a parking area with a water source, a pedestrian crossing, a 0.31-mile trail |
Most rows in the table add to what the open properties already offer: a trail, a small lot, a place to fish. The Lakhapani draft map shows 1.62 miles of trail open today and 1.54 miles of existing trail that is closed. Its concept adds a pavilion, a restroom and a boat ramp near Wolff Lake. The Webb Road dog park and the Lakhapani restroom are the clearest examples of the items the city itself listed as open questions.
The Proposal That Drew Public Comment
The disc golf in the Milton City Park and Preserve concept is the idea that has drawn people to the microphone. A city presentation board for that property shows disc golf, mountain biking, walking paths, wildlife habitat, tree and wildflower planting, and a bridge to the northern part of the park.
At the Nov. 2 Council meeting, Appen Media's Milton Herald reported that two residents spoke against turning passive portions of the preserve into active use. They asked the Council to keep bond-funded land in passive use and to open nature trails rather than add disc golf or mountain biking.
The city's own survey data gives that testimony some context. A Greenprint Community Survey Report from February 2024 counted 238 responses, about 98% of them from Milton residents. According to the city's summary, respondents strongly supported natural-surface trails and habitat improvements and "generally favor limited, rustic improvements over active recreation." Disc golf and mountain biking are the two items in the drafts that sit furthest from that summary. Both are proposed for the property where the 2.5-mile loop already draws the most use.
What a Council Vote Would Set
On the city calendar, the regular Council meetings fall on Monday, Nov. 16, and Monday, Dec. 7, both at 6 p.m. Those are the dates staff targeted for the Greenprint presentation and adoption.
The city describes the Greenprint as a guiding document. Including a feature in it "doesn't ensure that it will move forward." Each addition would be its own project, with its own budget, outreach and public meetings where people can comment. The city also says any change that involves city funding goes through the budget process, which includes public comment at Council meetings.
An adopted Greenprint would give the city a written guide to which kinds of features fit on land the ballot set aside for nature. Any disc golf basket or dog park would still need its own funding vote. The guide would apply to the 130 passive acres off Dinsmore Road and to the six other properties.
The Greenprint Steering Group advising staff includes members of the Milton Sustainability Committee, the Milton Trails Advisory Committee, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Milton Equestrian Committee. Questions and comments on any of the seven properties go to [email protected], according to the city's Greenprint page, which also links every draft concept.
The Crew Keeping the Trails Up
Whatever the plan says, the open trails will have a new upkeep arrangement. On Nov. 2, the Council approved a $691,000 annual agreement with Tri Scapes LLC, an Alpharetta-based firm, to staff and maintain city parks, facilities, trails and green spaces. Appen Media reported that the contract funds a dedicated seven-person crew with vehicles and equipment, where earlier contracts were task-based. It runs one year with up to four automatic renewals. Tri Scapes is also the contractor the city named for the Milton City Park and Preserve upgrades that produced the loop, the pier and the boardwalks.
So the same contractor that built the current version of passive land will be maintaining it while the Council decides what passive should mean everywhere else.
Milton's greenspaces are part of what our team means by neighborhood fit, and we follow decisions like the Greenprint because they shape the places our clients walk every week. If you'd like an occasional note on how plans like this move through City Hall, along with the homes near the trails they affect, Occasio Collective is glad to keep you posted. Receive Exclusive Listings.
