DeKalb Ave. greenspace gets stay of execution

News from Teri Stewart, the Lake Claire resident and gallery owner who is leading the neighborhood fight against a tree cutting and development project at the corner of DeKalb and Gordon avenues — a half-acre slice of land residents call the last greenspace along the well-traveled and busy thoroughfare.

At a city of Atlanta Tree Commission hearing Wednesday night, Stewart says, residents were given one month by the commission to raise $1 million and purchase the land. Adam Gaslowitz, the property’s owner, cannot cut down any trees in that period. The decision grants “Grandmaw Gordon,” the antique pecan tree that has stood on the land for more than 150 years, a temporary pardon. Stewart has sent letters to Gov. Sonny Perdue and the governors of Alabama and Florida, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saying that the tree, which she claims is immune to a disease that afflicts the species, could be studied to bolster pecan tree crops throughout the Southeast.

If the fundraising effort fails, residents have the option of appealing their case in Fulton County Superior Court.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)