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CITY OF A LANTA DEPARTMENT of PARKS Office of General Manager Atlanta, Georgia 30303 October 20, 1967 J AC K C . DELIUS G E N ERAL MANA G ER MEMORANDUM TO: Honorable Ivan Allen 1 Jr., Mayor, City of Atlanta FROM: Jack SUBJECT: Transfer of summer recreation program to School System. c. Delius, General Manager of Parks & Recreation The Recreation and Park Survey which started October 2, 1967 will be concluded we hope by December 29, 1967. The group is giving special consideration to your suggestion and request that the feasibility of turning over to the School Department special recreation programs in the disadvantaged areas of 1 9 68. On several occasions you have e x pressed concern that the Parks Department is constructing a facility some 2½ blocks from the e x isting Daniel Stanton Elementary School. The Daniel Stanton Park Site, lik e all the other p urchased under the 1963 Bond Issue ,. was initially selected after careful consideration by the Planning Dep artment based on pop ulation, availability o f s p ace , etc. The philosophy of the 1963 Park Acquisition Plan was that p ark land would be p urchased immediately adjacent or near e x i s ting or p rogramed elementary schools so as not t o dup licate f acilities . In the case of Daniel Stanton School , t h ere presently is an enrollment of 91 4 p u p ils . Initial l y , fu.e S chool f a cility had only t wo acres o f p roperty and have r ecently add ed f our f or a total o f six acres . The State mini mum req ui r ement s fo r t he curr ent school populati on at this l ocation woul d be 14. 1 a c res1 t hus , the Daniel Stanton S choo l lack s 8.1 acr es a c c ording t o Stat e standards. S ince there is h a r dly enough a creage for minimum s chool f unct ions ., we f eel tha t we are corre ct i n pro c eeding with the d evelo pment of t he Danie l Stanton P a rk Site. The f act t h at we a r e co n str ucting a b ui lding on the park s i te t h i s c lo s e t o a scho o l ( i n vi e w of the f a ct that possi bly some of t he scho o l could b e used for inside r e creation) is unique in that we we r e abl e to remodel an existing Ge orgia Powe r Company sub-station building into a (Cont 1 d) �Mayor Allen Page Two October 20, 1967 useable and adequate gymnasium. We are quite deficient in gyms all over the City of Atlanta. I have again checked to see if we are correct in attempting to buy property in the Northwest area of the City of Atlanta and specifically adjacent to the Bowen Homes Housing Project on James Jackson Boulevard. This location has been declared the most urgent in need of additional park acreage in a recent study by the Planning Department. The Williams Elementary School serving Bowen Homes has a present enrollment of 1129 pupils. It sets on a 5-acre site and again according to State standards should have a minimum of 16.3 acres. Thus, the school itself is deficient 11.3 acres. We are in the process of condemning nearby property amounting to 11.019 acres of land. ~ CC: All members of Park Committee Mr. Dan Sweat �