Fayette County’s newest reservoir, under construction in west Peachtree City, will feature a recreation area for county residents to enjoy.
The recreation area planned for Lake McIntosh will include not just regular parking but also golf cart parking, according to a preliminary sketch of the area.
The site will feature a playground, a gazebo, two walking trails, a picnic pavilion, docks and parking for boat trailers. It also will feature a gate at the entrance so the park can be closed from dusk until dawn.
The plan is similar to the recreation amenities at Lake Horton, the county reservoir in south Fayette County.
The 650-acre lake will stretch just south of Ga. Highway 54 West southward toward Falcon Field Airport. It will be located along Line Creek though most of the land is in the jurisdiction of Coweta County. The land was purchased back in the 1970s and is owned by Fayette County.
At its meeting Wednesday, the Fayette County Commission authorized its consulting engineering firm to prepare a bid package so bids can be solicited for construction of the park.
The county is hopeful that the project can be far enough along for the necessary landscaping to be installed in the spring.
Once full, the lake will be capable of producing more than 10 million gallons a day of drinking water. But that day will take a while after construction wraps up, since it could take a year or more for rainfall to bring it up to full capacity, officials have said.
The county must maintain the existing flows of Line Creek through construction and beyond. The lake will be filled by rainfall, not by the creek itself.
The lake construction project, awarded to Brad Cole Construction, will cost some $8.23 million. Additionally, the county has spent more than $7 million in land purchases, mitigation sites, wetland credits, studies and consultants for Lake McIntosh.
Late last year, the county commission approved issuance of a $16.5 million bond to pay for the dam, reservoir, a pump station, mitigation site construction and wetland credits.
Lake McIntosh was supposed to be the county’s first reservoir back in the 1970s, but regulatory hurdles and other issues put it on the backburner as Lake Kedron and Lake Horton were built instead.
The county owns the entire property encircling the lake, so there will be no private boat ramps for lake access, officials have said.
Construction on the lake began in January and is expected to take up to two years.
