City of Roswell cancels $70M tennis center plan

ROSWELL, Ga. - A controversial plan to build a $70-million, 60-acre tennis, pickleball, and fitness center in the City of Roswell has been scraped after opposition from residents of the city.

The city council had planned to vote on the establishment of the the Angela Krause Tennis, Pickleball and Fitness Center, which would have been the largest clay court tennis center in the nation, on Monday. However, after protests from residents, Mayor Lori Henry has announced that the city has taken the facility off its agenda.

The 135-court facility would have built on 60 acres in the city's Big Creek Park, located off of Old Alabama Road, as a joint project of the City of Roswell and the Krause Foundation.

However, the center's plan met resistance from residents. An online petition created by a Roswell resident has been signed by over 24,000 people.

"In a busy city, we need this beautiful, tranquil, escape from the city much more than we need even more tennis courts and traffic," the petition said.

Henry released a statement Sunday afternoon saying that city will not be moving forward with the plan.

"The community has let us know over the past several days that they do not support this project for Big Creek Park," Henry said. "We want you to know we hear you again, so we will not be moving forward with it."

The project was developed by residents Vernon and Marie Krause to honor their daughter Angela, an tennis player who had died from a rare lung cancer in 2015.

Previously, the city estimated that the center could annually bring $30 to $50 million to Roswell through tournaments. 

Henry said that there is still the possibility of having a tennis center in the area. A town hall will be held in the coming months for community input about "the possibility and location," she said.