Sandy Springs

People have lived here since about 400 AD, when Native Americans cut three trails to reach the freshwater springs. In the 16th century the Creek Muskogee tribe settled the area, and they stayed until the early 1800s, when the discovery of gold led to their removal.

In 1821 the federal government held land lotteries here, and that brought purchases and settlement. The Austin-Johnson House, built in 1842 on Johnson Ferry Road, is the oldest unaltered house still standing. In 1851 Wilson Spruill gave 5 acres for Sandy Springs United Methodist Church, near the natural spring that gives the city its name. The Hammond School went up in 1905 at Johnson Ferry Road and Mt. Vernon Highway, across the street from the church.

The area stayed rural for a long time. In 1950 the state legislature blocked Atlanta from annexing it, and the community remained quiet farmland until the Interstate Highway System was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. In the early 1960s Georgia 400 and Interstate 285 were built. They tied Sandy Springs to metro Atlanta and set off a housing boom, as part of the white flight from Atlanta after the Civil Rights Movement won more racial integration within the city.

The fight to avoid being absorbed by Atlanta lasted decades. After a fire at Hammond Elementary School in 1959, Atlanta mayor William Hartsfield urged residents to back annexation for better firefighting, but community opposition killed the idea. He tried again in 1965, and in 1966 annexation was defeated in a referendum, with two-thirds voting against. Efforts to incorporate began that same year.

In the early 1970s Atlanta tried to use a state law to force annexation, and that failed when the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled the law unconstitutional. Residents then formed the Committee for Sandy Springs 1975 to lobby for cityhood. Supporters argued that their taxes were going to other communities in Fulton County. Every legislative session, local lawmakers introduced a bill to allow a referendum, and legislators from Atlanta and southwestern Fulton County blocked it, using the rule that local bills must first be approved by the delegation from the affected area.

The blockade broke in 2005. Republicans gained a majority in both houses of the General Assembly, the procedural rule was changed so the bill was handled as a state bill, and the rule requiring new cities to sit at least 3 miles from existing ones was repealed. The bill, HB 37, passed and Governor Sonny Perdue signed it. A referendum on June 21, 2005 produced a 94% vote for incorporation, and in November 2005 voters elected a mayor and six city council members. Incorporation was formal on December 1, making Sandy Springs the third-largest city ever to incorporate in the U.S. The police and fire departments began service in 2006.

When the city was founded it did something unusual. It operated as a public-private partnership, with all but six full-time employees contracted from private companies. It is believed to be the first American city to outsource the majority of its ongoing operations, and it did so as an economic response to the Great Recession. Delegations from other governments came to see how it worked. In 2010 the city rebid all general services, and the contract was won by CH2M Hill at a lower price because of the downturn.

In 2019 the council moved to scale back the model. It hired 183 contract employees directly, leaving only 15 outsourced full-time workers by the end of that year. Services such as the city attorney's office, security, street sweeping and ambulance work are still outsourced. The city expected to save $2.7 million in the next year and more than $14 million over 5 years. Police, fire-rescue and city management were never outsourced. Rusty Paul is the mayor.

Two other dates stand out. In 2010 the city became the first jurisdiction in Georgia to successfully bail out from the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. And in April 2025 the council passed an ordinance, first drafted by the Anti-Defamation League, that barred leafleting, signs or oral protest within eight feet of a person without consent. The ACLU of Georgia criticized it as a free speech violation, and the council repealed it unanimously in May 2025.

City Springs is the downtown. The city had no traditional center, so leaders bought the property in 2008, the site of a former Target shopping center between Roswell Road, Johnson Ferry Road and Mount Vernon Highway. They built a district with municipal offices, homes, shops, green space and a performing arts center. It opened in 2018, ten years after the purchase, and its address is on Galambos Way, named for the first mayor, Eva Galambos. Heritage Green, inside the district, holds the spring that named the city. Old strip malls along Roswell Road are steadily giving way to apartment and mixed-use projects.

Perimeter Center is a commercial edge city around Perimeter Mall. About 40% of it, including the mall, is in Dunwoody, and the western 60%, with most of the office towers, is in Sandy Springs. Here is Pill Hill, the largest medical center in Georgia, with Northside Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. More than 40% of the hospital beds in metro Atlanta are inside Sandy Springs. Two white-crowned towers at Concourse at Landmark Center are nicknamed the King and the Queen, and with nearby Park Towers they are the three tallest suburban buildings in the country. Two MARTA stations, Sandy Springs and Medical Center, serve the area, and the 400-285 interchange is under major construction.

Riverside is the western district, a high-income residential area of winding hilly roads and old growth forest along the river. Heards Ferry Road and Riverside Drive are its main roads. Heards Ferry Elementary and Riverwood International Charter School are here, and so are the headquarters of the Fulton County Board of Education.

North Springs, in the north of the city, is served by the North Springs MARTA station, the end of the Red Line. Five public schools are in it. The North End is the northernmost district, west of GA 400 and south and east of the river, and it holds the Northridge business area and the North River Village community.

The Dunwoody Panhandle, or simply the Panhandle, is a residential area between the river and Dunwoody. Many people who lived there when the city incorporated thought of themselves as Dunwoody residents and objected to street signs that read Sandy Springs. Then-mayor Eva Galambos said the signs would not erase the neighborhood's identity, and some residents still call it Dunwoody in Sandy Springs.

South Springs, also called Sandy Springs ITP for inside the perimeter, is the part south of Interstate 285. Its southern end is considered part of the greater Chastain Park community of Buckhead. Ridgeview Charter School and High Point Elementary are here, and the Atlanta radio station 99X broadcasts on 98.9 from this area. Powers Ferry Landing is a small business district just east of the old river crossing, where Northside Drive meets the road, with freeway access at Northside Drive and New Northside Drive.

The Sandy Springs Festival began in 1984 and is the largest community event in the city, drawing about 30,000 people. It has artists, civic and business expositions, bands, children's events and a road race. Artsapalooza is a yearly fine arts festival, Stars and Stripes Celebration is the July 4 fireworks show, and the Chattahoochee River Summer Splash is a 6-mile float down the river.

The Heritage Sandy Springs Museum opened in 2010 and covers local history. The city also has a museum devoted to Anne Frank. Sixteen parks and greenspaces hold more than 950 acres of parkland, and multi-use trails include Abernathy Greenway and PATH400. The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System runs the Sandy Springs Branch near City Springs, and the Sandy Springs Reporter is the local newspaper.

The biggest employers are hospitals and corporate headquarters or regional offices across computer services, package delivery, telecommunications, media and financial transaction processing. Three hospitals, Northside, St. Joseph's and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, hold 40% of the region's hospital beds. The North-American headquarters for Mercedes-Benz is at Glenridge Hall.

A 2008 estimate gave a median household income of $106,240 and a median family income of $129,810. About 3.1% of families were below the poverty line.

Highways include Georgia 400, I-285, U.S. 19 and Georgia 9, and the busy local roads are Roswell Road and Spalding Drive. The city opened a Traffic Management Center in 2008. MARTA is the main transit provider, with a heavy rail line and several bus lines. The Medical Center, Sandy Springs and North Springs stations are in the city. The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority runs express buses to other counties from North Springs station, which has its own ramps to and from 400.

Fulton County Schools run the public schools. Sandy Springs Middle School and Ridgeview Charter Middle School serve the city, as do two high schools, North Springs Charter School of Arts and Sciences and Riverwood High School. Private schools include Brandon Hall School, Springmont, Atlanta Jewish Academy, Holy Innocents' Episcopal School, Mount Vernon Presbyterian School, St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School, The Epstein School and The Weber School.