A college boating club may slip into the Chattahoochee River from a city-owned boathouse the club offered to pay for and build in 2007.

Last week during its work session at City Hall, the Sandy Springs City Council asked for more answers about a lease with GTKayak, the Georgia Tech kayak and canoe club, for rental of boathouse on the northwest corner of Morgan Falls Overlook Park.

Club spokesman David Goodman said the 10-year-old club — the reigning collegiate national champion — previously housed its 28 watercraft at the Atlanta Junior Rowing Club in Roswell.

“We’ve been on a search for a home,” he said about the club’s 20 members. “We’re young but we’re growing. A good permanent or semi-permanent home is critical to give the club a good foundation to grow on.”

District 3 City Councilman Chip Collins asked why a group from outside the city would have exclusive use of the boathouse.

“I’m only in favor of some benefit to the city and its citizens,” he said.

District 6 City Councilwoman Karen Meinzen McEnerny agreed, adding her concern about the park’s 61 parking spaces.

“It’s going to be such a highly desirable spot,” she said. “I don’t want this to become a facility for Georgia Tech to the exclusion of the other people in our community.”

District 2 City Councilwoman Dianne Fries, whose district includes the park, said the boathouse was Tech’s idea in the first place.

“They were going to build the boathouse for us,” she said. “We’re the ones who changed it.”

Goodman said although the club’s annual operating budget is $8,000, it is willing to pay for expansion of the current 300-square-foot dock in return for a lower rent.

“We raised money to build the boathouse. We can redirect that money to the city,” he said.

Rent figures were not part of the discussion surrounding the standard lease provided by the state Board of Regents, but Mayor Eva Galambos said an event like a boat race may provide indirect financial benefits.

“We want our parks to be used. If it does entail people who come from outside and stay in our hotels, wonder-ful,” she said.

According to Ms. Fries, a second boathouse will house public safety boats. Each 20-foot by 50-foot boathouse will be capable of holding 45 watercraft.