National attention focuses on Cobb parks

The following article by staff writer Amanda Williams appeared on Tuesday, June 6 in the Cobb & State section of the Marietta Daily Journal.

Calif. nonprofit joins push for $40M referendum

Bond funds would be used for future Cobb parks

A national nonprofit organization is helping a Cobb County group push for a $40 million bond referendum for future parks.

Representatives from the Trust for Public Land, a California-based land conservation organization that aims to conserve land for people, met Sunday with the Cobb Parks Coalition, a group that formed two weeks ago to get a $40 million parks bond put on the November election ballot.

Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens said Cobb could issue $40 million in general obligation bonds and still reduce its debt mill rate in five years. That would enable Cobb to buy 100-acre plots in north, south and west Cobb as well as some smaller plots in east Cobb. The land would be reserved for future parks, when the county could afford to develop it.

"This referendum is a great opportunity for Cobb County to stand up and get control of some of the land before it might be gone," said Jim Langford, Georgia state director for the Trust for Public Land. "It's also a chance for the voters in Cobb County to make a statement that green space is important, and preserving water quality is important."

Langford said the Trust for Public Land has had a long presence in Georgia and has helped preserve land along the Chattahoochee River.

"Our goal is to help create new green space in metro Atlanta and in Cobb County, areas of high growth where you need green space and if you don't capture it, it might go away," Langford said.

David Carter, southeast conservation finance director for the Trust for Public Land who works in Raleigh, N.C., also traveled to Cobb County this weekend for the meeting. He said he was impressed with the group's energy and community advocacy.

"What a great group of people. I just had the best time last night," Carter said Monday.

Paul Paulson, a west Cobb resident who hosted the group's first three meetings, said 40 people attended the meeting in his workshop Sunday. He said the group could benefit from the Trust for Public Land's expertise in land conservation.

"They were just on fire. They let us know what they can do and that we have the full support of the Trust for Public Land behind us," Paulson said. "These guys know what they're doing - they're preventing us from having to reinvent the wheel."

Carter said he and his staff this week are writing poll questions and plan to hire an Atlanta-based firm to poll 400 Cobb residents about what is important to them and how they view their community. Pollsters are expected to begin calling residents early next week, Carter said.

Carter said he and his staff this week are writing poll questions and plan to hire an Atlanta-based firm to poll 400 Cobb residents about what is important to them and how they view their community. Pollsters are expected to begin calling residents early next week, Carter said.

Cobb commissioners Helen Goreham, whose district includes northwest Cobb, and Annette Kesting, who represents southwest Cobb also attended the Cobb Parks Coalition's meeting Sunday.

"I am definitely for the county obtaining more green space and more park land. There is a definite need and a definite urgency in the sense that much of our land is being developed," Ms. Goreham said. "I am a firm believer that this decision be left up to the people in the form of a referendum."

Ms. Kesting said she thinks buying land for future parks would be great for the county, but she has some concerns about the amount because the county does not have the potential park land identified, so how would it know $40 million will be enough, she said.

"We're talking about $40 million, but what if we need more," Ms. Kesting asked.

The southwest commissioner also is concerned about who would maintain the land after the county buys it.

-- by Amanda Williams, staff writer

For more information about the Trust for Public land, visit their website at http://www.tpl.org/
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