MDJ: County revises parkland inventory

From the Marietta Daily Journal, Friday, July 14, 2006 by staff writer Amanda Williams

An inventory of county-owned parkland released this week shows Cobb only has 452 acres suitable for development.

If voters approve a $40 million parks bond in November, Cobb could add between 200 acres and 650 acres to its 5,075-acre inventory of parkland, based on average prices per acre and depending on location. The bond issue would not force a tax hike, officials say.

Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens said the county already owns 4,251 acres of developed parkland and has 823 undeveloped acres. Of the undeveloped acreage, Olens said Cobb could only develop 452 acres.

Olens released a revised inventory of parkland in Cobb because figures published in a recent political advertisement were misleading, he said.

Cobb's 823 acres of undeveloped parkland in its parks and recreation inventory is just a third of the figure that District 1 commission candidate Johnny Woodward cited in a political advertisement. Woodward's ad claimed that Cobb had 2,279 acres available for county parks, information he said he obtained from a parks and recreation department employee who called him at county manager David Hankerson's request. Woodward did not remember the employee's name.

"I was trusting them to give me the correct numbers," Woodward said.

Olens said figures passed on to Woodward included land located in Cobb's flood plain, which cannot be built on, and properties earmarked only for trails.

"From the county's perspective, just because it's undeveloped doesn't mean (it can be developed)," Olens said.

For example, 25 acres on U.s. Army Corp of Engineers property next to Lake Acworth is planned only for trails, a restroom building and a parking area. Cobb also owns a 15-acre tract known as the Bartlett property on Starling Place off Factory Shoals Road in south Cobb where plans for development include only trails, a pavilion and parking.

Also, at Jim R. Miller Park on Callaway Road, 20 acres are used for overflow parking for the annual circus and North Georgia Fair. The county will never develop that land beyond its present use, Olens said.

Of the land that Cobb could develop, Olens said some likely would be complete within the next five years. He could not say exactly how much would be done, but parks such as the Pitner property near the landfill close to the Paulding County line and two properties in south Cobb are on tap for a makeover, but he declined to say precisely when.

Some projects, he said, like a regional library on Macland Road listed as a planned amenity to the West Cobb Aquatic Center, is a long-range project and could take up to 10 years to build.

"The issue from my perspective isn't to develop the existing property (before) we buy new parkland and develop that," Olens said.

It's not a question of how quickly the county develops the land, either, Olens said.

"It's a time problem. If we don't buy some of these properties now we're not going to ever have the opportunity," Olens said.

Woodward said when he published the ad he wasn't trying to muster opposition to the parks bond, he just thought the public would be interested to know how much parkland Cobb already has as voters face a $40 million question on the November ballot.

A longtime Cobb entrepreneur, Woodward is one of five candidates vying to unseat incumbent Helen Goreham in District 1, which includes northwest Cobb.

Ms. Goreham, who supports the parks bond proposal, said the revised parkland inventory more accurately represents Cobb's situation.

"The numbers are reasonable for a county this size," Ms. Goreham said. "I don't think people could decipher a point from (Woodward's) ad and I'm just happy that the true statistics are out there."

The $40 million question

When asked Wednesday how he would vote on the $40 million parks bond in November, Woodward said, "I don't know, I could. That's a long time away."

He said he favors buying more parkland, but he wants to know how Cobb would develop and maintain it once it's acquired.

"I'd like to see the whole picture," Woodward said. "I couldn't say. I think they owe us an explanation."

Given a reasonable explanation, Woodward said he would vote yes.

Woodward also raised several questions elected officials have not answered about the proposed bond, including how many acres of parkland $40 million would buy and where future parks would be developed.

Olens refused to answer how many acres $40 million would buy and said he could not even offer a ballpark figure.

"It really depends on what's available," he said. "Naturally, we want to make the best deal we can for residents."

Olens said it is too soon to know how much Cobb could buy with $40 million. He also said the county doesn't know what properties it would try to buy.

Land prices in Cobb vary widely depending on location, Olens said, adding that he hopes the tax break sellers get if they sell to the county would garner lower-than-average prices.

In most parts of Cobb, land sells for between $100,000 and $150,000 an acre, Olens said. In east Cobb, the cost per acre is as much as $300,000. In other parts of the county, it is as low as $60,000, a search of property listings showed.

Using those figures, $40 million would buy between 400 acres and 650 acres of land priced between $60,000 and $100,000 an acre. At $200,000 an acre, the county could buy about 200 acres. In east Cobb, at $300,000 an acre, $40 million would buy about 133 acres.

Ms. Goreham agrees that it's too early to estimate how many acres $40 million would buy.

"We can't wrap our arms around the amount of parkland we could buy," Ms. Goreham said.

Opposition rises

Critics of the parks bond question include former Cobb commission chairman Bill Byrne, who has posed many of the same questions as Woodward.

In a letter to the editor published in the Marietta Daily Journal on Sunday, Byrne called the plan a "charge card mentality." Although the county could issue $40 million in general obligation bonds without raising taxes, he said Cobb eventually would have to pay more than $10 million in interest for the parkland.

Byrne said he supports putting the question to voters, but he thinks it is a mistake to issue general obligation bonds for 30 years when the real cost would exceed $50 million with interest. That leaves future generations to pay the tab, he said.

"My proposal is to fund it through the general fund for $4 million a year for 10 years, pay cash as you go," Byrne said.

While supporters of the parks bond have said Cobb should act now to preserve land before it disappears, Byrne said even if the $40 million general obligation bond passes it would take time for the county to buy the land.

"To think that the county is going to race out with $40 million for land and spend it at once is either naive, foolish or stupid," Byrne said.

The last time Cobb residents were asked to vote on a plan to acquire land for public parks was in November 2000 when Byrne was commission chairman.

He said there was a push at the time to issue general obligation bonds for parks, sidewalk improvements and recreation facilities, which he opposed. Instead, he favored putting a 1-cent Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax on the ballot that would have generated $145 million over 15-months for parks and sidewalk improvements, and new construction of recreation facilities.

The county had planned to spend $45 million of the money on land acquisition, $25 million for new facilities, and $23 million on sidewalks.

The SPLOST failed with 53 percent of voters opposing.

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