MDJ: Hopefuls support $40M for parks

From the Marietta Daily Journal, Thursday, July 8, 2006 by staff writer Amanda Williams
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Candidates come out in favor of Cobb bond referendum

MARIETTA - As Cobb County commissioners prepare to vote Tuesday to put a $40 million parks bond on the November ballot, a recent political advertisement draws attention to the amount of undeveloped parkland Cobb already owns.

An ad published last week in the Marietta Daily Journal paid for by District 1 commission candidate Johnny Woodward's campaign, asks why the county has not developed the 2,279 acres of parkland it already owns.

Cobb owns 5,001 acres of parkland, of which only 2,722 acres are developed, the advertisement claimed. Woodward said the ad was only meant to state facts, not to send any particular message to voters.

"We have 2,279 acres of land still undeveloped that we own and can afford to develop now," said Woodward, a Cobb entrepreneur who is best known for his Johnny's Steaks & Bar-B-Que in Powder Springs.

To name a few, Woodward said the O.C. Huber Property on Highway 41 has 20 acres of undeveloped land and a property on Pitner Road has 298 undeveloped acres.

Woodward said his advertisement does not mean he is against the grassroots effort to get a $40 million parks bond approved.

"I'm for it if the citizens want it," Woodward said. "That's the American way to vote. This election isn't about me or the other five candidates. It's about what the people in this county want. If they want more parks, I'm for that."

Woodward's opponents in the District 1 commission race also favor the parks bond being put on the ballot for the public to decide, but John Osborne said he thinks voters would need more information by November to make an educated decision.

"I'm for it going on the ballot, that's the right thing to do," said Osborne, a retired Cobb County employee.

After researching the issue and listening to the Cobb Parks Coalition's ideas, Osborne said voters would need more information than they have been given before heading to the polls.

Among the questions Osborne says need to be answered is what parcels of land would be purchased if it were approved; what part of the county would benefit from it if it passed; and if the parks would be developed as passive parkland, sports complexes or for some other use.

Candidates Scott Richards, a former Cobb firefighter, Charles Spann, a recently retired Cobb police officer, and former Powder Springs Mayor and City Councilman Brad Hulsey each said they support the parks bond being put on the ballot and plan to vote for it in November.

Incumbent Helen Goreham said last week she intends to vote in favor Tuesday to put the parks bond on the November ballot.

West Cobb civic activist Paul Paulson in May formed the Cobb Parks Coalition, which has pushed hard for Cobb to buy land to develop into parks. The group has drawn support from the Raleigh, N.C.-based Trust for Public Land and has an online petition with more than 900 signatures.

Dan Coffer, a new Cobb County resident who recently became active with the coalition, said its primary objective is for Cobb to be able to acquire land before it's too late. Then the group would work with Cobb officials to identify what parcels of land might be purchased and how it would be developed. He said uses for the land likely would vary from one part of Cobb to the next.

"In one part of Cobb it may be helping link a trail system, and in another area it may be a pocket park," Coffer said. "We're really trying to stay away from identifying certain parcels."

Coffer said some of the parkland could be left passive while some of it may be developed, depending on what the community wants.

"Forty-million dollars is a lot of money but if we don't purchase this land and set it aside now it won't be available five years from now," Coffer said.