MDJ opinion: Parks push should get support it deserves today

Editorial from the Marietta Daily Journal, Tuesday, July 11, 2006.

Parks push should get support it deserves today

The grassroots push for more Cobb parks will come to a head today in the Cobb Commission chambers, where the Board of Commissioners are expected to vote unanimously in favor of putting a referendum question on the November General Election ballot asking voters whether they favor a $40 million bond to buy land for future county parks.

As noted above, all five commissioners are expected to vote in favor of the parks, and we think they are doing the right thing.

Cobb has been growing at a torrid pace for the past several decades and open land appropriate for future parks is vanishing fast. The county also has been playing "catch-up" on the parks front for several decades, due to the prevailing attitude of years ago that the county didn't need to invest heavily in parks because of the presence here of 3,000-acre Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Now, with that park choking on roughly 1 million visitors a year and the county's parks overburdened as well, it is crucial that Cobb's leaders and taxpayers step up and ensure that land will be available for future park space.

If approved by the commission Tuesday and then by voters in November, the measure would be paid for with $40 million worth of general obligation bonds, yet the county still would wind up with a lower bonded-indebtedness tax rate five years from now because existing bonds totaling roughly that amount are nearly paid off.

The parks proposal, not surprisingly, has proven widely popular with the public. Nearly 1,000 people had signed an online petition on behalf of the Cobb Parks Coalition as this was written on Monday. Many of them also included a comment on why the commission should approve the request, and one of the most apt, and most succinct, was written by the very first person to sign the petition, Roberta Cook of south Cobb.

"I would like to see more treetops than rooftops in Cobb County. Let's buy land for parks before it's too late," she wrote.

Added signee Stephanie Fulton of Marietta, "Parks offer a way to connect with the land - particularly open space and greenways that offer multiple-use trails and creek walks - and live a more healthful, active life. I wholly support the Cobb County Park Lands Acquisition and hope that it passes!"

And there was this from Mary Finney of Marietta: "It's amazing that it has taken so long for something like this to happen. There are too many trees and green spaces being plowed down in the name of over-priced development."

Indeed, according to a poll of 400 Cobb residents conducted for the Coalition by the Raleigh, N.C.-based Trust for Public Land, 71 percent said they would vote for the measure. Moreover, the results were similar in all four corners of the county. Some analysts have feared that support might be weak in east Cobb, where there are no undeveloped large tracts left. But such worries apparently are groundless.

Other critics have said that a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax might be a better way of funding the parkland. No so, says Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens, because the revenue stream would be too small and come in too slowly.

"If you get $1 (million) or $2 million a year, there's not much you can do," he said. "SPLOST isn't the answer. If you have to wait five years to get the land, it won't be there."

Olens added that the push for parks is "a great cause, and I am going to support it."

With Cobb growing as quickly as it is, this may well be the county's last chance to acquire significant amounts of undeveloped land for future parks. The commission's expected vote to put the question onto November's ballot is the right one. Let the public - those who would be using the parks and paying the taxes for them - decide. What we're seeing - a grassroots movement for a worthy cause that will immeasurably improve the quality of life in Cobb, and which is supported by elected officials - represents government at its finest. And we hope that Tuesday's vote finds the commission ready to "play ball."