Cobb to begin park buys in spring

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Friday, January 19, 2007, by MDJ staff writer Amanda Casciaro

PINE MOUNTAIN - Cobb County will begin spending money from a $40 million bond to buy land for future parks in March or April, Cobb officials said Thursday.

The bond garnered hefty voter support in November at the polls.

About $25 million will be received from bonds this year and another $15 million will be available in 2008 to buy green space throughout the county.

Hundreds of purchase nominations already have been submitted through the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, but the challenge has come in finding out if owners are willing to sell, parks director Jimmy Gisi said.

"I was literally getting 25 to 30 calls a day from people about potential land purchases," Gisi said. "And a lot of them were from property owners who had no idea their land had been nominated."

Requests now must come through completion of a nomination form, which officials will use to determine where residents want green space and what tracts are available.

Pocket parks, which will be built in neighborhoods with little vacant land, will range in size from a third to a half acre.

Five to 20-acre neighborhood parks, 20 to 75-acre community parks, and 50 to 250-acre regional parks are all targets, as well as special-use tracts for recreation purposes such as the newly opened Sweat Mountain Dog Park.

The county will also look for natural resource areas where development is not possible and greenways to serve as links between cities, parks, schools, commercial areas and neighborhoods.

"I would hope we'd be ready to do agenda items in April for the first buys," Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens said.

To help identify tracts in each district, commissioners appointed a 15-member advisory committee in November made up of several members from the Cobb Parks Coalition, a group that formed to campaign for the bond's passage.

Olens said the role of the parks committee would be made clearer when they meet next Wednesday.

acasciaro@mdjonline.com