Activists revive support for bond to buy parkland

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Monday, June 30, 2008 by Tom Opdyke

They came with notepads and camp chairs and folding metal chairs to sit in a building where classic cars are restored.

Amid drill presses and pneumatic tools, near where a rusting Red Racer children's wagon is perched on a display shelf, about 50 people sat in Paul Paulson's classic car shop in western Cobb County on Sunday to talk about preservation, instead of restoration.

They quickly heard what they came for: Cobb government officials think they can raise another $40 million to buy parkland without a tax increase if voters will OK it in November.

The people in the shop — homeowners, business operators and environmental activists — only needed that word to crank up a local lobbying effort that in 2006 produced an authorization for the first bonds by 72 percent of those who voted.

Paulson, who led the last effort, said he needed $81 to reactivate the group's Web site and e-mail list. Supporters passed a straw hat while county Commission Chairman Sam Olens talked. It soon had enough money for one man to get change for a $100 bill.

Olens asked Paulson to gather the group and re-energize the effort in support of a second bond issue for parks.

Coming off a huge success in the past year in which Cobb has bought or acquired control of more than 400 acres with about $37 million, Olens and the others knew it was the right time to put their case for a second wave of open space purchases.

The thought was ratified immediately by David Hong.

"I'm here to pledge the East Cobb Civic Association will support a second bond. They just don't know it yet," said Hong, the association's president.

Olens said the County Commission would vote July 21 on whether to put a request for another bond issue on the November ballot.

The mechanics for taking on the additional debt without a tax increase involve spreading out the bond over 15 years — instead of 10 for the current $40 million parks bond — and using one-tenth of one mill from the fire district tax. That amounts to about $8 a year in a tax shift for the owner of a $200,000 home.

Commissioner Tim Lee said the shift would not harm the county's fire and emergency operations because the fire district tax yield has grown more than projected.

Olens added, "Even at the lower [fire] rate, we're taking in a similar amount of money."

Cobb has obtained six of the seven priority parcels it identified for its first round of purchases.

If a second bond were approved, some of the lesser tracts identified in the first round might be sought.

Lee, whose northeast Cobb district saw only one greenspace purchase in the first round, said that "a higher, better network of pocket parks" could be part of the goal for the next round of buying.

WHAT'S BEEN BOUGHT

Cobb County has agreed to spend a little more than $37 million of its $40 million. Here is what it bought and what Cobb intends to do with the land:

• 15 acres on Henderson Road off Veteran's Memorial Highway. Price: $2.4 million. Contains Civil War earthworks, adds to other county property and will connect to the Nickajack Creek Greenway Walking Trail.

• 18 acres off Stilesboro Road in northwest Cobb. Price: $1.4 million. Addition to the 75-acre Leone Hall Price Memorial Park on the south side of Stilesboro. The county also owns 14 acres on the north side of Stilesboro.

• 112 acres off Dallas Highway at Old Hamilton Road. Price: $18.8 million. Will be combined with 44-acre Oregon Park.

• 26.5 acres off Wesley Chapel Road in northeast Cobb. Price: $4.3 million. Much of the land is pasture, with some wooded area surrounding a pond.

• 138 acres off Brownsville Road. Price: $5.2 million. Addition to 88-acre Stout Park gives Cobb 226 acres of open space, 40 acres more than Atlanta's historic Piedmont Park.

• 135 acres off Lower Roswell Road. Price: $5 million (Cobb's share). The Hyde farm, which borders the Chattahoochee River, will be operated jointly with the National Parks Service as a educational center with a working farm that shows agriculture in the early 1900s.

Coalition pushes for follow-up parks bond

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Monday, June 30, 2008 by Ashley Hungerford, staff writer

MARIETTA - With more than $2 million remaining in Cobb's $40 million parks bond, a grassroots campaign is pushing for a follow-up parks bond for the county to continue purchasing more parkland.

The Cobb Parks Coalition is gearing back up for another campaign to ensure the measure is taken to the voters on Nov. 4.

The grassroots coalition is largely responsible for the passage of the parks bond in 2006 by over 70 percent of the vote.

Close to 50 civic and homeowners-associations leaders, representatives from the county and concerned county residents gathered at coalition leader Paul Paulson's house on Casteel Road on Sunday afternoon to discuss a follow-up parks bond.

Cobb Chairman Sam Olens and Commissioners Tim Lee and Helen Goreham were on hand to hear the discussion, although no official county action was taken.

"Hasn't the news just been fantastic about the first bond?" Paulson said. "We had good luck last time. Let's hope we have the same luck."

Paulson said the first goal is to get the parks bond on the November ballot.

To put a measure on the ballot, the Board of Commissioner would need to vote on the proposal by its July 22 meeting, Olens said.

"It's a tight time frame," Olens said.

Olens said he would support another $40 million parks bond, with a 15-year pay back period. The 2006 parks bond is on a 10-year pay back period.

"If you look at what we did with the first $40 million, you would say we did a lot," he said.

After talking with the county manager and finance department, Olens said this is what the county can do without a tax increase. He said he will not support anything that leads to a tax increase.

"It's important in this economy to stay at the same millage level we have now," Olens said. "When the economy is down, that's not when you hit your citizens."

With Olens' proposal, the county's millage rate would remain at 9.6 mills, meaning property owners would continue to pay $9.60 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The change would be in the distribution of the mills, he said.

Cobb's total millage rate, the measure the county uses to assess property taxes, is divided into three portions - 6.82 mills collected goes to the general fund, 2.56 mills goes to the fire fund and 0.22 mills goes to the debt service fund.

To prevent a tax increase with the second bond measure, Olens said there is the potential to reduce the millage rate of the fire fund by .1 mills to 2.46 mills, and move it over to the debt service fund.

Olens said in no way would this change affect the efficiency of Cobb's fire department.

If it appears on the ballot, Olens said the parks bond measure would be worded the same way it was in 2006, changing only the date and the 15-year pay back period.

This means the bond would be for parkland acquisition, not development.

"There isn't a rush on developing parkland, but there is a rush on preserving green space," he said.

Many at the meeting asked what needed to be done to make sure the commissioners vote at their July 22 meeting.

Community support was Olens' answer.

"The commissioners would like to hear from the citizens," Olens said. "The county commission is very responsive to what we hear from the community."

With the 2006 parks bond, the county secured five of the six top properties proposed by a citizens advisory committee. The sixth is a 54-acre tract, owned by Wylene Tritt, on Roswell Road in northeast Cobb.

The county has purchased more than 309 acres through the parks bond, using $37.67 million of the $40 million.

The tracts of property include 137.45-acre Stana property on Brownsville Road in southwest Cobb, $5.76 million; 112 acres of the Bullard-Stockton tract along Dallas Highway in west Cobb, $18.6 million; 26.5 acres of the Mabry Centennial Farm at the corner of Wesley Chapel and Sandy Plains Roads, $4.2 million; 16 acres near Henderson Road off Veteran's Memorial Highway near the Chattahoochee River, $2.4 million; and 17.7 acres of the Price property at Stilesboro Road near Acworth-Due West Road, $1.4 million.

The total acreage does not include the county's portion of 95-acre Hyde Farm is east Cobb.

Last month, the Trust for Public Land purchased the working farm off Lower Roswell Road for $14.19 million. The land will eventually be divided between Cobb County and the National Park Service. The county will use $5 million of the parks bond for their portion.

Lee, who represents northeast Cobb, said there is a "rumbling" from some residents in east Cobb who feel like they supported west Cobb's effort to get more parks.

Not to take away from anything that was accomplished, Lee said more attention needs to be paid to those areas where parkland wasn't acquired with the first bond.

Morning Washburn, an east Cobb resident and participant of Cobb Parks Coalition, said "pocket size parks," or small assemblages of parkland, would be good to consider this time around.

"I would love to know families in the future can walk to pocket size parks," she said. "This would help in areas that didn't have huge nominations."

With record voter turnout expected in November, Paulson said the county will get a true feeling of it if the residents want more parks.

"It's going to be a test," he said.

ahungerford@mdjonline.com

Follow-up parks bond doable, but clock ticking

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Sunday , June 11, 2008 by Joe Kirby, Editorial Page editor

Like Atlanta Braves star Chipper Jones, who has been hitting over .400 all season, the Cobb Board of Commissioners has been on a tear in recent weeks, announcing a string of parkland acquisitions. First the 95-acre Hyde Farm property in east Cobb, then last week the 137-acre Stana property in deep southwest Cobb.

Those buys followed three other purchases in recent months, all made possible by the $40 million parks bond approved by Cobb voters in a November 2006 referendum. All told, the county has acquired 309 acres for $37.67 million, and has just over $2 million of the bond money left.

Now, with the county's nest egg just about all used up, several questions naturally arise:

• Have those buys satisfied the county's need for more parks?

• Do we now have on hand sufficient parkland to see us through not just the time being, but coming decades as well? Decades during which the county's population is expected to continue to grow substantially?

• If county leaders decide a decade or so hence that we need more parkland, will taxpayers be glad that we waited until then to buy it? Will they be glad leaders essentially decided to pay 2015 or 2020 or 2025 prices for ever-more-scarce land that could have been bought comparatively dirt cheap at 2008 or 2009 prices, had an earlier generation been more visionary?

• Will they be glad those leaders waited until there was almost no desirable land left for parks before they decided it was time to buy more? Or will the public regret that the county didn't buy more in the late '00s, when there were still numerous choice tracts from which to choose?

• Will they be glad their leaders decided to wait until the economy was "hot" in order to start looking for parkland to buy? Will they be glad that wait meant desirable land was much more expensive than it would have been had the leaders decided to take advantage of the stagnant economy of today, when the real estate market is deader than King Tut and landowners are more inclined to sell it to the public at a reasonable price?

The answers to those questions are obvious. Cobb tax dollars will someday be spent on additional parkland, without question. So it makes economic sense to get the most bang for the tax dollar by buying that land now, not later.

As for the "tax hit" from such a bond, keep in mind that the cost of the current $40 million bond worked out to just $13.60 per year for the owner of a $200,000 house -- the equivalent these days of about three gallons of gas. Which legacy would you prefer to leave your children? More parks, or three gallons of gas? The cost of a similar-sized bond today would be even less, just $11.20, thanks to lower interest rates.

The parks bond of 2006 was a masterpiece of grassroots planning and effort, and it paid off when 70 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of taxing themselves to buy more parkland. It proved to be one of the most politically popular measures ever presented to Cobb voters. And should there be a follow-up bond, there's a strong chance it would be met with the same welcome.

But time is running short. The "drop dead" date for the Cobb Commission to vote in order to put the measure on the November ballot is July 23, scarcely a month away. Commission Chairman Sam Olens is taking a measured approach, and with good reason. Tax increases are more palatable to the public if they are "bottom up," rather than "top down." That is, a tax proposed by a grassroots group is easier for the public to swallow than one decreed by elected officials.

As Olens told the MDJ late last week, "I would seriously consider another parks bond if there were significant grass roots support for it." Thus the future of a 2008 parks bond is where it beongs -- on the sturdy backs and shoulders of those who came together and worked their magic on the 2006 bond, and on those who have seen its results. A follow-up parks bond can still happen, but it's time to shift into a "hurry-up" offense.

Latest purchase could set stage for next parks bond

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 by Joe Kirby, Editorial Page editor

Hot on the heels of Friday's acquisition of the remainder of the Hyde Farm property in east Cobb for parkland, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to acquire 137.45 more acres at the other end of the county for parkland as well.

"This is a beautiful property with creeks running all through it," Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens said of the Stana tract in southwest Cobb. "It's a property for generations to come and enjoy the vistas and quiet time that will occur there."

The property is tucked southwest of Powder Springs on Brownsville Road along Sweetwater Creek, hard by the Paulding County line. It adjoins the 88-acre Stout property, which the county has already acquired for a park. The goal is to merge the two properties into a single 225-acre park, which would be the county's largest. A 4,291-square-foot house on the Stana property will be purchased with hotel/motel tax money and converted into a senior center or community center, according to Olens.

The county will spend $5.1 million on the Stana property, money that is part of the $40 million bond overwhelmingly approved by Cobb voters in a 2006 referendum.

With the Stana purchase, the county will have purchased five of the top six properties proposed for acquisition by the county's parks bond advisory committee. The exception is the 54-acre Wylene Tritt property on Roswell Road in northeast Cobb.

Now, with most of the money from the bond spent, and having been done so without major controversy; and with the county's need for additional parkland still apparent, it is time for the commission and the community to consider whether to ask voters to approve a follow-up parks bond this fall. With the economy, and especially the real estate market, in a rut, there may never be a more opportune time for the county to have such a wide selection of properties from which to choose, and at prices that favor the buyer.

The commission, and the grassroots leaders who led the 2006 effort, would be well advised to put that ball back in play.

Is it time for Cobb to pass - Another Parks Bond?

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Sunday, May 18, 2008 by Joe Kirby, Editorial Page editor

Cobb residents voted by an absolutely overwhelming 70-to-30 percent margin in 2006 to tax themselves in order to buy land for future parks. The money has been put to good use too, with four choice pieces of undeveloped Cobb real estate now owned by the public and slated to become parks.

So now, why not play a doubleheader? That is, why not have another parks bond referendum -- maybe as early as this fall?

There are answers pro and con, and I'll tackle the "pros" first.

First of all, while the 2006 bond has brought the county four appealing tracts of land, there's no reason to think that they, combined with the parks we already have, will be enough to satisfy our future need for parkland. Cobb has about 5,160 acres of parkland at present, including the four new parcels, for its 660,000 people. That's about 2 percent of the 217,000 acres of land in the county. Meanwhile, our population is going to keep growing, to an estimated 763,000 in 2030, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

High-ranking county officials said two years ago the county optimally should have an additional 2,000 acres more of parks than it now has. One would assume that would still be true, because the four parks bond-financed purchases total only a fraction of that, some 161.7 acres.

Yes, Cobb is fortunate that it also is home to substantial federal parkland, the 2,920-acre Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' acreage along Lake Allatoona. But those parks are congested, too. KMNBP, for example, is visited by between 1.2 million and 1.4 million people per year, most of them recreationists, not the history-minded.

One of the pressing arguments for the bond last time is just as pressing now: The county is just about built out. Tracts big enough to be suitable for a park, even a passive park, are hard to come by. Half a decade from now there may be few left. A decade from now, there certainly will not be any.

And that brings us to perhaps the best argument for rushing another bond question onto the November ballot: the fact that with the real estate and home-building markets in low gear and interest rates still at rock bottom, we have an unexpected window of opportunity for buying land at affordable prices. That window won't stay open forever.
Plus, as a practical matter, the strikingly diverse coalition of advocates that were so effective in touting the parks bond last time around could easily be reactivated. With a successful template to follow, their work should be simpler this time. There's still adequate time to lay the groundwork for such an effort. The deadline for submitting a referendum question in time to make it onto the November ballot is not until Aug. 8, according to Cobb Elections Supervisor Sharon Dunn.

But as mentioned above, there also are reasons for holding off on another parks bond. For starters, there's the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum for schools expected in September. School supporters are sure to argue that the parks bond might overshadow the SPLOST even though they would be two months apart, and there's no question that the parks question would be the more popular of the two.

One solution would be for the parks advocates to officially endorse the SPLOST as well and work just as hard for its passage as for their own measure. If we're buying parkland for our children, it makes just as much sense to make sure the cost of educating them is covered as well. And if voters are upset at how their school taxes have been spent, they should take it out against the school board members in November, not take it out against our children in the SPLOST referendum.

Anti-tax sentiment must always be taken into consideration, especially in a conservative community like Cobb. Yet the cost of another parks bond might be no more noticeable than that of the current one. The cost to taxpayers of the 2006 bond was just $13.60 per year for the owners of a $200,000 house. That's the equivalent of three fancy lattes in return for a gift that will keep on giving and giving to future generations of Cobb children and adults.

Some will say that buying attractive land takes it off the tax rolls and robs the tax digest of future growth. That's true; but it's also true that developing such land would bring tax costs of its own in terms of schools, roads, police, etc.

Still others will say the county should wait until the current bond money is all spent and the new land has been digested. But it will be years before the new parks are up and running. By then, there wouldn't be much left to choose from. The beauty of buying now is that the county can pick and choose what it wants and negotiate from a position of strength, rather than having to settle for whatever undeveloped land we can get.

Chicago Cubs star Ernie Banks' famous line was, "Let's play two!" And maybe those who united to pass the 2006 parks bond should be thinking along the same lines.