Joni House: Parks bond vote may be best chance to assure greenspace

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Monday, November 3, 2008 by Joni House, MDJ More Opinions contributor

There are some things we may never get another chance to do. Running out of time is not something anybody wants to think about. It makes us wince to think about things left unsaid, vacations not taken, and even, yes Mom, the thank-you notes unwritten.

Communities run out of time too. Things slip by us simply because no one is paying attention. And buried within all the polarizing issues on the current ballot, there's something that requires our nonpartisan local attention as Cobb county voters.

The last item on the current ballot asks whether Cobb should spend an additional $40 million on greenspace purchases for our community. If we pay attention and vote "yes" now, we will be voting "yes" to providing passive recreation opportunities for generations to come. We will be saying "yes" in a forward-looking way, knowing that this opportunity with its unique circumstances won't be around for future voters to choose.

What's unique about this chance to expand the greenspace portfolio? The opportunity now before us results from the stars aligning on several factors in a way we won't see again.

First, Cobb county's balance sheet - that is, its debt load and assets especially relative to its ability to service debt - is strong. In other words, we're not even close to debt laden. The greenspace bonds will be completely paid off in 15 years. Cobb can finance conservatively even in this most challenging of financial markets.

Second, the bad news for the national and local real estate markets has created a rare timing opportunity for our community as greenspace buyers. The market forces temporarily driving real estate prices down have also affected prices for the type of undeveloped land Cobb needs for its citizens for future passive recreation. We have the chance to acquire land throughout the county at prices that will stretch our collective buying power. A newly funded Cobb greenspace program will be at a fortunate crossroads where the public may be able to preserve parcels previously out of reach, while sellers will benefit from an injection of capital into the real estate community.

Third, as time goes on, the supply of undeveloped land will continue to shrink. Looking past the current real estate market, there will always be human need and population growth and movement driving the development of land. The pressure on our greenspace supply hasn't ended. It has just temporarily eased a bit. In real estate school they teach you, "They're not making any more land." And it's true. The longer we wait, the less land there will be to buy. If we wait to renew the greenspace program for Cobb, the land choices will be fewer and those that remain will be more expensive and possibly more difficult to finance.

Also available at this point in time to enhance a continued greenspace program is the set of learnings that the county team gained from designing a selection and vetting process from scratch to implement the purchases under the 2007 bond. All team members, including staff, Board, and citizens committee, partnered to establish an empirical evaluation toolkit to ensure that each parcel of land was treated in as non-political and objective way as possible.

Our generation may be the last to have the opportunity to make thoughtful, strategic greenspace purchases. We may be the last group of voters with the power to ensure the future availability of trees, fields, trails, and unspoiled places for recreation for the Cobb county community.

There's an opportunity on Tuesday for our community to fund the purchase of more greenspace for our passive recreation needs into the future. We chose to fund the first phase in 2006. Now we have the chance to fund more parkland to address enriching and expanding the portfolio. It may be one of our last chances to make strategic balancing purchases so no member of our community is underserved.

Please pay attention to the last item on the ballot. Please vote "Yes" for greenspace on Tuesday. We may never get a better chance to preserve greenspace for our future.

Joni House is president of the Grayfen Group, a management consulting firm in Marietta, is co-chair of Friends of Hyde Farm and is vice chair of Parks Bond Citizens Advisory Committee.