County sees huge influx of parks bond applicants

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Thursday, February 19, 2009 by Ashley Hungerford, MDJ staff writer

LAKE LANIER - The 2008 Parks Bond Citizens Advisory Committee has a daunting task before them.

Bob Ash, Cobb's public services director, revealed at the county manager's retreat at Lake Lanier on Wednesday that the county has received more than 310 parkland nominations for the $40 million parks bond.

Cobb voters approved the second $40 million parks bond in November. The first $40 million parks bond, approved in 2006, secured more than 300 acres of green space.

For the 2006 bond, Ash said the county had 94 total nominations.

The 15-member committee, whose members are appointed by the Board of Commissioners, has its first meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at 100 Cherokee Street.

"The parks bond program is very much centered around citizens involvement," Ash said. "We're following the same model as we did in 2006. Our mission is to find the best parkland. It's not a political process."

District 1 Commissioner Helen Goreham said it's vital to have the citizens involved in choosing the parks because it's the citizens who supported, promoted and voted for the parks bond.

Monday's meeting is more an informational meeting to discuss the process for recommending purchases to the board of commissioners.

Eight members of the committee served the first round, while seven are new to the process, Ash said.

There will be a time for comments from the commissioners. Several commissioners indicated at the retreat they have ideas for criteria they would like the committee to consider when dwindling down the nominations.

"I would like to see what the community feels is important to the rest of Cobb County," Goreham said. "Hopefully we can get a broad view of the county to get the best overall value."

With the 2006 parks bond, large parcels were weighted more during the assessment.

This time around, District 3 Commissioner Tim Lee, who has been a big proponent of pocket parks, said he would like the committee to take a closer look at small parcels.

He said in his district, there aren't large tracts of land available. But his residents could benefit from smaller pocket parks that they could walk to.

Lee said he was pleased there were more nominations in his district this time around.

"The community woke up and saw that the property wasn't in their district," he said. "Now, they're saying, 'if I'm going to support it, I want to see the benefits.' They were more active in the nominations this time."

Eddie Cannon, Cobb parks director, said they are currently going through the nominations to verify there are willing sellers. So far, he said he has 280.

Cannon said they will create packages for the committee that include a wealth of information about each nomination, including significant or historical features of the property, information from the tax assessor, maps that show the property's location and proximity to other county parks.

The packages will be on disk this year because of their expected size, Cannon said.

Chairman Sam Olens expressed worry about how the committee was going to go through all the nominations.

"The first committee busted their tail; there's no way this committee is going to be able to look at 280 properties," he said.

Olens suggested doing a first culling by district, and allow the district representatives on the committee to look and see which land would actually fit into the needs of the district.

"It's a major undertaking, no question," Ash said.

Time isn't an issue, but Olens said he'd like to try to take advantage of the current economy.

"I'd like to buy some of these properties when we could get them cheaper," Olens said.

The county cannot purchase the properties for higher than the appraised value.

Olens said part of the increase in nominations could be likely due to property owners looking for a quick way to sell their property in the current economic climate.

"This is not the opportunity to sell your property, because developers are not knocking on your door anymore," he said. "We have to make the best decision for the residents, not the seller. We got to pick the properties where we'll get the most bang for the buck."

The property size of the nominations range from 150 acres to 0.2 acres, Cannon said. They've had more involvement from real estate agents and homeowners, and assemblages of properties this year. Cannon said they've even had people nominate homes within a subdivision for consideration.

The county also had nominations in four of the county's cities: Acworth, Kennesaw, Marietta and Smyrna.

Ash said all discussions of purchasing specific properties would be taken in executive session.

The committee will likely compile a four-tier list of about 20 properties and make their recommendation to the board in August, Ash said.

He did say they have contacted property owners from last year's recommended purchases that weren't bought to see if they're still interested.

Olen's appointees are Larry Ceminsky, John Pape and Gary Wolovick. Goreham's appointees are Jimmy Durham, Barbara Savage and Jeff Wood. Lee's appointees are Debbie D'Aurelio, Matthew Phillips and Doug Reed. District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott's appointee's are Bruce Hollmuller, Joni House and Veronica Jones. And District 4 Commissioner Woody Thompson's appointees are Chandon Adams, Connie Taylor and Barry Yeager.

The Retreat

The Board of Commissioners, along with County Manager David Hankerson and department managers, are on a three-day retreat at the Legacy Lodge and Conference Center at Lake Lanier Islands.

Olens is paying for the entire retreat out of his campaign fund, an estimated $11, 000 expense.

"I'm thankful to the Chairman for seeing the importance of our retreat," Hankerson said.

Both Goreham and Lee said the retreat is a great time to get a wealth of knowledge about what's going on in the county at once.

"We're able to hear from all the department heads, and we're all working from the same frame work," Lee said. "You can't beat doing this."