A rare slice of ample green space in East Cobb is going to stay that way. Two residential plots of land on Ebenezer Road were purchased by Cobb County on Tuesday, and will become a public park.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to acquire the 18.3 acres at 4055 and 4057 Ebenezer Road for a combined price of $1.7 million from the estate of John R. Strother.
It’s the first purchase of land in the East Cobb area with funding from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum, and the 2017 supplemental resolution adopted by commissioners last year.
The adjacent plots are at the southeast intersection of Ebenezer Road and Canton Road, just south of Noonday Baptist Church. The Strother lands includes a lake and two residences, one in each parcel.
The eastern edge of the property abuts a single-family subdivision. The Ebenezer Road area is a mix of older homes on bigger lots and newer, denser residential development.
Strother, who died in 2015 at the age of 101, was a retired Lockheed-Georgia employee and World War II veteran.
Funding and development of the Ebenezer Road property will be undertaken separately.
“This has been a long time coming,” Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said of the Ebenezer Road properties. “We’re getting a beautiful piece of property.”
The only other passive park in development in the area is at Mabry Park, which recently got underway on Wesley Chapel Road. Birrell, who represents District 3, has been a vigorous advocate for that park, which now falls in District 2, represented by Bob Ott.
On Tuesday, commissioners appropriated $6.1 million total for 150 acres, most of it in west and south Cobb.
Only District 2, which includes much of East Cobb, has not had a green space purchase with funding stemming from the referendum.
