After a delay, Cobb commissioners last week voted to approve spending more than $89,000 for Cobb parks master plans for newly acquired green space.
That includes more than 18 acres of land on Ebenezer Road near Canton Road that’s slated to become a passive park (above), and that was open to the public this summer at a special preview event.
BIOME Projects, a Decatur landscape architecture firm, will receive around $14,300 to develop a master plan for the Ebenezer Road park, with funding for the construction of the park to come at a later time.
The land, formerly owned by the Strother family, features a lake that may allow for recreational fishing activities.
Commissioners have spent more than $27 million over the last year to purchase nearly 500 acres across the county with funds allocated in the 2008 parks bond referendum.
The only other land bought in East Cobb was part of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park, which is being left as green space for now and so there is no master plan in the works.
The commissioners vote was 4-1, with Bob Ott opposed. He represents part of East Cobb and Smyrna-Vinings and said there are two parks in his District 2 now that aren’t open because there’s not funding for their maintenance.
“How are we going to pay for the parks we have as we build new parks?” he asked.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb pointed to Mabry Park, that’s being built on Wesley Chapel Road in what used to be her district (and is now in Ott’s).
It’s a decade since the county bought the land, part of the former Mabry family farm, and it sat undeveloped during the recession. A master plan was developed in 2011, and construction was finally approved last fall.
“We have to have a plan and guidance,” she said. “I support this.”
Also last week, commissioners approved a measure to spend $19,590 to replace a metal roof on the historic Hyde Farm house on East Cobb.
Cobb parks director Jimmy Gisi said the roof has been leaking and the replacement look to match other structures on the property, located off Lower Roswell Road.
The funding comes from the 2011 Cobb parks SPLOST account.
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