Archive for Greenspace
May 5, 2009
· Filed under Georgia Counties, Greenspace · Tagged Cobb County, Parks, Sam Olens
Cobb County is eyeing 277 properties to purchase for parks, but will not release the locations of the potential parks. A 15-member committee appointed by the County Commission will meet behind closed doors to evaluate the properties and make recommendations. The County says the secrecy is necessary to keep land speculators from driving up the prices.
Critics, however, don’t buy the county’s argument now, particularly amid a recession that is socking property values. They say publicizing the locations of the properties could encourage owners to make their prices more competitive.
“I’m not sure if I really understand all of the secrecy around this,” said Jeff Wood, who serves on the 15-member committee county commissioners appointed to evaluate the properties. “I just happen to think that it is may be a little bit shortsighted because there is so much competition for the $40 million.”
Cobb County Commission Chair and candidate for Attorney General Sam Olens first deferred to the County Attorney about the secrecy, but then added:
Olens, however, said he would direct the county to disclose the locations of the properties the committee ultimately recommends, as he did after the 2006 parks bond issue. County commissioners, Olens added, will vote on purchasing the parkland in public after giving residents an opportunity to comment.
April 21, 2009
· Filed under Air Quality, Control & Rights, Georgia Cities, Greenspace · Tagged EPA, Fort Valley, Fort Valley State University, John Stumbo, National Priority List, Stimulus, Superfund, Woolfork
There are sixteen contaminated sites in Georgia on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority List. The site of the former Woolfork Chemical Plant outside Fort Valley will receive $5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to complete its clean-up.
Fort Valley Mayor Dr. John Stumbo:
The Woolfolk Chemical Plant started operations there in about 1924. They made agricultural pesticides that were arsenic lace. In those days, of course, there was no air conditioning and because of the heat, most of the mixing of this dry material was done in sheds that simply had a roof and no side walls. So, as the winds blew through there, it would carry this contaminated dust all over the area. The second company came in there in the 1970s, they were called Canada in Georgia, and they were doing the same thing.
The 31-acre Woolfork site sits close to downtown Fort Valley and near Fort Valley State University. This site has long been seen as the hope for revitalization of downtown Fort Valley. The Woolfork site was deemed eligible for the Superfund program in 1990. Since then more than $27 million has gone in to cleaning up the chemical contamination.
In the early 1980s, citizen complaints prompted the Georgia environmental officials to investigate Woolfolk amid allegations of discharge of waste products into a drainage corridor heading away from the site. No injuries have been reported but one lawsuit forced a former Woolfolk owner to reimburse residents for declining property values.
Today, according to the EPA, all excavation of arsenic from residential soil is complete, as well as the removal of arsennic contaminated dust from residential attics.
Fort Valley hopes this latest cash infusion will complete the cleanup of Woolfolk, fulfilling its promise of downtown revitalization.
Mayor Stumbo offers his take on Life After Superfund here.
April 13, 2009
· Filed under Annexation, Georgia Cities, Georgia Counties, Greenspace, Historic Preservation · Tagged Autrey Mill Nature Preserve and Heritage Center, Autry Mill Nature Preserve Association Board, Bill Doughty, Fulton County, Joan Compton, Johns Creek, Mike Bodker
The City of Johns Creek filed suit against the nonprofit Autrey Mill Nature Preserve Association Board that runs Autrey Mill Nature Preserve and Heritage Centerto take over the 46 acres of recreation and green space located on Autrey Mill Road. The City inherited the lease in January 2007 when it bought the park from Fulton County. The nonprofit has operated the park for 20 years.
“Our primary concern centers around the Association’s original lease with Fulton County and an amendment executed July 19, 2006, the day after the successful referendum vote on [Johns Creek] incorporation,” city spokesman Bill Doughty typed in an email sent to concerned residents who have contacted the city about the lawsuit.
The City contends the lease is illegal, but there is more to it.
“We own the park, we own the liability, so we should at least have some say about appropriate activities happening at the park,” Mayor Mike Bodker said.
The nonprofit has fired back.
“In these times with money short everywhere, we were shocked that the City is spending taxpayers’ dollars and forcing Autrey Mill’s nonprofit Board to divert our limited resources into a court fight,” [board member Joan] Compton said. “We are ready and able to defend Autrey Mill from a hostile takeover, but we continue to prefer to negotiate with the city and resolve our differences in a principled way.”
Autrey Mill Nature Preserve and Heritage Center posts Q & A’s here going on the offensive against the City and the lawsuit.
Q) Were you expecting to be sued by the City?
A) No, we were totally shocked. . . .
March 16, 2009
· Filed under Georgia Cities, Greenspace, Subdivision Regulations · Tagged Atlanta, NPU-B, Planned Development Conservation Subdivision
NPU-B voted unanimously to reject a conservation subdivision ordinance proposed by the city’s Bureau of Planning and Department of Watershed Management.
The proposed Planned Development Conservation Subdivision ordinance would allow for greater density in exchange for water quality improvement and protection of greenspace in new subdivision developments.
NPU-B rejected the ordinance because the ordinance’s language was not clear.
“My major concern is there’s still too much gray area in the ordinance,” said Sally Silver, board vice president. “It needs iron-clad wording and intent. The definitions relating to architecture are not as clear as they need to be. With city elections coming up, we’ll be having a new city administration interpreting these standards.”
“There’s a level of anxiety in other communities and on other NPU boards,” said Jeff Shell, NPU B chairman.
The ordinance now goes to the Zoning Review Board at its first or second meeting in April. The board will make recommendations to the city council zoning committee, which will make recommendations to the City Council for a vote.
December 27, 2008
· Filed under Georgia Counties, Greenspace · Tagged DeKalb County, PATH, Three Forks Heritage Alliance
A settlement was reached in the legal fight between the PATH Foundation, DeKalb County, and neighbors that will allow construction of a bicycle and pedestrian path near Decatur to resume.
The settlement between DeKalb and a group of neighbors calling themselves the Three Forks Heritage Alliance calls on the county to pay $45,000 in plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees and to spend $50,000 re-planting hardwood trees to screen the plaintiffs’ homes from the path and a related construction access.
The settlement also requires the county to take erosion-control steps from regrading to planting new ground cover.
And it prohibits Ed McBrayer and his PATH Foundation from working on the current phase of the project. A different contractor is finishing the elevated boardwalk and bridges that snake through wooded hills linking Medlock and Mason Mill parks.
October 31, 2008
· Filed under Cell & RadioTowers, Georgia Cities, Greenspace · Tagged Blue Heron Golf Course, Karen Meinzen McEnerny, Radio Towers, Sandy Springs, Trisha Thompson
The Sandy Springs City Council voted 5-1 to approve four 303-foot radio towers at the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest corners of Blue Heron Golf Course on Morgan Falls Road. The approval will allow Sandy Springs Broadcasting LLC and its parent company, American Media Services LLC (both based in Charleston) to construct the four radio towers to create a local radio station, possibly within the Sandy Springs city limits.
The council also granted, under the recommendation of city staff, variances that allowed the towers to exceed the 300-foot maximum height requirement and be located within .25 mile of an existing Georgia Power Co. power lines and two other radio towers.
The approval was not without dissenters. Councilwoman Karen Meinzen McEnerny cast the only dissenting vote.
“I have very serious concerns about the public benefit of having a radio station operate in our community in greenspace,” said Ms. McEnerny. “In return for four towers, with a variance that’s required, and a visible light for 40-plus years, the offset is that we’re going to have a radio station that every hour on the hour broadcast our [city’s] name? … I don’t see any jobs being created.”
Sandy Springs Council of Neighbors Zoning Chairman Trisha Thompson also opposed the towers.
“Over and over and over again, every one of you have said that we need more greenspace in Sandy Springs,” Ms. Thompson said to the City Council. “All of you have been fighting for more greenspace and for park space for the children of Sandy Springs. … Why in the world are you putting a radio tower [near Morgan Falls Park] that will last and last and last? It will be a blight on the community and take away the very greenspace that you’ve been crying for.”
September 23, 2008
· Filed under Georgia Counties, Greenspace · Tagged DeKalb County, Greenspace
DeKalb County Board of Commissioners is considering paying $66,000 per acre to perserve as greenspace a 92-acre stretch along the South River in Southeast DeKalb near Stonecrest Mall. The proposed $6 million deal has been criticized because the developer-owner of the property only paid $22,000 per acre only two years ago. The money to purchase the property would come from the proceeds of bonds that were sold to buy and improve green space. Voters in DeKalb approved the bond programs in 2001 and 2006.
UPDATE: The Commissioners delayed a vote on the greenspace acquisition until mid-October.
August 17, 2008
· Filed under Georgia Counties, Greenspace · Tagged DeKalb County, PATH
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams found a mile-long walkway being constructed by PATH between Medlock and Mason Mill parks “illegal” and ordered that the work must stop. Judge Adams also ruled that DeKalb County did not follow its own permitting procedures by allowing the walkway to stray too close to a stream in violation of its own environmental regulations.
UPDATE: Judge Adams has extended the stop work order which will likely delay until next spring while a pending appeal of a previous ruling from Judge Adams that DeKalb County had not followed its own procedures awaits a decision from the Georgia Supreme Court.
August 3, 2008
· Filed under Georgia Cities, Greenspace · Tagged Arborist, Atlanta, Tree Ordinance
Atlanta rakes in for its tree fund and levies heavy fines for violation of its tree ordinance. Uniting developers, homeowners, and environmental groups, the City is repeated criticized for misusing and wasting the tree fund. Now the City has fired one arborist after he filed internal complaints alleging lack of enforcement by other employees and everyone takes notice.
Creative Loafing has posted a letter from the dismissed arborist here outlining his allegations of malfeasance
June 15, 2008
· Filed under Georgia Cities, Greenspace, Water & Coastal · Tagged Sandy Springs, Morgan Falls Park
The Sandy Springs City Council will consider at its meeting Tuesday a master plan proposing to spend several millions of dollars on expanding greenspace at its only riverside property – Morgan Falls Park. The master plan contemplates expanding existing parks, increasing river access, boat dock renovations, a children’s playground, and a fishing pier.
UPDATE: Sandy Springs approved $5million to fund the master plan.
