The Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved plans Tuesday night to purchase the LGE Community Credit Union Office Headquarters at 430 Commerce Park Dr. SE for almost $13.5 million. The 5.2-acre property and 74,120 square-foot building will be the new Cobb police headquarters, replacing the one on North Marietta Parkway. LGE will be able to lease the building from the county until it secures a new location. The funding comes from the 2016 SPLOST.

Police cars also approved

The BOC also approved the purchase of 50 new police cars for $2.5 million using real and personal property tax collections beyond projections for 2018 in the general fund. The request was granted earlier than initially planned due to time constraints by the supplier. The board will address the purchase of more vehicles in December. Two hundred new cars have been requested.

Park plan put on hold

Director Jimmy Gisi of the Parks, Recreational and Cultural Affairs Department proposed using almost $90,000 in 2016 SPLOST funds to hire firms to develop a master plan to develop park land purchased by last year’s park bond. However, the county has not yet budgeted to develop the land and Commissioner Bob Ott expressed concern about spending money on planning when there is no money to operate or build the parks.

“My concern is that we’re putting the cart before the horse…We’re getting all this land, which is great because we can preserve it, but I wish sometimes that it wasn’t called a parks bond, but that it was called a greenspace bond because that’s really the way it needs to be looked at,” said Ott. “I just think that this gets too far ahead of where we are because we haven’t figured out how to deal with what we already have.”

County staff pulled the plan from consideration.

Acworth residents oppose housing development

Several Acworth residents attended in order to address the BOC during public comment. They oppose a large housing development planned near the intersection of US-41 and GA-92 close to Lake Allatoona.

“It’s a very relaxed community, next to the lake with a lot of natural area that is in accordance with the lake surroundings,” said resident Eric Butler. “This development is a very large and invasive development that’s proposed and it’s not in following with anything else around the lake. Myself and 90-some-odd other homeowners are in opposition to this.”

He was followed by other residents who described concerns about the poor soil quality and that runoff into the lake would affect the drinking water given a nearby water treatment facility.

Chairman Mike Boyce told residents he would keep them in the loop when the proposals reached the board.