A controversial deal for DeKalb County to buy a developer’s land has ended with a lower price for a proposed park -- and the possibility of even more green space in the mostly developed central part of the county.
County commissioners agreed last week to pay Rich Porter $1.83 million for the 6-acre lot off LaVista Road -- about 6 percent lower than the original negotiated price.
The rumpus over the price, and resulting attention from residents, also brought out Edward Nelms Jr. He has proposed the county buy his family’s 17 acres of land about a mile east on LaVista, near Pangborn Road, for more park space.
Both the Nelms and Porter properties were farms in a historic African-American enclave in the area, according to the DeKalb History Center.
“It’s all green space and there is not a single manhole on the property,” Nelms said of the property’s lack of development, including sewer service. “Over 60 years of untouched growth is present there.”
Residents and officials have been working for years to figure out how to keep development at bay in central DeKalb, which is the only area without a major park for residents.
Brook Run, now part of Dunwoody, and Murphey Candler parks are draws in north DeKalb, while south DeKalb has the massive 535-acre Arabia Mountain Preserve.
The county’s 2010 parks master plan calls for adding 141 more acres of parkland. That would bring it up to 712 total acres, or 1 acre of park for every 1,000 residents. Residents approved bond referendums in 2001 and 2006 to buy and renovate that land and more for parks.
“You can buy and buy all day and not meet the needs for parks in this part of the county,” said Commissioner Jeff Rader, who pushed for buying the Porter property and wants a review of the Nelms land.
The problem is often cost. Open land in central DeKalb is almost always open for infill development, which drives up the price tag.
A majority of county commissioners found Porter’s original $1.95 million asking price too high -- especially after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed the county assessed the same land for $393,000.
Supporters of the purchase blamed the discrepancy on state assessment rules, but some residents and officials also noted that the developer bought the land for just $1.4 million in 2008.
Nelms is asking $6 million for his family’s property. Per acre, that is even more than Porter’s first deal. But the price is also below the $7.5 million the family is asking from would-be developers.
“We are willing to accept less from the county because they wouldn’t build there,” Nelms said. “It’s still open land, and we’d like for it to stay that way.”
The land is part of the Mount Zion community, named after the African Methodist Episcopal church built there. It emerged after Emancipation as a black farming community.
The Nelms family ran one of the most successful and large farms in that area, selling their crops, livestock and chickens to buyers in then-village areas of Tucker and Decatur. On the land that Porter purchased, the Rowe family had fruit trees, crops and hogs.
The county’s Nature Resources Management office is reviewing the Nelms property, as it would with any land that the bond money could pay for as a park.
The internal review will include its historic value as well as features such as topography, access or other special features, said office director Susan Hood.
If the initial review shows potential, the office will conduct a site visit and get an outside estimate of the price. After buying the property from Porter, Rader’s district has $5 million available from the 2001 bond to buy parkland.
Initial plans for the county park on the land purchased from Porter call for installing trail markers that for the first time acknowledge the Rowe family influence on the land and area.
“The land has a lot of meaning and significance to it,” said Shirley Kinnemore, whose grandparents, Edgar Rowe and Minnie Whitlock Rowe, were among the last to run the full farm.
Kinnemore, 66, retired from owning a business and returned to the home where she grew up. There are still rabbits and deer roaming her property, which is adjacent to the Porter land. Porter bought land from several of Kinnemore's relatives.
Kinnemore’s cousin, Rick Rowe, whose father sold his part of the property to Porter, said he thinks the land's history adds to its value.
“I personally feel the property is worth more than what the county paid for it,” said Rowe, a senior planner at Georgia Tech.
Nelms feels the same about his family’s property. Although about 2 of the 17 acres had been used for a landfill years ago, the property also includes a flat meadow and a section of Burnt Fork Creek.
Nelms said his late aunt Willie Maude Nelms, a teacher in DeKalb, was responsible for keeping the land intact. Negotiations for a sale would include asking the county to name any park after her, he said.
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