Roswell is paying $600,000 to acquire what’s known locally as the Hawthorne Property, roughly 7.5 acres of open space along Holcomb Bridge Road next to the 34-acre Seven Branches site recently purchased by the city.
The City Council approved a resolution calling on Roswell to pay for 5.5 acres of the Hawthorne site, and the land’s owner, to make a charitable contribution to the city of about 2 acres.
The purchase will be financed with a Land Conservation Program loan through the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, according to a staff report to the council. The loan’s term is 10 years with an interest rate of 0.5 percent.
In September, the council approved the $2.1 million purchase of 21 acres, with an additional 13 acres to be donated by the owner, of a site known as the Seven Branches and the Shirley Property. Area residents had urged Roswell to preserve the property as parkland, as it is said to contain the city’s last stand of old-growth trees.
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