Friday, May 7, 2004

Greenspace message spreading By JOHN THOMPSON jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com The guru of greenspace is spreading his message to another county. Steve Nygren, who was one of the leaders in creating the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance, took his love of greenspace to Coweta County last week and talked to the Chamber of Commerce. “I think folks are finally getting to get the message that you can develop and maintain greenspace,” he said. Nygren recently helped chair a meeting at the Georgia International Conference Center that drew county leaders from several counties who explained the greenspace programs in their areas. The leaders gathered at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park March 25 to hear a presentation by Ed McMahon, who is vice president of the Conservation Fund. “Progress does not demand you degrade your surroundings,” McMahon told the leaders. Nygren told Coweta’s business leaders that they cans till develop, yet maintain the sense of place that is drawing people to the area At the March meeting, Coweta County Commissioner Greg Tarbutton told the leaders from Douglas, Fulton and Carroll counties that his county was trying to increase their greenspace acreage. “We don’t have the resources of buying lots of greenspace, but we are working on a proposed ordinance to encourage developers to build and leave more open space,” he said. Leaders from the Chattahoochee Hill Country have appeared before the Coweta County Commission in the past to present their version of preserving greenspace. Nygren hopes his speech to the community’s business leaders will now unify the county and help place Coweta in the forefront of quality development.