Cobb Commission Candidate Shelia Edwards Presents 2020 Wish List

Mableton, GA – Shelia Edwards, District 4 Candidate for the Cobb County Board of Commissioners spoke before the Board of Commissioners during their first meeting of the year and presented a 2020 Wish List for the South Cobb Community. Her remarks included the following:

“As everyone presents their wish list for the new year, our community has a few items on its wish list that we would like to share with you:

We want to see the Development of Magnolia Crossing, a 50-acre parcel of land in our community that has sat dormant for over five years while the surrounding community suffers from a lack of affordable housing and is surrounded by food and banking deserts. What we cannot support and what you should not condone is the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority allowing another year to go by with no concrete action on their part to develop this parcel of prime real estate that offers a view of the Atlanta skyline and easy access to downtown and the airport. As we wait with anticipation to receive the latest $40,000 marketing study on Magnolia, I urge you and the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority to consider creating a private public partnership - with incentives - to develop this prime real estate once and for all.

Many have said that Economic Development occurs in different parts of a county at different times. We have waited patiently, and it is South Cobb’s time. We want the County to bring sound Economic Development opportunities to South Cobb by proactively approaching, recruiting, and incentivizing businesses to the area. Our community supports smart, forward-thinking development of Magnolia Crossing as well as the other areas of South Cobb that will result in more jobs and more opportunities for members of our community.

We also urge you to consider purchasing and transforming the Old K-Mart building located at the corner of Veterans Memorial and Mableton Parkway into a Community Center for Veterans, Seniors, and Youth Activities. When K-Mart announced that they were closing this location, I came before this board and asked that you find a new usage for this space. Nothing occurred with my request. Since its closing, the K-Mart space has sat empty and is occasionally used by the homeless, who break in seeking shelter, and serves as a location for Amazon to park their trucks. We deserve better and transforming this space into a Community Center would be a better service to the citizens of South Cobb.

Our community wants a thoughtful Transportation Plan that is inclusive of the South Cobb area. This includes resurfacing of roads, the installation of sidewalks, the strategic placement of streetlights, and satisfying other infrastructure needs that have been neglected. More importantly, we want an improved transit service for our community. I support the anticipated 2020 T-SPLOT, but I want to ensure that equitable projects in our South Cobb community are included on the set project list. We want assurances that once that project list is approved, that the projects for South Cobb will not mysteriously fall off the projects list or are arbitrarily placed at the bottom of the list for consideration.

Addressing the Affordable Housing needs of our community is a top issue. I remain concerned about the vote taken last year not to approve a senior affordable housing project in our community. I have called for an Affordable Housing Summit and have begun discussions with key stakeholders who are eager to take part in this effort. As Cobb County Commissioner for District 4, I will take the lead to make this happen.

We urge the Board to move forward in naming the Park on Discovery Boulevard near my home of Legacy on the River line. We continue to struggle to understand the ongoing delays with the park, which remains nameless after nearly two years. The name should reflect inclusion and the diverse residents and families that call this area home. Though some people insist on naming every blade of grass in our community after the Confederacy, please remember the divisiveness of the Civil War, which was fought over slavery. This is a very dark, painful period in our history for everyone who looks like me. We urge you to reject division and champion diversity. If you want to pay homage to the history of the land, let’s name the park after the original citizens, the American Indians.

In closing, our community is great and is poised for even more greatness. Our concerns regarding our community will not go away, they are only intensifying.

We continue to urge the Board of Commissioners to exercise oversight and the control that you have to ensure that citizens of our South Cobb community are receiving the same deliverables and the same level of service similar to other communities in Cobb. Most importantly, we want to make sure that promises made to our community are promises that are kept.”

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