COBB COUNTY - John Pape, chairman of the parks bond citizens advisory committee, plans to present a list of the 29 recommended properties to the Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning in executive session.

The properties are prioritized for potential purchase under the $40 million parks bond passed last year, and Pape said the commissioners could decide to make the list public at their Tuesday night meeting.

"We certainly hope that they will take our list with the top priorities into consideration, but it will be their final call as to which properties are passed," Pape said. His committee finalized the list in executive session on Oct. 12.

The total value of the recommended properties exceeds the $40 million the county has available to spend, so not all properties will be purchased, Pape said.

Bob Ash, the county's director of public services, said the commissioners will study the list individually, then will meet in executive session in early November to discuss the properties.

In 2006, during the first parks bond process, each commissioner visited the recommended properties, Ash said. Based on that, he expects it will be at least 30 days before commissioners decide which parcels to purchase.

Jolynn Sockwell and her group, Friends of Concord Park, are lobbying hard for the county to purchase a 19-acre parcel near the intersection of Floyd, Concord and Hicks Roads, near the Mable House Barnes Amphitheater. But she fears the tract was never given serious consideration.

"There are certain criteria the committee used to rank the properties, and we have no lake or creek there, no historic structure and there are a few parks in a surrounding radius," Sockwell said. But the existing nearby parks are all athletic fields, she said, insisting there is a need for a greenspace park with walking trails, picnic tables, and space for community gatherings.

The land is zoned residential and is primed for a development of townhomes or cluster homes.

"We would be devastated if that happened. I'm a realist and I know what we've been up against from the beginning, but that land is a ticking time bomb. If it doesn't become a park now, who knows if it ever will," Sockwell said. "This park would certainly be appreciated and in good hands."

Chairman Sam Olens said there is a slight chance that parcels not on the recommended list could be purchased.

In 2006, he said, "we did end up buying two parcels of land that were not on the committee's list, but they were in front of Hyde Park, which was on the list, so they were directly correlated," Olens said. "So I can't say without a doubt that that is not a possibility. I know that there will probably be groups that will be upset because they're not on the list, but last time, listening to the committee's recommendations worked exceedingly well for the community."