Mayor Shirley Franklin joined Archbishop Wilton Gregory, Rockdale County commissioners, Watershed Management officials and the monks of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit today in an Earth Day celebration marking the acquisition of a conservation easement on property owned by the monastery in Rockdale County. Working with the Monastery, the City paid $760,000 in Greenway Acquisition funds to purchase adjacent land that was threatened by development. The conservation easement will protect 135 acres of land at the confluence of Honey Creek and South River, an area identified in the City’s Greenway Plan as one of the top priorities for protection because of its undeveloped forests, floodplains and wetlands.
The monastery’s master plan calls for the protection of more than 2,000 acres of farmland, wetlands and forest within the Arabia Mountain Heritage Area, which also includes Panola Mountain State Park. Rockdale County also is partnering with the monastery in the protection effort.
The City’s Greenway acquisition program was established under the 1999 Consent Decree, which mandates that Atlanta spend $25 million acquiring greenways to protect rivers and streams in the metropolitan area. Greenways are natural areas of land that border streams and creeks and help filter stormwater, preventing non-point source pollution. Under the program, the City has acquired more than 1,100 acres of land, which will be protected from development in perpetuity.
Because rivers and streams do not respect geopolitical boundaries, the City’s greenway acquisition program has not been confined to Atlanta’s city limits. The City has acquired greenways in Douglas County (along the Dog River), Carroll County (Snake Creek), the City of Austell (Sweetwater Creek) and other areas. In addition, the City has worked with DeKalb and Rockdale counties to identify and protect properties along the South River Preservation Corridor.
“I am grateful to the monks of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, which helped make this important greenway acquisition a reality,” said Mayor Franklin. “Part of their spiritual charge is stewardship of the land, and I feel strongly that it should also be our charge. I am also happy to note that in protecting land in Rockdale County, the City is helping to ensure clean water not only for our residents but also for our downstream neighbors.”