Recently, the Milton City Council approved a contract to purchase another 109.59 acres of green space. The approved contract begins a ninety-day due-diligence period for the City to officially complete the purchase of the Wolff property, consisting of four parcels located in the southwest portion of the city.

During the due-diligence period, Milton will complete several tasks related to the purchase including a survey and environmental assessments. The purchase price for this green space acquisition is $3,835,650, which is $35,000 per acre, and if approved for purchase, would bring Miltons total acquired green space to 241 acres.

The Wolff property marks the second green space purchase, following the Citys initial green space purchase of the Milton Country Club property earlier this year. The property was recommended by the Milton Greenspace Advisory Committee (MGAC), a citizen-led committee created by the City in 2017 to help facilitate the property evaluation process for the 2016 citizen-approved, $25-million-dollar green space bond referendum.

Our committee has worked extensively with the Georgia Conservancy over the last year to carefully evaluate and prioritize possible green space options within Milton, said MGAC Chair Colt Whittall. This is a beautiful tract of land that met a number of key selection criteria including water resources, natural areas, and wildlife habitat.

Assistant City Manager Carter Lucas provided specific property details during his recent presentation to Council. According to Lucas, the property includes 6,000 feet along a Little River stream tributary, contains a 2.5-acre pond, serves as a migratory path for numerous species of birds, and includes an existing partial soft-surface trail infrastructure. In addition, the Wolff property, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is located within a regional area where threatened or endangered species have been located.

We applaud the efforts of our citizens serving on the GreenSpace Committee, said Mayor Joe Lockwood. Theyve dedicated countless hours of their personal time to evaluating properties and working to ensure that were maximizing our limited green space bond funds for our citizens.

Teresa Stickels, Miltons conservation projects manager and staff liaison to MGAC, said, Its been incredible to see this process move from a voter ballot question to actually executing property purchases. Were getting greener with every purchase!

The City of Miltons green space efforts were recently recognized at the state level as part of the Georgia Conservancys Common Ground Summit on conservation and the economy.