My wife and I moved to Cobb County in 1993 after living in Atlanta and Decatur for many years. We enjoyed our life in these two cities but made the move to Cobb County because there was affordable housing, great schools, proximity to public parks, universities and the city of Marietta. I was still a professor at Georgia State when we moved to Cobb; the travel was not too bad.
Who Dreamed Up This Idea!
The present move to create a city out of west Cobb is not in the interests of some people living in west Cobb. I can’t give a figure because there has not been any polling of citizens’ interest in a new city. As my colleague, neighbor and co-chair of Heritage Oaks Communications, Gabriella Coroneos said in an email, “this proposal is nightmare for anyone but the rich.” She further stated that “I cannot express how upset I am that somebody even dreamed up this insane idea.
That’s Who————>
The proponents of the new city have made claims about planning and zoning, school overcrowding if development is allowed to expand, property values will decrease, crime will increase, and a new city won’t cost the taxpayers an additional dime. The activists behind the new city are a half-dozen republican politicians from the Cobb area, 24 CEO’s, presidents and owners of various businesses. Only six were undesignated individuals appearing on their website who might be ordinary citizens of west Cobb. These are the founders of the insane idea. Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (GA 35) wrote and pushed through the legislation. Her husband, Earl Ehrhart was the previous Rep. from the same district (1989 – 2019), and is the CEO of Taylor English Decisions. Taylor English is a consulting firm that is involved in government strategies and economic development. The company has done business in Cobb county and there is a real concern that this movement is underscored by conflicts of interest. He was also National Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 2005. ALEC is a right-wing corporate funded organizations for state politicians who vote behind closed doors to write bills that are taken back to the states to impact education, taxation, energy, climate in extremely negative ways. Ehrhart has used fear tactics to push the idea of cityhood in the west Cobb area whenever she speaks publicly.
This is not a grass roots coalition. They’ve had a few meetings. But the founders have not conducted any polling to find the opinions about the cityhood idea of their neighbors in west Cobb. They authorized a feasibility study (UGA) that raises more questions than it does answers. They pushed the legislation (HBl 826) through the state house quickly. There is little time for us to gather opinions and further data. They are in a rush to get this through. If it gets approved after the vote on May 24, there is little chance of turning back. And as some residents have reported, the founders website is full of misinformation about schools, green spaces, property taxes and zoning.
To me it appears that a small group of people want to “wall off” the rest of Cobb County from the so-called pristine hills of west Cobb. I and many of my neighbors are not interested in new city that is built on lies and inuendo about a democratically elected board of commissioners.
The proponents of cityhood have turned the county commissioners, especially commission chair, Lisa Cupid, into an adversary and have ignored the changing history of Cobb as a more inclusive society. Yes, the county has changed since we moved here. In 1993, all the members of BOC were white men. Now all the commissioners are women, including three African Americans.
Zoning Cases West Cobb 2018-2022: Few Approved
According to the proponents of cityhood, the only person standing between the people living in west Cobb and the future of zoning changes is District 1 commissioner Kelli Gambrill. However, when it comes to zoning changes, Cobb County has one of the most secure and in-depth methods of determining whether a project meets the criteria for project approval.There is no evidence that Commissioner Gambrill was being outvoted by the other commissioners. The data shows the opposite—commissioners seem agree on all zoning requests. Developers are not flooding into west Cobb. If they do, their proposals will be scrutinized just as the commission has been doing for years.
Let’s look at some data on zoning in west Cobb over the past 4 years, which was the period of commissioner Gambrill’s tenure. I looked at a data base on the Cobb County web site that identifies the zoning proposals brought to the BOC from 2018 – 2022 for west Cobb. There were 49 proposals presented to the board during this period. Of the 49 zoning proposals, only 17 were approved by the BOC. On 16 of the approvals, the vote of commissioners was 5-0. For the 17th proposal, the vote was 3-1 (with one abstention). The critical observation for me was that only 35% of the proposals were approved and the commissioners agreed with each other.
Ganging Up On West Cobb?
One advocate of city hood worries that the board, especially those commissioners living in other Cobb County voting zones will gang up on “west Cobb” and bring laundromats, affordable housing, industrial complexes, shopping centers and the like to the rolling hills of west Cobb. This is simply not happening and for the proponents to continue with this line of misinformation is dishonest.
Each zoning request is evaluated by a five-member Cobb County Planning Commission (PC) and the five member BOC. Each commissioner appoints a planning commission member who serves the length of the BOC member’s term. They vote separately, although the board is not held to the decision of the planning commission. In the case mentioned above, the planning commissioners approved 25 zoning requests, denied 15, made no recommendation on 3 and deleted 4.
Red Herring
If there is a red herring in this debate, it is the one formulated by the proponents of city hood and that is that the chair of the BOC is out to bring massive development to west Cobb. There is no evidence of this, regardless of the social media misinformation. To continue with the line of thinking ignores the data and my observations over the past 27 years. There is an effort by the founders of west Cobb cityhood to undermine the work of Chairwoman Cupid. As the election approaches, flyers with Cupid’s photograph are appearing that misinform the public about the proposal for cityhood.
How Should Citizens Deal with Zoning Issues that Affect Them?
On September 21, 2015, Columbia Properties filed an application to rezone 23.94 acres at the northwest intersection of Dallas Highway and Garrison Commons from R-20 to NRC (Neighborhood Retail Commercial) and RSL (Residential Senior Living – Non-supportive). This request was labeled Z-98.
What are citizens to do when a zoning request doesn’t fit with how a change in zoning will affect their lives, property values and safety. As citizens we don’t think we need to create a new city to solve a zoning dispute. We organize and participate in the democratic process that controls zoning request changes in Cobb County. The three neighborhoods that we affected by the Z-98 zoning proposal came together and met with our District 1 commissioner, Bob Weatherford, the Columbia developers and their legal team.
The three communities, Heritage Oaks, Garrison Ridge and Chestnut Oaks formed a partnership and divided responsibilities to gather data, make observations, meet with commissions as well as planning commission members. We surveyed our neighbors’ opinions and found that 98% of the citizens in these three developments of 274 homes agreed to oppose the zoning change request. We also wrote and published a report containing documents, photographs and maps responding to the county’s criteria for zoning: suitability of rezoning, effect on adjacent property, economic viability, effects on streets and transportation, land use plan congruence. The report, The Building of a Perfect Storm is available and can be freely used as a blueprint to deal with zoning requests that may come your way.
The Columbia Properties proposal was denied by the PC and BOC, and it was the involvement of citizens in three neighboring communities that prevented this from happening.
Land Grab
I believe that Lost Mountain cityhood is a land grab by a few citizens of west Cobb led by several republican state house politicians and CEO’s and owners of businesses. The proponents claim there will be no tax increases for the new city, but the UGA viability report makes it clear that the new city can raise taxes. I also think that many of estimates of costs for forming the new city appeared to be underestimated.
Even Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, the author of the bill authorizing the referendum on May 24, said years ago that forming a new city in west Cobb would be viewed as another layer of government, and she indicated that she would be forever opposed to such a concept. Yet, here she is, the legislator who pushed a new layer of government through to benefit a few who may not have the support of the many.
It seems to me, and many of my neighbors that forming a city that only deals with planning and zoning, code adoption and enforcement, parks and recreation and solid waste management services is not worthy of the expense and the potential control by prominent, wealthy and powerful residents of west Cobb. I would much rather belong to a more democratic, diverse and fiscally responsible government and society than what is being proposed in the area in which I live.
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