Anti-East Cobb Cityhood group calls renewed effort ‘Jaws 2’

East Cobb Alliance logo

A week after a new push for East Cobb Cityhood was launched, a group that organized against the first effort in 2019 is again expressing opposition.

In an e-mail sent out Thursday night, the East Cobb Alliance said the new cityhood effort, which includes state legislation filed on Monday, is a “process [that] appears to be putting the cart before the horse.”

That was a reference to the cityhood group not having a financial feasibility study prepared before the bill was filed, as was the case in 2019.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, which includes some individuals from two years ago, said it will be commissioning a study, which is required by law.

“How can one decide a city is financially feasible enough to justify a legislative action to file a bill to form a proposed city…when no feasibility study has been completed to see if the numbers will work?,” said the East Cobb Alliance message.

“What if the feasibility study comes back and it’s not financially feasible? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”

In 2019, advocates for cityhood in Mableton had legislation filed before a feasibility study was conducted; like the East Cobb bill it was eventually abandoned and has not been resurrected.

The East Cobb Alliance formed during 2019, after cityhood leaders began holding town hall meetings, and participated in an issues forum on the matter in November of that year, before cityhood leaders abandoned their effort.

There are also proposed new cities of Lost Mountain and Vinings with bills filed this year in the legislature that also will have feasibility studies done.

The East Cobb Alliance has nearly 1,000 followers for its Facebook page, where it has been announcing updates, as well as a petition to oppose the new cityhood effort.

East Cobb Alliance members have been against cityhood for several reasons, claiming it will add an extra layer of government that will cost citizens more in taxes.

In the Thursday e-mail, the East Cobb Alliance labeled the new cityhood effort as “Jaws 2,” making a reference to the popular movie series: “Those land sharks who put forth the Proposed City of East Cobb two years ago are back at it again, infesting the waters of East Cobb with their ‘this layer of government we’re adding is so paper-thin, you will hardly notice it,’ yet again!”

The new cityhood bill calls for “city light” services—planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation, instead of police and fire, the main services proposed two years ago.

The East Cobb Alliance message claims that “once a city forms, though, a city council and a mayor can do whatever they want including adding police, fire, a development authority (yeah, like we need another one of those in Cobb County), and whatever else a small group of elected politicians decide they want to do in secret on behalf of their friends and family.”

The East Cobb Alliance is inviting citizens to fill out an online survey to express their thoughts about the new cityhood movement, and says it will actively fight against the latest initiative.

State Rep. Matt Dollar’s bill, if passed by the legislature next year, would call for a November 2022 referendum and would include a smaller area of East Cobb than his 2019 legislation.

The proposed City of East Cobb would have around 55,000 residents and includes much of the Walton High School attendance zone.

Dropped from the 2019 proposed map are areas around Wheeler High School, as well as some of the Pope and Lassiter clusters.

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5 thoughts on “Anti-East Cobb Cityhood group calls renewed effort ‘Jaws 2’”

  1. Compare the two groups by going to their Facebook pages. The Alliance is non-partisan, including small-government conservatives, republicans, democrats, independents, and libertarians. The Alliance allows comments and welcomes feedback.

    The Cityhood group is . . . ( who knows? They won’t reveal who is behind the Facebook page, the website, or the effort). The Cityhood group deletes comments and won’t allow discussion or feedback on its forum.

    • Here you anti Cityhood groups go again spouting fake facts, innuendos and scare tactics that taxes will go up and services will go down. Quite the opposite, the Cityhood group is made up of citizens who are tired of being on the bad side of zoning decisions and who are tired of having to pay more than our fair share of taxes for fewer services. The feasibility study done two years ago showed that this was a viable and better alternative to what the future holds for east Cobb residents. People need to go back and look at some old zoning cases where quality of life to homeowners was affected. And look at newly proposed zoning issues. Some of the people behind Cityhood are very in tune with what’s coming down the pike in East Cobb and it’s not pretty. The new commissioner is all for affordable housing. What exactly does that mean? High density is coming… get a clue people in east Cobb, don’t let a few lunatics on the left scare you regarding Cityhood. Do your homework. The people behind the Cityhood effort are good, educated, highly successful people who want the best for east Cobb.

      • I would recommend you read our financial analysis in regards to the feasibility study conducted by the pro city group 2 years ago. Numbers never added up. As such they abandoned the effort. I would also recommend you read the city charades section in the east cobb alliance website to learn more about the professional backgrounds of the pro city group.

        • They didn’t abandon the effort because the numbers didn’t add up, quite the contrary. The numbers were solid, now they’ve been tweaked even more to include only the services right away that are needed. They’ve sat back and done more
          With the feedback they got from citizens. The Cityhood group
          Is made up of conservatives that are tired of paying the majority of the taxes for less services. Names were
          In the website, there was no secrecy about it.

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