East Cobb Church rezoning approved Archives

By a 3-1 vote, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved the North Point Ministries rezoning request for a mixed-use development.

The vote comes 10 months after it was first considered, and after nearly two dozen site plans and other revisions were submitted.

The 33-acre assemblage at the southwest corner of Shallowford and Johnson Ferry roads will include the East Cobb Church, some retail space and 95 high-density residential units.

That figure was part of the latest site plan, filed last week by North Point, but which hadn’t been formally presented to the community.

Another major revision was to restore access from Johnson Ferry to the Waterfront and MarLanta subdivisions along a relocated Waterfront Drive, but without cut-through access from the new residential community.

Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson, whose District 2 includes the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area, made as part of her motion to approve the rezoning the creation of a three-member “JOSH” community advisory group that would be included in site plan review.

Two of those individuals, resident Ruth Michels of the MarLanta subdivision and former Cobb commissioner Thea Powell of Chimney Lakes, spoke in opposition to the rezoning.

“We’re at a loss for words,” Michels said, calling the further revised site plan “completely inappropriate.”

She said the last-minute changes show that “the applicant isn’t listening to and working with the community.”

Michels said she wondered whether the rezoning would have been considered at all had it not been made by a religious organization.

Questions over density, traffic and stormwater runoff have dogged the application from the beginning. A total of 95 people, in person and watching virtually, were counted as being opposed, with 54 in support.

The residential portion of the new site plan would include 44 townhomes and 51 single-family detached homes under the RA-5 category.

North Point will sell off the 20.6 acres for the residential development to Ashwood Atlanta. The property owners, Bill and Lynn Hanna of East Cobb, have wanted to sell off all the land at once, and not in segments.

Kevin Moore, the North Point attorney, said that “we do believe that this strikes the proper balance,” and noted that there were fewer townhomes than detached homes, when in earlier site plans that mix was the other way around.

The Waterfront Drive access would be limited to those living in nearby subdivisions, with cut-through mitigation elements to be determined in site plan review, according to Richardson’s motion.

That intersection currently includes a traffic light at Johnson Ferry and the entrance to the Shallowford Falls shopping center.

She also included a provision that exit access from the new development onto Johnson Ferry be right-turn only, meaning southbound.

In addition, the limit of impervious surfaces on the residential area would be capped at 40 percent, down from an estimated 45 percent proposed in a North Point stipulation letter submitted last week.

Richardson’s motion also limits density in the residential portion to five units an acre. She also said that revisions to the church plans (under the low-rise office category) and the retail portion (neighborhood activity center zoning) could be brought back to commissioners.

Voting against the rezoning was commissioner Keli Gambrill of North Cobb, who called the last minute changes “speculative” and objected to having to vote on a case that staff hadn’t had time to examine.

Gambrill wondered why residential revisions couldn’t also be brought back, since that’s been the most controversial portion of the rezoning case.

She noted that in September, North Point was proposing private roads in the residential community, which would have allowed for greater lot sizes, but wasn’t sure if that was the case now.

“What is the lot size we are looking at?” asked Gambrill, who said that “I’m very surprised at how this is being handled.”

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid recused herself from the vote, due to a conflict of interest (a family member attends another North Point church).

After the vote, nearby resident Rachel Bruce said the commission’s decision to pass a site plan proposed at the hearing “sets a dangerous precedent for our area that will allow developers to do this over and over again.

“It is clear we need to vote in favor in the 2022 midterms [a] Cityhood vote to protect East Cobb’s interests and ensure we have a zoning board that listens to its taxpayers,” she said in a message e-mailed to East Cobb News.

East Cobb Church also posted a pre-recorded message from Pastor Jamey Dickens on its Facebook page, saying “WE DID IT!”

In his comments (you can watch them here), Dickens made several references to home. Since its inception in 2019, East Cobb Church has been holding services at Eastside Baptist Church.

“We’ve been dreaming of a home, not just to go but, but to launch from, into the community, on a mission to love, where we live,” he said, standing on the property where the 125,000-square foot church will be built.