The sponsor of the East Cobb cityhood bill says changes to the proposed city map are still ongoing, and he doesn’t think anything will be finalized until the Georgia legislature returns in January.
State Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb) said he hasn’t seen a proposed revision of the map that was presented at a town hall meeting on Nov. 11 by the group pushing for cityhood.
The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb wants the map to include the areas around Pope and Lassiter high schools. The initial map included most of unincorporated East Cobb in Cobb Commission District 2.
The new map would venture into Commission District 3, represented by JoAnn Birrell, who’s come out against cityhood.
During the town hall meeting at Wheeler High School, David Birdwell of the cityhood committee flashed a revised map for the audience, which he said he received only that day.
A more detailed map, he said at the time, would not be immediately available from the state apportionment office.
Nearly a month later, there still isn’t a revised map proposal for the public to view. The cityhood committee’s website includes an interactive map for citizens to see whether or not they live in the proposed city, but it’s the original map.
When contacted by East Cobb News, Dollar said he was out of town and unable to attend that meeting and “I’m not sure what they were showing.”
“We’re still taking feedback,” Dollar said about the process for drawing a revised map. “We’ll have a better idea what the map will look like once the legislative session begins.
“We’re all working together to see what the map’s going to look like.”
Dollar filed HB 718 (you can read it here) on the next-to-last day of the 2019 legislature and the day after the cityhood group’s first public meeting.
Under state law, cityhood bills have to go through a two-year process. The full legislature must pass the bill in the 2020 session before a referendum would go to voters—most likely in November—living in the proposed City of East Cobb.
The original city map would have a population of nearly 90,000, and if it expands as Birdwell has suggested, it would top more than 110,000.
That would make a City of East Cobb the second-largest municipality in the metro Atlanta area. But a more accurate estimate, along with detailed boundaries of the proposed new map, remain unclear.
East Cobb News has left a message with Birdwell seeking comment.
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (R-East Cobb) told East Cobb News earlier this week she hasn’t seen a new map. Cityhood bills must have a local Senate sponsor, but she hasn’t taken a position and may be doing some polling.
Dollar said reaction from his constituents in East Cobb’s District 45 has been mixed. He acknowledges there’s opposition, including the group East Cobb Alliance, but said he’s gotten “a lot of e-mails from people who do like” the cityhood proposal.
He said the objective is to have a formalized map for the proposed City of East Cobb by the time the bill would be considered by the House Governmental Affairs Committee, the first step in the legislative process.
He said he doesn’t anticipate, at least for now, any other significant changes to the rest of the cityhood bill and proposed City of East Cobb charter.
Ultimately, the legislature would draw up a final city map and make other changes if it passes the cityhood bill.
“We’ll have a lot more clarity soon,” Dollar said about the map. “Right now, it’s just not there.”
Related stories
- Editor’s Note: A golden goose, and boiling frogs
- Cityhood group releases names of committee members
- Pro- and anti-cityhood forces square off in debate
- Proposed city map expands to include Pope, Lassiter districts
- Cityhood group hires high-profile state lobbyists
- More East Cobb News Cityhood coverage
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