At East Cobb Cityhood debate, citizens asked to keep an open mind

When a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood was called earlier this spring, John Beville said was undecided on how he might vote.

A resident of the proposed city of nearly 60,000 residents, Beville said he initially thought he could support voting in favor of a new municipality when “city light” legislation was introduced last year.

Unlike a previous East Cobb Cityhood effort, this one would be centered not around public safety services but planning and zoning as a means to preserve the suburban character of the community.

Even after a financial feasibility study was released last November that included police and fire services, Beville said he was riding the fence.

But after hearing arguments for and against Cityhood at an East Cobb Business Association debate Tuesday, Beville said he’ll likely vote no.

“There’s still a lot of information that has not been feathered out,” Beville, an ECBA member, said after the Olde Towne Athletic Club event. “You’re dealing with a lot of ‘what ifs.’ ”

A former banker and now a financial advisor, Beville said the Cityhood supporters “are trying to sell an emotional issue without a financial substantiation of that issue.

“I’ve been ambivalent all along, but there’s no way I can support this.”

Beville, wearing a button in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, said he’s not enamored with some of the Cobb zoning votes of the Democratic majority on the county commission.

But he thinks the East Cobb financial study, prepared by researchers at Georgia State University, doesn’t contain enough details for him about the costs of police and fire equipment, personnel and training.

Stressing local control

During the hour-long debate, moderated by EAST COBBER publisher Cynthia Rozzo, who asked predetermined questions, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance repeated familiar talking points they’ve been raising for the last few months.

Before the Q and A session began, Susan Hampton of the ECBA said to the audience that even “if you have already made up your mind, please listen to the other side. We’re all neighbors.”

The pro-Cityhood group stressed the need for development and growth to be handled at the truly local level. The East Cobb area, they noted, will have one commissioner for nearly 200,000 people who could be outvoted.

“What’s the future of East Cobb going to look like?” asked Cindy Cooperman of the Cityhood group.

In response to a later question, she said that “you have to look at the decisions have been made” regarding rezoning, density and growth elsewhere in Cobb.

“It’s just a matter of time” before the East Cobb area must confront that reality, Cooperman said. “Why not elect people who reflect you views and your values?”

Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes Cityhood, said that “We do love East Cobb just the way it is.”

She repeated the familiar claims that incorporating would create an extra layer of government, and that residents of a city would be paying more in taxes, as those living in Cobb’s existing six cities do.

And commissioners “are up for re-election. That’s where you can make that change.”

Questioning public safety

Both sides hashed out repeated positions on the quality of services provided by a city against the current county services.

Unlike the three other Cobb Cityhood referendums—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—East Cobb is providing police and fire.

At previous town hall meetings, Cobb officials have expressed concerns about increased response times.

Alliance representatives were eager to repeat them.

“I’m most concerned about public safety services,” said Robert Lax of the East Cobb Alliance. “Those services are hard.”

He said the “aggressive assumptions” in the financial feasibility study “make it less difficult to provide the same quality.

“City light was what was proposed. Why are we taking heavyweight services here?”

The Alliance has said in previous public meetings that the Cityhood forces are underestimating the cost of acquiring public safety equipment beyond the state-approved $5,000 transfer of a fire station.

But Craig Chapin, chairman of the Cityhood committee, said that they’re “the top services that you can get in a smaller community.”

It’s part of a larger question Cityhood supporters have been asking during their campaign: “What’s your vision of East Cobb?”

Chapin said that Cobb government officials are “crystal clear” about proceeding with “the urbanization of our neighborhoods.”

He said he’s also confident that “we do not need to raise taxes to create a city.”

While East Cobb Alliance representatives poked holes in the feasibility study, Cooperman and Chapin said their questions are all contained in the report, including start-up costs and franchise fees.

But many of the details of the provisions of services and negotiations of intergovernmental agreements would be hammered out by a future East Cobb mayor and city council.

Should the Cityhood referendum pass, those elections would take place in November, followed by a two-year transition period to begin in January 2023.

Alleged developer ties

The debate remained relatively civil—with members of each side passing a microphone back and forth—until a question was asked about commercial real estate interests on the Cityhood side, and what their agendas may be.

During the 2109 Cityhood campaign, the Alliance noted that 11 of the 14 members of the Cityhood committee either were in the development industry or had connections to it.

“Those people are still around,” Seger said, adding that if a city is formed, pressure will mount to increase a City of East Cobb’s commercial tax base (the feasibility study said the proposed city has a tax base that is 90 percent residential).

Chapin took umbrage at the suggestion to “follow the money.

“That’s categorically false and a conspiracy theory,” he said with some emotion.

Cooperman was also visibly upset.

“This time it’s the sweat of this man [Chapin], myself and the committee members who have been doing it.

“What evidence do they have? Zero evidence,” said Cooperman, who like Chapin was not involved in the the 2109 Cityhood campaign.

Handing out flyers in support of Cityhood at the debate was Andy Smith, an Indian Hills resident and a former member of the Cobb Planning Commission who ran for the Cobb Board of Commissioners as a Republican in 2020.

Smith said while he understands the concerns about public safety services, East Cobb citizens need to be watching the kinds of zoning decisions that have been made in recent years in the county.

He referenced the East Cobb Church rezoning last year in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area, and specifically the residential component of the mixed-use project that generated community opposition.

While the community-focused idea of a church fits in with the JOSH Master Plan, Smith said, housing density at around five units an acre is out of line with the nearby community.

Smith applauded the work of his Planning Commission successor, Tony Waybright, in pushing for a site plan that lowered the density cap, but said in the future that kind of effort is no guarantee.

You can watch a recording of the debate by clicking here.

The Rotary Club of East Cobb is holding a similar debate on May 4 at Pope High School but that event is sold out for in-person attendance.

Related:

• Lawsuit to stop East Cobb referendum is ‘inevitable’
• East Cobb Cityhood group accuses county of campaigning against referendums
• East Cobb Cityhood group slams Vinings referendum lawsuit
• Anti-Cityhood sign to be removed from shopping center
• County officials take Cityhood town halls to East Cobb
• ECBA, Rotary Club to hold cityhood debates
• GOP special election candidate opposes cityhood
• East Cobb News Cityhood information page

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