East Cobb News

After narrowly winning re-election in 2018, JoAnn Birrell said there was plenty of unfinished business for her to address in her third term as a member of the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

That term, which is coming to an end this year, has been an eventful one for the District 3 commissioner, who’s been at the center of some major zoning and development issues in her area and around the county.

Birrell, who is seeking a fourth term as a Republican and has an opponent in the May 24 primary, said she’s running again because there are other matters to address and because “I want to continue to serve the public.

“There are some things I want to see come to fruition,” said Birrell, including a rebuild of the Gritters Library branch and the construction of a new Cobb Police precinct off Sandy Plains Road that are both underway and a future repurposing of Shaw Park.

She’s also supporting efforts to create a veterans memorial in Cobb and continued pay incentives for public safety personnel.

Birrell’s campaign website can be found here; her GOP opponent, Judy Sarden, was profiled here by East Cobb News.

The winner of the primary will advance to the general election in November against Democrat Christine Triebsch, a former candidate for the Georgia State Senate.

Sarden was critical of Birrell’s votes on the Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment, a residential rezoning on Ebenezer Road and the East Cobb Church rezoning, saying they’re too dense for the area.

Birrell said she’s been working for years to clean up the blighted Sprayberry Crossing, which is finally being demolished for a mixed-use development.

It’s taken time for the previous owner to sell, and for efforts to push public officials to address the situation with a blight tax and other pressures.

Birrell credited residents Joe Glancy and Shane Spink, who spearheaded a citizens’ drive to tear down an eyesore and prompt a redevelopment that’s been touted as transforming the community.

Critics of the project have traffic concerns and didn’t like general apartments initially proposed (and which were dropped due to her opposition).

“Anything that goes there is going to create traffic because it’s been dead for so long,” Birrell said.

Some opponents of the rezoning still insist the senior age-restricted apartments could be converted.

Birrell said county attorneys have told her the latter is not the case; of the 132 planned senior apartments a maximum of 26 could be rented out to younger people due to federal housing law.

Birrell voted for the East Cobb Church rezoning, which she said initially contained residential plans that were too dense.

That case also was delayed for several months after many revisions.

“I told them to get into compliance with JOSH [a new master plan which outlined maximum residential density of five units an acre], which they did,” Birrell said, referring to a final site plan allowing up to 5.1 units an acre.

She also noted there is nearby residential zoning in a similar RA-6 category that was approved unanimously when the area was in her district.

“I know [opponents] are saying it’s too dense, but it was at five units per acre and it meets the JOSH plan,” Birrell said. “My defense is that they did what we asked them and the district commissioner (Jerica Richardson) supported it.”

The Ebenezer Road rezoning was a straight R-15 (single-family detached residential) and not RA-5, a higher-density proposal that was dropped.

“No way was RA-5 going in there,” said Birrell, adding that the applicant, Pulte Homes, has pulled out of developing the property.

Birrell pointed to her vote against the MarketPlace Terrell Mill project on Powers Ferry Road as an example of rejecting what she said was too much density.

“They want to pin me as high-density,” she said of her critics, “but I’m not. And I can back it up.”

Birrell opposed East Cobb Cityhood when it first came up in 2019, but said she is neutral about the May 24 referendum. The proposed city would be entirely in the new District 3.

“I get that they want local control,” she said of East Cobb Cityhood supporters, who have said that a local commissioner can get outvoted by those not representing the community. “But I don’t think they will have that problem with me.”

She also proposed a code amendment to take away the discretionary power of commissioners on rezoning matters around the Dobbins Air Base Reserve.

A controversial residential rezoning approval last year near the base’s accident potential zone  resulted in a land swap with the county following heated opposition from other elected officials and the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.

Birrell’s code amendment got the votes of fellow Republican Keli Gambrill and Richardson.

“We got the issue resolved, but I went a step further to take it out of the code,” Birrell said.

After reapportionment, the new District 3 is a more Republican stronghold, something she said the current boundaries are not.

Birrell had been part of a 4-1 Republican majority that ended with the 2020 elections. Democrats now have a 3-2 edge.

She said of the current commission—which is all-female as well—that while she’s “keeping my conservative values . . . we really try to work together. There are things we are never going to agree on, but when we can work together, I’m all in.”

Birrell opposed Chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s proposal for a 30-year transit tax that has been dropped, saying anything more than 10 years “is just too long.”

She also is against hiring outside consultants for a proposed Unified Development Code that has drawn some criticism from citizens who think it will lead to more urbanization.

“It should be done in-house,” she said of the Cobb community development staff. “They know Cobb County.”

Birrell said her top budget priority is to continue to build out a pay-and-class salary structure for public safety personnel that started three years ago.

She’s touting her experience and deep relationships across the county to voters as she seeks another term.

“I can get things done,” Birrell said. “I know the county, and I want to continue to serve.”

Related:

• How to vote in the May 24 primary elections
• Runoff to determine special legislative election in East Cobb
• East Cobb News Politics & Elections page

 

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