The Cobb Planning Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend denial of a sweeping proposal to allow accessory dwelling units on residential property.
The proposal—which is set for an initial public hearing before county commissioners this coming Tuesday—would permit homeowners to build smaller homes (up to 850 square feet) in their backyards.
In a 5-0 vote, the planning board voted to recommend denying the creation of ADUs. But the board split 3-2 on a vote to recommend expanding the definition of a family for the purpose of occupying a single-family home to extended family, included nieces, nephews, guardians and others.
The code amendments were proposed by Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid as a “tool” to address housing affordability issues.
During a work session last month, however, Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb called the proposal “a bad idea.” Commissioner Keli Gambrill of North Cobb cited a figure that 85 percent of eligible properties for ADUs would be in her and Birrell’s districts.
They’re the two Republicans on the county board, and their appointees to the planning commission were most vocal at Tuesday’s hearing.
A number of changes to the proposal were made and presented at a Monday work session, which member Fred Beloin, Gambrill’s appointee, called “sloppy” and “haphazard.”
During the hearing, representatives of the East Cobb Civic Association expressed opposition to the ADU proposal (you can read it here) and the changes in the definition of a family.
Jill Flamm said ADUs have “the potential to destabilize and destroy many existing single-family neighborhoods” and said homeowners associations would be able to do little to prevent them.
ECCA president Richard Grome said that in redefining a family unit as proposed, “we’re all related” and that “rooming houses” would essentially be allowed in single family areas.
Planning board member Christine Lindstrom, Birrell’s appointee and a former ECCA leader, remarked that under the proposed definition, “there could be 20 people in my house.”
Grome said of the code amendments that “not only do they not solve any problems, they have the potential to create more problems.”
Beloin said for the code amendments to be rushed now—typically they’re presented in January—”is extraordinary.
“We don’t live in Houston, Texas,” he said, where there is no zoning code and where covenants offer the only protections from spot zoning.
He said there are people from “Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and College Park, Georgia, who want to shove down our throats a completely different code and undermine the fabric of what we’ve had in Cobb County for a long time.”
At the Oct. 22 commission work session, Cupid said that “the way that people are living is changing, and housing affordability is changing. This is one tool and I don’t know how robust of a tool this is compared to other tools.
“You keep several tools available because at some point in time one of them may be helpful for us wanting to fix something. The thing we’re trying to fix is providing places for people to reasonably live in our county.”
Cobb commissioners will hold a public hearing on Tuesday at their regular meeting, the first of two scheduled before a vote on the code amendments is scheduled for Nov. 21.
You also can watch Tuesday’s meeting on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
The full agenda can be found by clicking here.
Related:
- Birrell calls accessory dwelling units proposal ‘a bad idea’
- Cobb proposes ordinance allowing accessory dwelling units
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- Richardson to appeal declaration of vacancy
- NE Cobb restaurant owner withdraws liquor store appeal
- How Cobb commissioner maps look after ‘home rule’
- Cobb FY 2025 budget, millage rate approved amid tax relief pleas
- Cobb revokes health spa license for Canton Road business
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I hope this passes. Common sense regulations and codes would ensure ADUs meet the same level of quality living and community as the primary home.
Maybe we should be more like Houston, TX. It works well there. Instead, we depend on a politburo to decide how property is used. Slow, inflexible, and ineffective.