The Cobb Board of Commissioners turned down two requests by Walmart to build drone kiosks for delivery services on Tuesday.
They would have been the first such kiosks in Cobb County for the national retailer, which has several others in metro area.
More than 50 people turned out for a zoning hearing to oppose a kiosk at the East Cobb Walmart on Johnson Ferry Road, and many of them live adjacent to the store.
They said the issue isn’t over whether Walmart should operate drones, but rather is a land-use issue.
In requesting a site-plan amendment to a 2005 zoning approval for the Johnson Ferry Road store, Walmart proposed taking out 28 parking spaces for a fenced-in kiosk to accommodate 18 drones.
The drones would travel at 60 mph at a height of 150 feet until reaching the delivery point, then would drop to around 20 feet to a driveway or yard.
By a 5-0 vote, however, commissioners concurred that while the issue of drones for commercial use is evolving, the specific locations are not ideal for that purpose.
“We do look at each case individually, said Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, whose District 3 includes East Cobb, and who held up papers indicating nearly 100 e-mails and other messages opposing the kiosk.
“This location isn’t conducive to this service.”
District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield echoed those remarks in moving to reject a Walmart drone kiosk on Barrett Parkway later in the meeting.
Residents said that locating the kiosks in heavily residential neighborhoods would set a bad precedent.
Jackie Ellis, who lives in the Breckenridge subdivision right behind the East Cobb Walmart, said a drone kiosk there could dramatically alter the residential fabric of the community.
“This is a defining choice for East Cobb.” said Ellis, who was surrounded by several other nearby residents, warning that approving a kiosk would turn the community into an “unregulated test bug” for a commercial service that is in its early stages.
Walmart has been working with the drone delivery service WING. Its proposal stated that Walmart deliveries would be provided only during daytime hours.
During a presentation at Tuesday’s hearing a WING representative said the noise levels coming from a drone would be between a regular car and a delivery vehicle.
The delivery parcels—between 5 and 10 pounds—also would be delivered only to single-family homes.
But Ellis and other opponents, including the East Cobb Civic Association, said granting Walmart permission to add drones would open the floodgates for other retailers to do the same.
She said it could pave the way for “a drone highway 150 feet over our heads. The technology is impressive, but it is not infallible.”
The Cobb Zoning Division recommended denial of both drone kiosk applications as land-use matters.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman called the kiosk cases “a novel matter for us to consider as a board.”
She said she wanted to be open to the idea of having drone delivery services but pointed to the neighborhood concerns.
More than a dozen East Cobb communities, or around 400 households, received notices about the Walmart plans because they live within 1,000 feet of the proposed kiosk.
(The notified neighborhoods include Shallowford Pointe, Alpine Lakes, Byrons Pond, Havencroft, Clary Lakes, Mountain Creek, Garden Gate on Lassiter, Waterfront, Yorktown, Chimney Lakes, Westfield, Marlanta, Childers Walk, Coventry Green and residents of homes on Freeman Road and Childers Road.)
Cupid said that she asked WING and Walmart to meet with the community, but there hadn’t been any dialogue.
“A denial today for this doesn’t mean a denial” for another location, she added, saying that this county “continues to evolve” when it comes to business and technological innovation.
But Cupid also admitted that “we haven’t even discussed what a highway in the sky looks like.”
Related stories:
- RaceTrac rezoning request held by Cobb Planning Commission
- New Johnson Ferry-Shallowford subdivision getting underway
- East Cobb Walmart files plans for drone delivery station
- RaceTrac refiles Bells Ferry/Barrett Parkway rezoning plans
- Cobb approves Mt. Bethel Christian Academy expansion plans
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The People seem to miss that they have all political Power by decree of God and that those in government swore an Oath binding to the Trust Indenture Contract, Constitutions, to serve the People, the beneficiaries. The County Commissioners swore an oath to never go against the Peoples’ Rights. Our rights come from God, not government.
Maxim of Law 51i. Individual liberties are antecedent to all government.
Ask government servants to show where in the Constitutions the People granted authority to government servants, employees, agents, corporations an third-party enties to fly drones and anything else over private property and enter without consent?
Maxim of Law: 70n. The owner of a piece of land owns everything above and below it to an indefinite extent.
It is aerial trespass and unlawful without concent of the owner.
Now more than ever read, study, learn the Bills and Declarations of Rights. The rights of each state apply to the people of every other state. We haven’t been taught the real law neither have attorneys. Former Supreme Court Justice Scalia stated law students can graduate without a single course about the Constitutions, the highest law of the land.
Our rights are excepted, reserved outside the Constitutions. The Constitutions are to restain government to adhere to the terms written. We the People don’t swear an oath to government, the public servants swear Oaths to serve and obey the Constitutions. Isn’t high time the People realize that by right we instruct government and they are obligated to redress greivances? That is their purpose and it is written.
Georgia State Constitution, Article I, Section II, Paragraphs I tells you that public officers are trustees and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to them. (Amenable to the People). The people have the inherent right to regulate internal government.
It is the People who have all political power by decree of God. Corporations are created by statute and are obligated to the Constitutions as well. Check it out for yourself. And be diligent because this article is telling you that the Board of Commissioners is going to bring this back for a vote. Be diligent. It’s a pattern. They did the same with the stormwater fee. It’s a violation of rights as well. But that is another story.
Maxim of Law: 51o. All political power is inherent in the people by decree of God, thus none can exist except it be derived from them.
Maxim of Law: 51p. The main object of government is the protection and preservation of personal rights, virtue, and original law, are indispensably necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty and good government. American Maxim
Cool. Let me know what you think when the sound of hundreds/thousands of drone flights are buzzing over your neighborhood/house. You might be singing a different tune.
It’s a shame that Cobb County is against innovation and technology. I’m in favor of anything that can potentially reduce traffic in East Cobb. The world is changing and we either need to change with it or get left behind.