East Cobb Church launches 'Revitalize JOSH' rezoning campaign

East Cobb Church Revitalize JOSH — *A new rendering of the proposed East Cobb Church parking area includes greenery fronting Shallowford Road.*

With its rezoning case held until May, East Cobb Church has launched a new website to advocate for its redevelopment plans that have changed yet again.

“Revitalize JOSH” is the name of the renewed effort supporting plans for a church, residential and retail complex at the southwest corner of Johnson Ferry and Shallowford roads.

The Cobb Planning Commission voted to hold the case until its May 4 meeting. The new proposal alters the residential mix. Initially most units were to have been townhomes, but they’re now with 55 percent of the 110 units, with the other 45 percent being single-family detached homes bordering an adjacent subdivision.

East Cobb Church is planning to sell the residential portion of the 33-acre tract to a developer if the rezoning is approved, and both entities would work together to create community space that includes a park on Shallowford Road, greenspace around a proposed creek where a lake once stood, and jogging trails to connect the adjoining Marlanta neighborhood.

There’s also a parking deck and area for 900 spots, which East Cobb Church says will be mostly below street level (rendering at top of this post) and will be shielded by a wall and greenery.

At the April Planning Commission meeting, several nearby residents objected to density and traffic issues, and commission members voted to delay for more updated information.

The new website has outlines of those plans along with renderings and links to a traffic study, but as of yet there’s nothing new in the Cobb Zoning Office files.

Kevin Moore, an attorney for the applicant, said through a spokeswoman for the East Cobb Church plans that a new site plan was submitted on Tuesday.

Just started browsing through their site … am I missing something or are they trying to make the office park across Shallowford into residential for their purposes? They surely aren’t talking about the Kroger s/c across the street on Johnson Ferry. On the website, they say “The JOSH Plan calls for a section of this property to be residential. It calls for the density of that section to be 5.0 units per acre. Our plan calls for a higher 5.9 units per acre in our residential section (almost identical to the townhome development across the street).” … I call BS. What else are they fudging?

Tracy

April 24, 2021 7:34 AM at 7:34 AM

They are referring to the townhome community adjacent to the Kroger shopping center – at Shallowford/Childers.
- Sylvia
  
  May 3, 2021 2:58 AM at 2:58 AM
  
  That is not “across the street” from the proposed monstrosity. The only thing even closely related to “townhomes being across the street from the project” is the office park across the street that looks like it could be townhomes.
  
  On an unrelated note: what are all those individual rooms in that church floorplan going to be used for? I get having a few rooms for Sunday School and offices … but not that many. There is a lot of non-transparency and funky phrasing going on here, in addition to lack of feasibility studies on traffic and infrastructure impacts, including that lake/stream. How many bites do they get at this apple before “no” means “no”?

Where is the current, recent traffic impact study? That’s a lot of cars to put in an already traffic-challenged area. Where is the current, recent environmental impact study … removing all the greenery around the “former lake” will have an effect downstream and, probably, upstream.

How many times do they get a bite at the same apple? Retail, we have. Housing, we have. Churches, we have. We don’t need more – and we darn sure don’t need more green space to go away and be replaced with parking lots. Put it in Alpharetta, where it’d fit in a lot better.

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