The Cobb Board of Commissioners took no action on Tuesday in an annexation dispute with the City of Marietta that has embroiled an East Cobb community for several months.

Instead, commissioners verbally restated a previous objection to a proposed annexation and high-density residential rezoning on Lower Roswell Road and the Loop (background here).

District 2 commissioner Bob Ott (above) represents the Sewell Manor neighborhood and several others nearby in East Cobb who’ve protested a project to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on less than eight acres.

Related content

• City of Marietta case file
• Sewell Manor Presentation
• Cobb Notice of Intent to Object Letter Jan. 10, 2019
• Cobb Objection Letter Feb. 1, 2019

He said comments last week by Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin suggest that the “city clearly has stated they’re not moving forward as long as [the county’s] objection letter is in place.”

Both Ott and Cobb County Manager Rob Hosack said an objection letter sent from the county in February is “valid,” although county staff erred in not requesting a formal vote from commissioners.

Hosack admitted county staff missed a deadline for that action, which precluded a request for binding arbitration. He told commissioners a state law allowing counties to object to annexations in high-density zoning cases still applies.

“We indeed have a valid objection,” said Hosack, the former head of the Cobb Community Development Agency. “At the very least the letter needs to remain in place.”

Related stories

• East Cobb neighborhood ramps up annexation fight with Marietta
• Cobb-Marietta mediation in Lower Roswell case hits a snag
• City, county set for mediation on Lower Roswell rezoning/annexation
• Lower Roswell Road townhome project delayed again
• Residents still oppose revised Lower Roswell townhome plans
• Cobb opposes Lower Roswell rezoning/annexation request

He said county objections can be made if an annexation is tied to a rezoning request seeking more than four units an acre for undeveloped land and five units an acre on redeveloped land.

Hosack also pointed out that he thinks that the county ultimately cannot stop an annexation. The county’s objection, he added, “gives us a seat at at the table” about how annexed land is rezoned and developed.

Traton Homes has reduced its original request from nearly 12 units an acre to 6.95 units an acre. Six of the nine parcels in the property that would be annexed were once part of Sewell Manor, whose homes date back to the 1950s.

Several Sewell Manor residents and others from nearby communities turned out Tuesday, dressed in yellow, stressing “Unity in Community” and waving yellow signs saying “Save East Cobb.”

They acknowledge that there will eventually be some new development next to where they live but what’s being proposed now isn’t compatible.

“Sometimes progress is having the courage not to change,” said Sewell Manor resident Theresa Gernatt, who said the yellow signifies her community’s “hope and caution.”

She and others repeated previous concerns that Marietta is engaging in a “hostile takeover” by the city.

“We feel this plan is reckless,” said Robin Moody, a Sewell Manor resident who read the names of 30 nearby subdivisions also opposed to the rezoning and annexation.

Their major objections, in addition to density, have been traffic at a busy intersection, as well as what they say is a lack of transparency from the property owner, developer and city.

They urged commissioners to keep the objection letter in place, pass a resolution stating their opposition to the annexation and “reserve their right to a constitutional challenge.”

When commissioner JoAnn Birrell asked “would it hurt” for the board to make a statement with a resolution, Ott and Hosack argued against that, saying it might offer a signal to restart the process.

“By law, the process cannot start over,” Ott said, who added that “there are no changes in the county’s objection.”

At the end of the discussion, many in the audience applauded.

The Marietta City Council has twice tabled a vote on the annexation and rezoning, after the city’s planning commission voted to recommend denial. The city asked the county for mediation, which was to have happened last week, but then asked for a change in that process.

Ott, as the county’s designated mediation party, said he could not consent without the approval of the board, and called off the meeting.

“I feel Cobb County did the best they could do today,” Moody told East Cobb News after the meeting. She also said she was “encouraged by the support of the other commissioners.”

Gernatt said that “we heard a lot of encouraging words today, but from this point forward, we will only believe what our public servants DO.”

We’ll update this story with reaction from the city.

 

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