In zoning cases, the word “precedent” is used quite often by those opposed to high-density proposals, or for requests that don’t match approved land-use categories in a particular area.
On Tuesday, residents of two neighborhoods near Wheeler High School banded together to urge the Cobb Board of Commissioners not to set a precedent they fear could take hold in East Cobb given the chance:
Subdividing a single home lot into two lots, below minimum lot size requirements.
That’s what Danesh Roshan, the owner of a Holt Road home lot, was attempting to do. He applied for a reduction in the minimum lot-size of 20,000 square feet for homes zoned R-20 to accommodate two lot sizes of 18,118 square feet each.
It’s technically not a zoning request and was listed under “Other Business”—for applications seeking site plan amendments and changes in stipulations that don’t have to go back before the Cobb Planning Commission.
But residents of the adjacent Bannock Estates and Spring Creek neighborhoods sprung into action, pressing commissioners with pleas to reject Roshan’s request. He has not filed any formal development plans, and Cobb Zoning staff recommended that commissioners deny the request.
Some opponents said the request amounted to a variance issue. Others, including the East Cobb Civic Association, said subdividing the .42-acre lot at Holt Road and Emory Lane would in effect change the zoning to R-15, a higher-density category.
One resident who spoke against the request said most of the surrounding homes are on lots of 23,000 square feet or more.
Allowing such a precedent, said Hill Wright, a Spring Creek homeowner, “would paint a target on neighborhoods like this in the future.”
When Wright vowed to support candidates “who will protect our properties,” commission chairman Mike Boyce interjected that “we got plenty of e-mails about this case” and that citizens know their elected officials are accessible on such matters.
According to Cobb property deed records, Roshan purchased the land in 2018 from the estate of L.D. Satterfield for $170,000. His obituary states that Satterfield was a World War II veteran who died in 2010. On the land sits a three-bedroom, 1,923-square foot ranch-style home built in 1964.
Roshan, who lives in nearby Pioneer Woods, is the owner of several residential and commercial properties in the surrounding East Cobb area and elsewhere in the county, according to tax assessors’ records.
Peggy Jackson, who lives on Emory Lane, next door to the former Satterfield home, said the home has been in disrepair as long as she can remember, although it’s been renovated recently, and was upset she wasn’t notified about Roshan’s request.
Page Morgan, an East Cobb real estate agent, said that if properties would be allowed to be subdivided this way “we are doing exactly what the folks of East Cobb don’t want. . . . It will set a precedent we can never roll back.”
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the area, said the Roshan property is at an entrance to a subdivision, and that’s where “we should not allow carving up lots and making them different than what’s in the neighborhood.”
He made a motion to deny the request, and there was no discussion before commissioners voted 5-0 to turn it down.
Related Story
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
NIMBYS!