2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum

Ebenezer Road senior living project on planning board agenda

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Ebenezer Road senior living

A request for a 33-unit senior living community on Ebenezer Road near Sandy Plains Road is slated to be heard Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission.

Traton Homes wants to convert less than 10 acres at 2891 Ebenezer Road that’s currently zoned for single-family residential (R-15 and R-20) for senior residential living (RSL).

(Read the case file here.)

All that’s there now is a house built in 1931, and the land owned by Luther Higgins Jr. is surrounded by the single-family Kerry Creek subdivision. Below the property are two undeveloped tracts of land, totalling 6.67 acres, owned by Sandy Plains Baptist Church.

The current zoning category of the Wiggins land would allow up to 16 units. Traton is proposing to more than double that total under RSL, a density of nearly 3.5 units an acre.

The “non-supportive” RSL community would not include services like transportation, medical or food preparation, as is the case with some “supportive” senior-living facilities.

The Traton Homes proposal calls for units of at least 1,500 square feet, and the developer is asking to reduce the distance between the homes from 15 to 10 feet and remove a landscape buffer of 20 feet along the south property line.

The property has been designated for low-density residential use in the Cobb future master plan. The Cobb zoning staff is recommending approval of the Traton request, without any variances and to maintain the landscaping buffer.

Another high-density residential request in the Northeast Cobb area is on Tuesday’s agenda, after being delayed and substantially revised.

Smith Douglas Homes had proposed building 61 townhomes on 6.6 acres on Canton Road at Kensington Drive. According to a Nov. 19 stipulation letter from its attorney, the developer is now proposing 39 detached single-family homes, or 5.9 units an acre.

You can view the rest of the agenda and read case files by clicking here.

The planning commission meets Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta. Its recommendations will be considered by the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Dec. 17.

 

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Ebenezer Road park master plan public meeting scheduled

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Ebenezer Road park master plan

In mid-February Cobb parks officials will be seeking public input as they develop masster plans for green space purchased with the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum, including land on Ebenezer Road in Northeast Cobb.

The session for the Ebenezer Road land takes place Feb. 18 from 6:30-8 p.m. at Noonday Baptist Church (4121 Canton Road).

In October, Cobb commissioners approved spending $89,000 to develop master plans for the properties.

It’s the only land in East Cobb out of nearly 500 acres purchased that’s undergoing a master plan process. The county also purchased 22 acres of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park.

That’s slated to remain as undeveloped green space for now, so there’s no master plan underway.

The 18 acres on Ebenezer Road is located just off Canton Road, and was owned in two parcels by the Strother family. Last summer, commissioner JoAnn Birrell held a public preview there.

The Ebenezer Park master plan contract is for $14,300.

The other input meetings will take place in February and March.

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PHOTOS: Ebenezer Road park preview, East Cobb’s newest green space

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Ebenezer Road park preview 1

On Saturday the public was invited by the Cobb Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs for an Ebenezer Road park preview to show off the newest parcels of green space purchased by the county.

Also at the event were District 3 Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell and Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce.

The 18.3 acres at 4055 and 4057 Ebenezer Road were acquired earlier this year for a total of $1.7 million as part of the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum, which was finally funded by county commissioners last year.

The land was held in the estate of John Strother, who died in 2015 at the age of 101.

The land, which will ultimately be developed into a passive park, was owned by the Strother family in side-by-side parcels and residences on Ebenezer Road near the intersection of Canton Road and Noonday Baptist Church.

Ebenezer Road park preview

The jewel of the property is a lake, and some visitors brought their dogs to make the trek around and enjoy a sunny weekend morning.

The funding approved by commissioners last year was for a total of $27.4 million. Voters approved $40 million in the 2008 referendum, but no bonds were issued due to the recession.

In 2016, an organization called the Cobb Parks Coalition pressed for the bonds to be issued, and now says the 2017 vote to provide partial funding is “a positive game-changer.”

Ebenezer Road park preview

Birrell said that all of the park bond funding has to be spent within three years to acquire green space.

A year since approval, Cobb commissioners have spent nearly $17 million of that money. On Tuesday they’re poised to spend another $8.3 million to purchase 22 acres of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park, and preserve it as green space.

Another 7.7 acres will be donated, and the Friends for the East Cobb Park is donating $102,000 as part of the deal.

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Ebenezer Road park preview

The Ebenezer Road properties are the first to be acquired with the bond money in Birrell’s district, which includes Northeast Cobb and part of the Kennesaw area.

The Tritt property, the subject of a denied rezoning request for a senior living city and related lawsuit, would be the first land acquisition in commissioner Bob Ott’s District 2, which includes most of East Cobb.

Ebenezer Road park preview

 

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Ebenezer Road properties purchased by Cobb County for future public park

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A rare slice of ample green space in East Cobb is going to stay that way. Two residential plots of land on Ebenezer Road were purchased by Cobb County on Tuesday, and will become a public park.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to acquire the 18.3 acres at 4055 and 4057 Ebenezer Road for a combined price of $1.7 million from the estate of John R. Strother.

It’s the first purchase of land in the East Cobb area with funding from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum, and the 2017 supplemental resolution adopted by commissioners last year.

The adjacent plots are at the southeast intersection of Ebenezer Road and Canton Road, just south of Noonday Baptist Church. The Strother lands includes a lake and two residences, one in each parcel.

The eastern edge of the property abuts a single-family subdivision. The Ebenezer Road area is a mix of older homes on bigger lots and newer, denser residential development.

Strother, who died in 2015 at the age of 101, was a retired Lockheed-Georgia employee and World War II veteran.

Funding and development of the Ebenezer Road property will be undertaken separately.

“This has been a long time coming,” Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said of the Ebenezer Road properties. “We’re getting a beautiful piece of property.”

The only other passive park in development in the area is at Mabry Park, which recently got underway on Wesley Chapel Road. Birrell, who represents District 3, has been a vigorous advocate for that park, which now falls in District 2, represented by Bob Ott.

On Tuesday, commissioners appropriated $6.1 million total for 150 acres, most of it in west and south Cobb.

Only District 2, which includes much of East Cobb, has not had a green space purchase with funding stemming from the referendum.

 

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