Despite community pleas in opposition and a local district commissioner saying it’s not needed, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted along party lines Tuesday to start on the long-planned Lower Roswell Road traffic project.
The 3-2 vote for a $7 million contract also was matched by similar votes to begin condemnation proceedings with two property owners and to begin preliminary utility relocation work.
Nearly $11 million has been budgeted in 2011 Cobb SPLOST funds for the project, which would add turn lanes, install a multi-use trail and make other changes along Lower Roswell between Woodlawn Drive and Davidson Road.
It’s been delayed for more than a decade, including in February, when a first vote was tabled by commissioners following community opposition.
The project would take two years to complete, and business owners told commissioners in February the median remains “a bad idea.”
Cobb commissioners approved a conceptual plan in 2022. Further public feedback prompted DOT later in 2022 to redesign the project, including removal of a planned bike path and expanding a multi-use trail.
DOT officials said the project is necessary primarily to reduce crashes in the area.
The board’s three Democrats, including Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb, voted in favor on all three matters, while the two Republicans voted against.
One of them, JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb, said there’s a reason one of her former colleagues—now-retired District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott—never brought the Lower Roswell Road project to a vote.
She said feedback she’s received against the project is “overwhelming,” estimating that to be 10-1 from messages, open houses and at meetings.
“I can’t support this,” Birrell said, “especially putting businesses out. It’s taken 14 years to come back.”
There have been numerous delays and redesigns, and objections from business owners to a median on Lower Roswell between Johnson Ferry and Davidson.
Keli Gambrill, a Republican from District 1 in North Cobb, said she doubted there’s enough funding left from a SPLOST 13 years ago to complete the Lower Roswell Road project.
She held up the proposed Cobb Mobility SPLOST project list, noting that the estimated costs totaled on that list exceed the estimated $11.2 billion that would be collected if the referendum passes in November.
Among the bus routes that would be added would be one along Johnson Ferry Road between Merchants Walk and the Dunwoody MARTA Station.
“This whole project flies in the face of promises made‚yes by a previous board to the business owners in that area,” Gambrill said. “I don’t think the county is being honest with the citizens . . . not knowing what the M-SPLOST is also planning to do with this area.”
Richardson said the two issues are not related, and that “we’ve found as many compromises as possible” to accommodate business owners.
A citizen opposed to the project, Leroy Emkin, said there have been 27 crashes along that area of Lower Roswell in the last decade, according to DOT figures, suggesting that roughly six crashes a year shouldn’t justify a median.
But Cobb DOT Director Drew Raessler has repeated previous statements that there were 40 crashes from 2009 and 2016 that could have been prevented with a median.
Pamela Reardon, an East Cobb resident running to succeed Richardson, blasted the vote afterward, saying that the 30 businesses that will be affected “have not had a voice, even though this board says they have.
“This is a useless project. It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of money.”
Related:
- Cobb voters to decide transit sales tax in November referendum
- East Piedmont Road lane closures in effect due to sewer repairs
- Cobb adopts new policy for traffic-calming in neighborhoods
- Cobb approves ridership survey for transit tax referendum
- Cobb puts indefinite hold on Lower Roswell Road project
- Cobb commissioners set 2024 referendum for transit sales tax
- East Cobb transit center, bus routes on Cobb Mobility SPLOST project list
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