Judy Sarden admits that until recently, she “never had aspirations about politics.”
A real estate attorney who is a homeschooling advocate, Sarden had been the chief of staff for a county commissioner in Jefferson County, Ala. (Birmingham).
The quest for a more traditional suburban life was behind her family’s move Northeast Cobb from Smyrna several years ago, but she admits now that what’s propelled her to campaign for public office is that she’s “not happy with the direction of the country.”
In qualifying for the May 24 Republican primary for District 3 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, Sarden said she is “modeling the kind of behavior I want to teach my children.”
And running at the local level as a first-time candidate, Sarden said in an interview with East Cobb News, is as important now as ever.
She’s challenging three-term incumbent commissioner JoAnn Birrell in a redrawn district that includes most of East Cobb.
Sarden’s campaign website can be found by clicking here. East Cobb News also has interviewed Birrell and her campaign profile can be found here.
Early voting begins Monday in the primaries.
The winner of the primary will advance to the general election in November against Democrat Christine Triebsch, a former candidate for the Georgia State Senate.
A former representative for development interests whose husband is a commercial architect, Sarden is critical of some of Birrell’s votes on zoning cases.
“I felt like my background is better-suited for dealing with zoning issues,” said Sarden, who lives with her husband and two children in the Sprayberry High School area.
She jumped quickly into discussing high-profile zoning cases in that vicinity last year, including the Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment, but also a rezoning on Ebenezer Road to turn 50 acres of undeveloped land into 99 homes.
Sarden also pointed to the East Cobb Church rezoning at the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford intersection that she said includes housing that’s too dense for the area.
While all three of those cases had some community support, there also was vocal opposition.
“A lot of people are not happy here and in the JOSH area,” Sarden said. “I’m not happy with it.”
The Ebenezer Road case, she said, is “completely urban-style, pack ‘em in.” The site plan included mail box banks, she said, because there isn’t room in front of every home. (Pulte Homes, which applied for the rezoning, has since pulled out of the project.)
Sarden said Cobb doesn’t require enough of developers to avoid results like that.
As for the Sprayberry Crossing case, while she said she’s glad general apartments were taken out (Birrell wouldn’t support it), Sarden is skeptical that the senior age-restricted units will stay that way.
She also thinks the rezoning decision, which was delayed for months, still lacks sufficient traffic and parking solutions.
“That eyesore needed to go,” Sarden said of the Sprayberry Crossing retail center, “but they needed to flesh out some more details. There were some more things that could have been done.”
Sarden said that while Birrell has been in office for a while, “there appears to be a decided lack of getting into the weeds.”
The focus on zoning and development in Cobb comes as a Democratic-led commission has been in the spotlight in high-density cases around the county.
Sarden referenced statements by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who “has made no bones about the feeling that she wants to urbanize. Nobody wants East Cobb to urbanize.”
Some of those decisions, she said, have led to cityhood movements, including East Cobb, which will have a referendum also on May 24.
Sarden said she is neutral on the subject of East Cobb Cityhood, but supports the right of voters “to determine their own destiny.”
Should cityhood votes be approved, she said, “there’s definitely going to be an impact to the county.”
But Sarden thinks Cobb is likely to be in good shape because of a growing tax base (projected for an increase of 10 percent this year).
In addition to zoning votes, Sarden also says she doesn’t think Birrell is doing enough to stand up to the Democratic majority on other issues, including affordable housing.
“She’s at all the photo-op events, but I’ve been talking to a lot of people,” Sarden said. “I’m running as a public servant, not as a politician.”
While Birrell raised extensive campaign funds in her 2018 re-election campaign and easily won the GOP primary, she defeated a first-time Democratic candidate with only 51 percent of the vote in the general election.
Sarden is conducting a grassroots campaign while she homeschools her two children and does some business and homeschooling consulting.
She said she’s not against growth and development in Cobb, but insists that it must follow future land-use maps and master plans, such as was done in the JOSH area before the East Cobb Church case.
But a failure to adhere to those blueprints, she says, is a source of continuing concern.
“If you keep doing a bunch of one-offs, then there’s no cohesion to the county,” Sarden said.
She said Cupid talks about affordable housing and workforce housing “interchangeably. I fear she is going to continue to push this agenda.
“I feel like I will be in a better position to counter this,” Sarden said. “That’s why I’m putting my hat in the ring.
“I’m not afraid to stand up and I’m not concerned with all that politically correct stuff.”
Related:
- How to vote in the May 24 primary elections
- Runoff to determine special legislative election in East Cobb
- East Cobb News Politics & Elections page
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