A developer whose plans for a “sustainable” subdivision in Northeast Cobb was recently rejected is suing Cobb commissioners and a prominent civic group.
Christopher M. Hunt of Green Community Development LLC of Atlanta filed what he said is a $100 million class-action suit on Oct. 20 in Cobb Superior Court that also names the East Cobb Civic Association and its current president, Richard Grome, as defendants.
Hunt claims in the court filing (you can read it here) that the rezoning rejection is “an unconstitutional denial” that has caused “economic devaluation of property” and “extreme financial damages” to the plaintiffs.
Commissioners voted 4-0 in September to turn down his request to build 13 eco-friendly homes on 7.5 acres on Kinridge Court.
The case was frequently contentious, as Hunt accused the East Cobb Civic Association of sabotaging his efforts to build what he initially declared would be an award-winning development.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area, held a public meeting before the vote but said she left when “name-calling began” that was directed at Cobb zoning staff and the ECCA.
She didn’t specify Hunt by name but said that comments were made that “I don’t appreciate or tolerate.” During the rezoning process, he spoke in often animated and at times confrontational fashion, especially toward those who opposed his case.
In his lawsuit, Hunt referred to Birrell—whom he misspelled as “Burrell” throughout the court filing and who is up for re-election Nov. 8—of “whoring herself to gain a few ECCA votes to the detriment of 700,000 citizens of Cobb County. ECCA does not represent homeowners but own agenda.”
Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is Brian Johnson, the Cobb County Senior Associate Attorney.
The ECCA is a citizens group that represents roughly 9,000 homeowners that makes advisory recommendations on zoning cases. The group assigns caseworkers to examine cases and frequently speak at public meetings about them
The ECCA was opposed to the Green Community Development rezoning due to traffic, density and stormwater runoff concerns that were echoed by zoning staff in recommending denial.
According to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s records, Hunt is representing himself in the lawsuit, which thus far has not received a formal reply from the county.
When East Cobb News asked for the county’s response to the lawsuit, a Cobb government spokesman said “per legal we will have no comment.”
East Cobb News also left messages with the ECCA and Grome. He replied that neither he nor the organization would be commenting.
The lawsuit accuses Grome of “unethical hypocricy[sic]” and is demanding that he resign his position.
He also said the ECCA and Grome “have proven to have a private unethical and illegal anti-development agenda of ‘means justify the ends’ against any development even when super sustainable, legally mandated and net positive to existing!”
He complained during the rezoning process that he wasn’t invited to attend a community meeting at which, he claimed, the ECCA “unethically and illegally gave patently false and misleading information to trusting neighbors to gain petitions of opposition” to the rezoning request.
While Hunt focused much of his ire in the court filing at Birrell, he said “the other commissioners were unethical and proved incompetent by abiding by unwritten but proven rule of ‘whatever a commissioner votes in their district the rest support’ no matter how crazy illegally bad!”
He said he wouldn’t pursue the $100 million in damages he is seeking if all of them decline to run for re-election.
In his lawsuit, which included several other spelling errors and incorrect e-mail addresses, Hunt said he will be asking for a jury trial.
He also wants homeowners’ associations to be “mandated to provide a list for rezoning approval at least 30 days in advance of any BOC hearing and agreed perjury will be prosecuted—there can be objections but not lying nor slandering.”
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