East Cobb City map

Expanded East Cobb city map includes Pope, Lassiter districts

by
Expanded East Cobb city map, David Birdwell
East Cobb Cityhood committee leader David Birdwell unveils a revised map of the proposed city at a town hall meeting Monday. (ECN photos by Wendy Parker)

Many of the familiar talking points about East Cobb cityhood were made Monday night at a town hall meeting at Wheeler High School.

So were many of the objections to a City of East Cobb that also have been heard for many months.

What was new at the meeting organized by the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb was the proposed map for a City of East Cobb that would be larger than the original, and would include the Pope and Lassiter high school attendance zones.

Cityhood committee members said they just got the map earlier Monday from the state legislative office that draws up such boundaries.

The revision comes several months after a lobbying effort that also included citizens from the Sprayberry High School community, which for now is being left out.

“It could be added now or through annexation,” cityhood leader David Birdwell said.

The original map included most of unincorporated Cobb in Cobb commission District 2 east of I-75. That covered the Walton and most of the Wheeler attendance zones, but only a sliver of the Pope and Lassiter areas and had a population of nearly 90,000 people.

State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, East Cobb city map
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick

The new population figure wasn’t immediately available, but it could boost a potential City of East Cobb to the second-largest city in metro Atlanta.

‘Wait and see’

The map is part of legislation sponsored at the end of the 2019 session by State Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb), and that must pass in 2020 for a referendum to be called next fall.

(Read the bill here.)

Among the more than 100 people in attendance at the Wheeler auditorium was State. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican of East Cobb who is a critical player in the process.

State law requires cityhood bills to have local sponsors in each chamber of the legislature. Kirkpatrick and State Rep. Sharon Cooper, who also was in attendance Monday, have said they have not formed an opinion on East Cobb cityhood.

East Cobb cityhood legislation
The original proposed East Cobb city map.

Kirkpatrick told East Cobb News she’s been getting plenty of anti-cityhood sentiment from constituents, and that she wants to give the pro-cityhood forces a chance to “make their case.”

Her perspective, she said for now, remains “wait and see.” During the town hall, she said she would do some polling near the end of the year and said she continues to welcome feedback from citizens, no matter how they feel about the issue.

The cityhood committee also has retained two high-profile lobbyists for the 2020 legislative session.

When a citizen asked Kirkpatrick about Dollar’s whereabouts, she said he had been out of the country and would be returning Tuesday.

The crowd occasionally grew boisterous during a question-and-answer period. Questions were to have been written on note cards, but some shouted out questions or made statements, often in opposition to cityhood.

New EC City Map
The revised map would include the northeastern corner of East Cobb.

Others were concerned about how East Cobb cityhood would affect public schools. When Birdwell repeatedly said there would be no effect on schools—including the Cobb senior tax exemption—some citizens still interrupted.

By Georgia law, new cities cannot create school districts. School districts remain in such cities like Marietta, which have had them for many years.

We’ll have more from Monday’s meeting and other cityhood news after a forum on Tuesday between Birdwell and Bill Simon of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood.

That forum will take place at a luncheon of the East Cobb Business Association.

And as soon as we get a better map of the revised City of East Cobb proposed boundaries, we’ll post that here too. Birdwell said it may take time for the state legislative office to make that available to the public.

Related coverage

 

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!

East Cobb City map: Defining and redrawing the lines

by
East Cobb City map
The heart of a proposed City of East Cobb hovers around the Roswell-Johnson Ferry Road intersection. Click here for interactive map. 

From the moment East Cobb Cityhood proponents issued a proposed map last December, questions abounded from the public: Who drew this East Cobb city map? Why isn’t my neighborhood in it?

Perhaps the biggest silent question that could have been implied is this one: What does it mean to be in East Cobb?

Advocates for a new city say one of the objectives is to help create a better sense of community identity. That certainly could be a by-product in an area that’s been building out in sprawling, unincorporated suburban fashion for nearly 50 years.

But how the City of East Cobb proposal now before the legislature, and that could go to voters in a referendum next year, finally comes to fruition depends on how those municipal boundaries may ultimately be decided.

The map that’s been drawn up is the East Cobb portion of Bob Ott’s Cobb Commission District 2, at least in unincorporated Cobb and excluding the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

That drew suspicions about Ott’s possible involvement in the cityhood effort (which he denies).

But it’s a city heavy with the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones, a little of Pope and Lassiter and none from Sprayberry and Kell.

How can that be called East Cobb?

The cityhood bill filed near the end of the 2019 legislative session includes that map, and leaders of the group insist that the map, and everything in the bill, including a proposed city charter, is subject to change.

In fact, at a town hall meeting they held Monday, they confirmed that changing the proposed boundaries is in the works, and could cross Sandy Plains Road, out toward Shallowford and Trickum Roads.

“The lines will change,” said David Birdwell, a member of the cityhood group, said at the Walton meeting. “It depends on how far we go.”

East Cobb City map
Some residents of Meadow Drive for now would be in a proposed City of East Cobb, but their neighbors across the street would not. Click here for interactive map.

The feasibility study conducted for the cityhood group according to the present lines would include a population of 96,000, which would make East Cobb the second-largest city in metro Atlanta.

The Cityhood group also released an interactive map this week that lets readers find out whether they’re in the presently proposed boundaries.

(FWIW the coverage area of East Cobb News is most everything east of I-75 and I-575, including most of the ZIP codes of 30062, 30066, 30067, 30068 and the Cobb portion of 30075. That’s a population of around 200,000; view demographic details here.)

Subject to change

Cityhood leaders have said that some boundaries had to be submitted with the bill. The legislation also calls for a six-member city council and specified census blocks and voting precincts.

Those too are a rough draft and are likely to be changed; a few of the voting precincts indicated in the bill are either non-existent or misnumbered.

Five of the six council districts would include some or a good bit of the Walton attendance zone (it’s the third-largest high school in Cobb).

It’s uncertain for now how that school zone dynamic would change in an expanded proposed city.

Birdwell said that an amendment to the feasibility study could be requested if those lines do change, so a new study (and its budgeting and finance assumptions) may not be necessary before the legislature would take up the bill in 2020.

“It’s their discretion to make the final call,” said Karen Hallacy, another member of the cityhood group.

The legislative process

Kay Kirkpatrick, East Cobb city map
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick

Even though East Cobb cityhood is considered local legislation (lawmakers in the proposed new city have to sponsor it), a bill would be voted on by both houses in the Georgia General Assembly.

State. Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb) is the House sponsor. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, also of East Cobb, said she hasn’t decided about cityhood and didn’t sign on as a sponsor.

“The meeting was very informative,” she said after the Monday town hall. “This community wants input, and I think it clarifies a lot of misconceptions. I’m like any other citizen, just getting input.”

The bill doesn’t need the support of the Cobb delegation. State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, an East Cobb Republican, would need to sponsor the bill if it crosses over from the House, but for now she remains non-committal about cityhood.

“I’m trying to keep an open mind until the end of the year,” she said after the town hall. “The bill has a tough road ahead of it,” as any bill does. Some recent cityood bills and referenda also have been defeated.

By time an East Cobb bill might cross over, Kirkpatrick said, “I’ll have a better idea whether East Cobb wants to be a city.

“I’ve gotten a lot of negative feedback, but then people hear about the police and the idea of more local control,” she said. “I’ll bet they [cityhood leaders] picked up some support tonight.”

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

 

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!