East Cobb Cityhood feasibility study

East Cobb Cityhood feasibility study to be released next week

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East Cobb Park summer end
A proposed City of East Cobb would include parks and recreation in a “city lite” set of services.

A financial feasibility study for the proposed City of East Cobb was to have been completed by Nov. 1, and the group leading the incorporation effort said the report will be made public next week.

Cindy Cooperman, a spokeswoman for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, told East Cobb News that the study would be released next Monday, Nov. 15 and will be made available on the group’s website.

The study was commissioned in July by the committee and was conducted by the Center for State and Local Finance at Georgia State University.

GSU researchers also conducted a feasibility study for the first East Cobb cityhood effort, and in late 2018 concluded that it was financially viable.

The initial effort called for police, fire and community development services.

The revived effort, announced in March, drastically reduced the proposed city of East Cobb boundaries and proposed planning and zoning, code enforcement, parks and recreation and roads and transportation services.

State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Republican who sponsored both cityhood bills (the 2019 legislation was eventually abandoned), said in an April virtual town hall meeting that the “hope here is to be revenue neutral,” meaning no millage rate would need to be established to provide those services.

That was the conclusion of a feasibility study released last week for the proposed city of Lost Mountain in West Cobb.

That report, prepared by researchers at the University of Georgia, concluded that that city would raise enough revenues from existing taxes and fees to generate a surplus and wouldn’t have to levy property taxes.

West Cobb legislators are sponsoring a Lost Mountain cityhood bill that would create a city of around 70,000.

Like the renewed East Cobb cityhood effort, Lost Mountain supporters are emphasizing planning and zoning and preserving the suburban nature of the community.

Lost Mountain also would provide parks and recreation and sanitation services.

Preservation interests prompted a cityhood effort in Vinings, where a UGA feasibility study released in October concluded that proposed city of 7,000 was financially viable.

Cityhood bills for those three proposed cities as well as a second cityhood bill for a proposed city of Mableton are expected to be taken up in the 2022 Georgia legislature.

If passed, those bills would call for incorporation referendums in November 2022.

Dollar, who is not seeking re-election next year, has a co-sponsor in State Rep. Sharon Cooper, also an East Cobb Republican.

Cityhood bills also require a Senate sponsor. State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, an East Cobb Republican, told East Cobb News recently she would wait to comment on the new cityhood effort until after the feasibility study is released.

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East Cobb Cityhood group commissions feasibility study

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East Cobb Cityhood feasibility study
The East Cobb Cityhood group has added road maintenance and construction as a proposed service, along with zoning and planning, code enforcement and parks.

The group that revived the East Cobb Cityhood effort earlier this year announced Monday it has commissioned a new financial feasibility study to be conducted by Georgia State University.

The group also said it is proposing a fourth service, road and construction maintenance, to be evaluated during the study.

GSU’s Center for State and Local Finance is to conduct the study, which is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, according to information released by the Cityhood group Monday.

The Cityhood group said $10,000 has been paid upfront to initiate the study and it is raising funds for the remaining $10,000 that will be due upon completion.

When asked by East Cobb News about who’s footed the bill thus far, the Cityhood group responded via e-mail that those funds “are being raised by supporters here in the East Cobb Community.” According to a donation page, less than $8,000 of a goal of $25,000 has been pledged.

State representatives Matt Dollar and Sharon Cooper, both East Cobb Republicans, submitted cityhood legislation near the end of the 2021 session, that, if passed by the legislature next year, would call for a November 2022 referendum by voters living in the proposed new municipality.

The proposed services that were mentioned in the bill are planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.

Citing a state law regarding ownership and control of county right of way, the Cityhood group explained the addition of road projects by saying that “unless the municipality and the county agree otherwise by joint resolution, new cities forming in Georgia are required to assume these services.”

In Georgia, new cities must provide at least three services, and cityhood legislation requires proponents to conduct a financial feasibility study.

Dollar’s also sponsored a City of East Cobb bill in 2019 that would have included police, fire and community development services.

But the Cityhood group abandoned that effort after a series of town hall meetings in late 2019, after community opposition surfaced.

The initial proposed City of East Cobb would have had a population of more than 100,000.

The new boundaries are much smaller, comprising most of the Johnson Ferry Road corridor west to Old Canton Road, with an estimated population of 55,000.

While some parties in the initial Cityhood group are still on board, the revamped effort features some new leadership that conducted virtual town hall meetings this spring.

The East Cobb group said it will likely hold another virtual information session in August.

Three other Cityhood bills have been filed by Cobb County lawmakers, including new efforts in Vinings and in West Cobb for a proposed City of Lost Mountain.

Another bill for Mableton Cityhood also was filed this year, just as in 2019.

In 2018-19, only a handful of individuals identified themselves as being part of the East Cobb Cityhood effort, and declined to reveal how an initial financial feasibility study conducted by GSU was paid for, at a cost of nearly $30,000.

That study, released in late 2018, declared that the proposed City of East Cobb, with the proposed public safety and community development services, was financially viable.

An independent group of local finance experts gathered by the Cityhood group conducted a separate review, and in mid-2019 recommended that police services not be part of the city to start.

The initial Cityhood group also spent tens of thousands of dollars on high-powered legislative lobbyists, but didn’t provide the funding sources.

The East Cobb Educational Research Committee, Inc., which was formed in early 2019, is the non-profit that is continuing as the sponsoring group of the Cityhood effort.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, Craig Chapin is the CEO, Sarah Haas is the Secretary and Scott Hausman is the Chief Financial Officer.

Their profiles and related information can be found here.

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