East Cobb citizens who’ve been communicating with each other and elected officials in the past week over what they claim is a sex shop coming to Johnson Ferry Road took their concerns to the full Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
Several of them asked during a public comment session at the commissioners’ regular meeting Tuesday afternoon that the county consider invalidating a business license granted for a clothing store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road, the site a former Mattress Firm store.
As East Cobb News reported Monday, a business license was issued on March 11 by the Cobb Community Development Agency to 1290 Clothing Co., for a retail clothing store.
The land is zoned general commercial and would not require rezoning for a clothing store. The license was issued to Tomika Hugley.
According to state business corporation filings, Rebecca Crider, the registered agent for 1290 Clothing Co., serves in the same capacity for a number of businesses run by Michael S. Morrison, owner of the Atlanta-based Tokyo Valentino adult retail store enterprise.
“This clothing company is much more than the name implies,” said Lisa Sims, a resident of East Cobb for more than 20 years, during the commissioners’ public comment session.
Like others who spoke, she said an adult store on Johnson Ferry Road would be too close to a school (Mt. Bethel Elementary School), a major church (Johnson Ferry Baptist Church) and a number of residential areas, and it’s the type of business that’s incompatible with the East Cobb community.
Michael Morrison, the owner of the Tokyo Valentine enterprise, told East Cobb News he has not been planning to open a store in East Cobb, although he’s listed in the 1290 Clothing Co. business formation documents in January as the organizer authorizer.
His businesses include an adult retail store on Cobb Parkway at Frey’s Gin Road in the city of Marietta.
His main store, on Cheshire Bridge Road at Piedmont Road in Midtown Atlanta, has been the subject of repeated efforts by the city of Atlanta to force him to close. It’s open 24/7 and has video booths and private rooms and a daily admission charge of $20 and up.
His five other stores, including the Marietta location, sell adult books and DVDs, sex toys and accessories, smoking accessories, lingerie and related items.
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Hill Wright, another East Cobb resident who addressed commissioners, claimed “there are multiple grounds for invalidating a business license,” including listing an applicant as a “strawman” as he alleged Tokyo Valentino has done with the Johnson Ferry store.
In responding to what he said were several hundred messages from constituents, Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb said Monday that the business as proposed meets all zoning requirements.
He said citizens can organize, referring to a We Buy Gold store on Lower Roswell Road several years ago that eventually closed due to a lack of business after community opposition.
In her remarks, Sims said Morrison is “a master of navigating zoning loopholes—look at the city of Atlanta”—and if an adult store would be allowed in East Cobb “it will spread like the Coronavirus.”
Neither Ott nor the other commissioners addressed the topic during the meeting.
East Cobb News asked Ott after the meeting if the county had any recourse in invalidating a business license and he said “I’m not sure about that. Best to check with the County Attorney.”
Sims, who lives two miles from the Johnson Ferry store, told East Cobb News after Tuesday’s meeting she thinks “the unethical or perhaps illegal way the business license was applied for should be investigated.”
She said “for me, IF the store opens, I’ll be picketing out front. . . .
“I suspect our Commissioners will regret not doing more should this business open . . . as they’ll have a mess on their hands.”
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