Eastside Church rezoning rejected by Planning Commission Archives

Eastside Church rezoning rejected by Planning Commission

The Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to recommend denial of a senior-living project at Eastside Church in East Cobb.

Saying it’s “not a fit for a low-density, walkable residential neighborhood,” vice chairwoman Deborah Dance of District 3—which covers most of East Cobb—made the motion to turn down the request, following a brief discussion.

The vote was 4-0, with chairwoman Nadia Faucette absent. The Planning Commission’s recommendation will be considered by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which will hear the request on Sept. 15.

Eastside Church wants to convert 8.65 acres on its Lower Roswell Road campus for a 95-unit assisted living facility with services and amenities, and for eight independent cottages.

The complex, called The Haven at Eastside, would be built on mostly unused parking areas of the church property, which also houses a school and a soccer field at Lower Roswell and Little Road.

*A revised site plan was submitted last week for The Haven at Eastside (**click here for a larger view**).*

The church is adjacent to the Red Oak Park neighborhood of older homes, and numerous residents living there have been working to fight the proposal, which the Planning Commission held in June and has been continued since then.

More than 70 people turned out last week at a community meeting held by Dance and Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, almost all against The Haven.

A total of 57 people came to the zoning hearing on Tuesday in opposition and 21 were in support, and Dance said that another 45 people expressed opposition via an online system and two said they were in favor.

During the hearing Tuesday, Abby Shiffman, a resident of a neighborhood across Lower Roswell Road from the church, said she started a petition against the project that thus far has 232 signatures.

Attorney Kevin Moore, who represents Eastside, said The Haven is compatible with the area and cited Sterling Estates, a senior-living facility further east on Lower Roswell, as an example of an even bigger facility next to a single-family neighborhood.

“This isn’t incompatible,” Moore said. “It’s compatible.”

Shiffman noted that Sterling Estates and Parc and Piedmont, another senior-living community on Roswell Road, are located next to commercial properties and have more substantial buffering than what’s being proposed at Eastside.

While those two complexes are the result “step-down zoning” decisions, Shiffman said, with The Haven proposal, “there’s nothing to step down from.”

Eastside submitted a revised site plan and new elevations for the main building last week and conducted a traffic study that was filed only Monday afternoon.

Moore said the traffic study, which wasn’t required, showed that the impact from The Haven would be less than a two-second delay “at its worst” and for the most part, less than a second, at the intersections around Eastside.

He didn’t provide further details, and Cobb DOT said it hadn’t had time to examine the traffic study.

Richard Grome of the East Cobb Civic Association said the rezoning is incompatible for traffic, density, design and stormwater reasons.

*Eastside Church executive pastor Darrell Whipple*

Red Oak Park resident Lyndsay Webb, who has led much of the opposition, rattled off the names of people living in the neighborhood, saying “these are more than land parcels. These are my neighbors.”

The site plan includes 150 parking spaces for the main building at The Haven, which would be located next to a soccer field that is being used by students at Eastside Christian School.

Planning Commission member Fred Beloin asked about the school’s enrollment, and Eastside executive pastor Darrell Whipple said it currently stands at 275 with a cap of 600.

Eastside Christian has been building out its high school offerings, and when asked by Beloin about future enrollment trends, Whipple said they are growing.

Before the Planning Commission vote, Beloin said the Eastside case was “unique” with a church and a school on one property that would be bisected by a senior-living building.

“I’m not sure I’ve heard enough to be comfortable with” the Eastside proposal, Beloin said.