We’re still waiting for the East Cobb cityhood bill to be introduced in the legislature (it wasn’t in the hopper as of lunchtime Tuesday and it’s not on today’s local calendar).
Last week there was a cityhood referendum on Skidaway Island that was defeated soundly by voters, and it’s worth considering ahead of Thursday’s town hall meeting with East Cobb cityhood leaders.
The vote on Skidaway is the latest cityhood initiative that has been rejected in recent years, after the success of efforts in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Johns Creek, Milton, Peachtree Corners, Brookhaven, Tucker and other parts of the Atlanta suburbs.
Last November, a referendum to create a city of Eagle’s Landing in Henry County went down to defeat. So did the proposed city of Sharon Springs in Forsyth County.
Efforts in DeKalb County to create two other cities, including one area where voters rejected incorporation in 2015, are being fought.
As the Skidaway saga unfolded, local opposition mounted to the cityhood drive, and it was powerful. In the end, voters there elected to stay part of combined Savannah-Chatham County government, with 62 percent voting “no.”
Community leaders in Mableton have had a cityhood bill introduced in the legislature for many of the same reasons cited by those leading the effort in East Cobb: More local control.
Related coverage
Charlie Harper, who publishes the GeorgiaPol.com state political website and runs a Republican-focused policy consulting firm based on Powers Ferry Road, offered some perspective on the Skidaway vote on Monday that he thinks could have wider statewide implications:
“For a while, the battle of Republican bumper sticker slogans had “local control” winning out over ‘less government.’ During this successful run, success bred success for many, as the same lobbyists, consultants, and vendors seemed to form a niche that has moved from one cityhood effort to another.
“While casting no aspersions on those who are good at what they do for a living, it’s also time in the wake of this defeat to assess. Is the current list of areas exploring the option of incorporation really the result of a groundswell of public support, or have we now created an industry with the right connections and capital that is planting seeds of cityhood in the hopes that public support will then sprout?”
Those are some of the points that have been made by East Cobb News readers since we began posting about the East Cobb cityhood effort in December.
To be sure, there are supporters of cityhood who also have spoken out, and there are those who are open to listening to what those behind a proposed City of East Cobb have to say.
(Here’s the revised website for the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, Inc.)
But there are many questions readers have been posing to us that reflect much of what drove the opposition in Skidaway.
As Harper noted about the failed effort there as well as Eagle’s Landing:
“At the core of each battle was a commercial tax base. Both were deemed necessary for long term viability with low/stable tax rates. Skidaway Island, dominated by the mega gated community The Landings, is almost exclusively residential.
“This difference, combined with the political savvy of a few key residents, led to Skidaway’s defeat.”
The financial feasibility study conducted for the Committee for Cityhood for East Cobb noted that the tax base split for the proposed city limits would be 85 percent residential and only 15 percent commercial.
That’s another major question East Cobb cityhood leaders will have to address in the coming months, starting Thursday at Bob Ott’s town hall meeting at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in Nolan Hall. The church is at 4905 Roswell Road, at the corner of Bishop Lake Road.
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