JOSH East Cobb

Mapping the future of the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community

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Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community

With all kinds of maps abounding all around them—for land use, stormwater management, traffic and more—a few dozen citizens from the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community turned out last week to continue efforts at developing a master plan.

After some input meetings last spring, Cobb County officials decided to come back this winter to solicit more feedback. At the first of those meetings, at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church, commissioner Bob Ott explained how the “JOSH” master plan process—short for Johnson Ferry-Shallowford—is similar to those that have taken place previously and that have involved his constituents.

“Instead of consultants, we have community meetings and you help design the plan that you want,” he said.

That’s what has happened in the Powers Ferry Corridor, and with “urban design” guidelines on Johnson Ferry Road between Roswell and Lower Roswell elsewhere in East Cobb.

The high-density and mixed-use development that’s accelerating along Powers Ferry, or in the case of the Johnson Ferry Urban Design plan, the use of language, have concerned some in the JOSH area about what may be in store for where they live.

Bob Ott, JOSH
Commissioner Bob Ott said a master plan “isn’t perfect but it’s better than not having a master plan.” (ECN photos by Wendy Parker)

It’s a community with overwhelmingly single family residential homes, a population that’s older and a higher median income average than the rest of Cobb County.

It’s also new territory for Ott, whose District 2 was redrawn in 2016 to include JOSH. He referenced another master plan in his district that is similar to what he’s seeing for JOSH.

The Vinings Vision MasterPlan was developed out of an interest in preserving the feel of an older community surrounded by high-scale commercial growth in the Cumberland area.

The Vinings plan, Ott said, was deemed a “protection plan” when it was finished.

“This also appears to be a protection plan instead of a redevelopment plan,” he said of JOSH.

In Vinings, citizens took an additional six months to finalize that plan. Two more meetings are scheduled over the next two months for the JOSH master plan. Cobb Community Development Agency staff will present a preliminary plan on Feb. 12, and a draft plan on March 12, and public comments also will be sought.

Both of those meetings also will be at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road), starting at 7 p.m.

Jason Gaines, Cobb Community DevelopmentThe master plan will include future land use, infrastructure, stormwater, parks and recreation, building design and more (JOSH outline here).

Last spring, some citizens objected to an image preference survey that included photos of high-density development. Ott asked community development staff to rework the survey.

Jason Gaines, the community development agency’s planning division chief (above), broke down some of the JOSH demographics (boundary map here):

  • Population: 26,600
  • Employment: 4,400
  • Median Age: 44.9 years (Cobb median: 36.5)
  • Median household income: $119K (Cobb: $72K)
  • Median per capita income: $51K (Cobb: 36K)
  • Housing: 9.4K units; 98.2% owner-occupied; 99.5% single-family residential detached (Cobb: 66.2%)
  • Median home value: $347K (Cobb: $219.7K)

Phillip Westbrook of the planning division said 86 percent of the land in the JOSH map that’s included in the proposed master plan is residential (mostly low-density) and has only two major commercial areas: at the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford intersection, and on Shallowford near Lassiter Road.

Much of the current future land use map for the JOSH area hasn’t changed much over the last 25 years. Perhaps the most closely-watched case is at the southwestern intersection of Johnson Ferry-Shallowford, where a proposed residential zoning application was withdrawn in 2017. In addition to high-density issues there also have been concerns over stormwater, since the 30-acre property includes a lake.

“What’s going on that property we don’t know,” Ott said. “But this map is going to change.”

JOSH map

 

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Johnson Ferry-Shallowford master plan surveys accepted through July 6

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Johnson Ferry-Shallowford master plan, JOSH image survey

Udpating our previous posts (here and here) about the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford master plan survey, which has been revised following an outcry from citizens about the options in the original version: You’re running out of time to have your say about what you think future development in the community should be like.

The deadline to fill out the image preference survey is July 6, and you’ll need some time to do so. It’s 89 questions long and asks citizens and business owners to state their preferences about the look, density and feel of residential and commercial development, as well as landscaping, streetscapes, greenspaces, stormwater management and more.

A community meeting in August will summarize the findings. More on the JOSH project can be found here. Like other small-area plans, the JOSH master plan will be added to the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan

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Some Johnson Ferry-Shallowford residents can’t picture suggestions of their community’s future

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Johnson Ferry-Shallowford residents, JOSH image survey
One resident quipped in reference to the question and photo above included in an image survey about future development in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community: “Did Cobb lose a war to Romania?” 

When Cobb community development officials recently asked Johnson Ferry-Shallowford residents to respond to an “image preference survey” of potential future development in the area, the blowback was swift, angry and occasionally sarcastic.

Suggested photos contained in the lengthy survey (see examples below) included plenty of high-rise residential and commercial buildings that are typical in urban areas, sunny resorts and even other countries.

Residential high-rise building.

What they didn’t look like to a good number of those responders was anything like what’s in the suburban Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area now, or what they want to see in the future.

We reported last week about the “JOSH” community meetings that have been underway this spring, and in particular stormwater issues that have been plaguing the nearby Loch Highland community for years.

That’s just one of the many subject areas that community development staff is surveying. A final public input session is scheduled for May 9 at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road).

To be sure, the image preference survey did include some photos of single-family dwellings and low-rise office and retail space that looks fairly typical for what’s in the East Cobb area that’s the subject of an ongoing evaluation by county officials.

Residential development.

But many posts over the weekend at the East Cobbers Against High Density Development Facebook group  (which has around 1,000 members) tore into much of what the survey was serving up, fearing that there weren’t going to be many other choices besides the high-density options they were asked to comment on.

A few examples of the sharp replies:

“Basically they’re saying we don’t have a choice in the sense of no traditional housing on normal sized, decent lots. They are steering us in their direction, none of which is desirable to the vast majority of us who prefer no high density and more neighborhood like.”

“Even the single family options were right on top of each other.”

“I don’t know why there is a question about what people want. We want what we had when we chose to move here. Single family homes, large lots with room for kids to play, good schools and low crime, libraries that were open etc., and that is slowly disappearing.”

“I tried to make sure they knew they were reaching: ‘Did Cobb lose a war to Romania?’ “

Office/retail/commercial building.

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, whose District 2 now includes the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community, weighed in on the Facebook group page, saying he had nothing to do with the survey selections and that what was being suggested was only to solicit feedback.

“This is not some consulting firm telling you what you have to accept. Let’s give staff some credit for taking this to the public for their thoughts,” he said.

To which a resident replied: “Then please give us choices that reflect homes on one acre lots. Nothing remotely resembling that was offered in the pictures presented.”

Similar image preference surveys have been done in previous corridor studies in Ott’s district, including the Powers Ferry Road area and Johnson Ferry Road.

We posted yesterday about the Johnson Ferry design guidelines that are coming up for commission adoption tonight, five years after they were presented. Those guidelines incorporate community feedback, and some of the generic photos in that presentation were included in the JOSH image preference survey.

Public space.

Some of the image survey responders simply asked that future development conform to the current and future land use plans in the area.

Ott said he would have the image survey redone. The original still exists, for now, and includes suggestions on sidewalks, cycling paths, greenspace, public space, stormwater retention ponds and more.

He also reminded citizens who thought their feedback was being sought for political reasons with primaries next month that he’s not up for election this year.

 

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For East Cobb community of Loch Highland, stormwater problems have lingered for years

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Loch Highland, East Cobb community
A panoramic view of Highland Lake, the centerpiece of the Loch Highland neighborhood. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)

When the Cobb Community Development Agency scheduled a series of public open houses in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area for this spring, residents of the East Cobb community of Loch Highland knew they had a good opportunity to be heard about a long-standing issue they claim hasn’t been adequately addressed by the county.

On Monday, at the second of three “JOSH” sessions to gain input on a range of community development issues, several Loch Highland residents turned out to provide feedback, and make their case for dealing with stormwater problems.

Located between Mabry Road and Wesley Chapel Road, and near the top of the “JOSH” study area (see map inset below, and full-size map here), Loch Highland provides one of the more scenic community environments in East Cobb. Opened in the 1970s and featuring wood-framed homes to blend in with natural surroundings, Loch Highland was designed to feel like a resort while being convenient for commuting and everyday suburban life.

For years Loch Highland homeowners have taken it upon themselves, and at their own expense, to clean out the two scenic lakes that often get filled with silt and other sediments from rain and storms.

Even with a slender dam and spillway that connects both lakes under Loch Highland Pass, the main road in the neighborhood, the lakes often flood during heavy rains. There were lengthy negotiations during the 1980s between Cobb and Loch Highland residents over how to pay for damage to the dam caused during a period of heavy development.

Loch Highland
The Loch Highland neighborhood and lakes are circled in red, and are located at the north end of the “JOSH” study area.

“We probably have the largest catchment area in this part of the county,” said Dave Taylor, a long-time Loch Highland resident.

What he and some of his neighbors have been suggesting for years is what they emphasized at Monday’s meeting at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church: The establishment of a stormwater utility fee that would be earmarked for keeping the lakes clean.

“Half of our [homeowners association] dues go to the maintenance of the lakes,” Taylor said. He added that while the lake is healthy, upstream development threatens that health.

More than that, homeowners in Loch Highland, which number around 400, wonder how much more it will cost them, with no financial relief in sight.

Jim Wallace, who’s lived in Loch Highland for more than 40 years, estimates that neighbors have spent nearly $1 million on lake cleanup since the year 2000.

He’s upset that water that runs downstream from public roads and lands have become the sole burden of private property owners.

“If you see an unmowed median in a road, [county] commissioners will hear about it,” Wallace said. “But not when it’s a lake.” Even on private property, “it serves a public purpose.”

That public purpose in Loch Highland, with the dam and spillway bolstering one of the largest retention ponds in Cobb County, is to prevent further stormwater runoff from affecting other communities.

The Loch Highland community website has an information page about the stormwater issues, including an explanation of how a stormwater utility fee would work. That fee would be included in water bills and would cost around $3.50 a month for a home of around 2,800 square feet. The actual rate would be calculated on the amount of impervious surfaces for each home.

When asked if that’s just a complicated way of proposing a tax, Taylor denied that, pointing out that the collected fee revenue would go only to stormwater maintenance functions.

Cobb has 130 dams and more than 15,000 retention ponds, and more than 20 percent of its land is located in a flood plain.

While the JOSH meetings cover many topics, from land use and transportation to parks and other amenities, stormwater management was bound to be a subject of interest. The study area is bordered on the east by Willeo Creek and includes a number of other lakes and ponds.

Cobb Planning Commissioner Thea Powell, a former Cobb commissioner and East Cobb Civic Association leader who lives in nearby Chimney Lake, said another factor that has frustrated citizens about stormwater concerns is that “everything that affects us is outside the study area.”

She noted that the “JOSH” open houses are a rare occasion in which feedback on stormwater issues has been encouraged.

David Breaden, at left, of the Cobb Stormwater Management office, looks over a county topographical map with a citizen at Monday’s “JOSH” open house.

“The fact that the county is looking at this is good,” Powell said.

Jason Gaines, planning division director for the Cobb Community Development Agency, acknowledged that stormwater issues were one of the main areas of input his office is seeking in the JOSH process, which was established at the behest of District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott.

Gaines said a more formal presentation summarizing the first two meetings will take place at the final meeting on May 8, also at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road), from 7-9 p.m.

The master plan concept that is developed from the JOSH meetings will be incorporated into the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

Citizens can offer feedback online, and view documents, maps and other information related to the study area, by visiting the JOSH website.

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Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community meetings continue Monday

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Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community meetings

If you missed the first of the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community meetings on planning and development that was held last month, there are two more opportunities to attend and to take park in the “small area plan” concept that is seeking citizen input.

The next meeting takes place Monday from 7-9 p.m. at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road), and it’s being conducted by Cobb County Government officials, including staff from community development, DOT, stormwater management, parks and recreation and others.

Here’s a summary of the first “JOSH” meeting that took place last month, with a county-provided photo above showing the small-group focus of the event.

Monday’s workshop will be formatted the same way, as a chance for the public to gain information and offer feedback about the future of the “JOSH” corridor.

Here’s a link to the full presentation from the first meeting, and the county also has set up a crowdsourcing application for citizens to offer their feedback at any time.

The bottom of the main JOSH page also has more links to individual topics related to the small area plan project, including community boundaries, facilities, land use and planning, traffic and public amenities.

All of the input will be factored into a concept master plan and other recommendations by county staff.

If you can’t attend Monday, there will be a final opportunity on Monday, May 8, also from 7-9 at the Chestnut Ridge church.

 

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Community meetings start Monday for Johnson Ferry-Shallowford development issues

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On Monday Cobb government officials will hold the first of three community meetings over the next couple of months to outline what they’re calling a “small area plan” for Johnson Ferry-Shallowford development issues.

The first meeting is slated from 7-9 p.m. Monday at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road). That will the site for additional meetings on April 16 and May 8, also in the same time slot.

The area indicated in the map above is called JOSH, and it’s to be a supplement to the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan to address anticipated development issues in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford corridor.

The departments involved in JOSH planning include community development, planning, parks and recreation, and the Cobb Water System’s stormwater division.

Here’s more about JOSH and what county officials are asking for in terms of public feedback:

The purpose of JOSH is to provide guidance to the Board of Commissioners regarding policy and decisions pertaining to land use, design guidelines, parks, greenspace facilities and infrastructure. 

It will focus will focus on five key elements: future land use, design guidelines, stormwater management, parks and greenspace, and transportation. Due to anticipated growth, new development and redevelopment, future land use will be a key focal point of the study. Issues and concerns will be identified by community members and addressed through the concept plan and implementation recommendations.

The JOSH plan will be developed in part by way of an extensive public participation program. A stakeholder group has been established, consisting of key individuals representing a variety of groups and organizations. Stakeholders include neighborhood/civic groups and business/commercial representatives. In addition to the Stakeholder Group, the project team will facilitate three community meetings to engage the public in defining problems and concerns and identifying their desires for the future of the JOSH community.

 

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