A long-delayed site plan amendment by Lidl Grocery to convert the Park 12 Cobb theater into a supermarket was voted down Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
At their monthly zoning hearing, the commission voted 4-1 to turn down the application by the German-based grocer to build a store on Gordy Parkway at Shallowford Road, site of the cinema, in a case that received heavy community opposition. 
“This use is too intense for this location,” said commissioner JoAnn Birrell, whose District 3 includes the theater location, which is close to three subdivisions and several parks as well as Lassiter High School.
She also cited traffic and crash data analysis in moving to deny the application. The number of accidents in the area—including the busy Shallowford/Sandy Plains intersection—has gone up dramatically in recent years.
Birrell said 42 accidents were recorded there in 2014, 61 in 2015, 82 in 2016 and through May of this year, 26, for a total of 211 accidents.
“Lidl would be better suited in a shopping center [on a major road] than in a standalone location on a two-lane road” that’s the primary point of access for residential communities, she said.
The Cobb zoning staff recommended approval for the grocery plan, which was first presented in May. Lidl attorney Parks Huff maintained that “this is not a difficult decision. This is technically a property rights issue and needs to be approved.”
Commissioner Bob Weatherford was the only vote in favor. While Lidl didn’t need rezoning, chairman Mike Boyce wondered why Lidl continued to insist upon a proposal that had such strong opposition (including an active Facebook group): “This one takes the cake.”
Huff, who said at the outset of the hearing that the application should be “a very routine matter,” claimed that many of those against Lidl’s plans “want to keep the movie theater as much as anything.”
Some in the audience groaned, but traffic and density issues dominated the discussion. Citizens against the Lidl proposal displayed several accident photos while making their remarks.
“We’re not opposed to this as a commercial property,” said Laura Hickman, who lives in the Highland Park neighborhood off Gordy Parkway. A grocery store, she said, “is too intense for this piece of land.” The Lidl proposal also was opposed by the East Cobb Civic Association.
Huff said the number of parking spaces would be reduced from the current 379 spaces to 187 for the grocery store, and that landscaping and architectural plans would be an improvement from a movie theater. But East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said the detriments to the proposal have to considered as well as the benefits.
“The traffic pictures speak for themselves,” he said.
Some citizens suggested that Lidl look elsewhere for a new site, perhaps at the old Mountain View Elementary School, which is being proposed for mixed-use redevelopment. An application for that property was to have been on the September zoning agenda but has been continued to October.
