Lower Roswell rezoning/annexation

Lower Roswell annexation case back on Marietta council agenda

by

Lower Roswell annexation case

The green zoning signs fronting the entrance to the Sewell Manor neighborhood have a new date etched in for an annexation and zoning case at Lower Roswell Road and the Loop that residents there have been fighting for months.

After the Marietta City Council twice delayed a vote, and after Cobb commissioners reaffirmed a letter of objection to the annexation, the proposal by Traton Homes to build 52 townhome and single-family units is apparently scheduled to be on the July 10 council agenda.

There’s not an agenda posted yet on the City of Marietta website, and there doesn’t appear to be anything new in the case file. We’ll update with more information.

The city council would act first on annexation before conducting a zoning hearing.

The city and county have been at odds over the case since Sewell Manor residents voiced their objection to the Traton project, on less than eight acres of vacant land.

The county had the right to object to the annexation since the rezoning would come to more than five units an acre, but commissioners didn’t formally ratify their opposition before a January deadline.

The Marietta Planning Commission did hear the case in April and voted to recommend denial of the rezoning.

The Marietta City Council held off on votes in April and May, then asked for mediation, and the county agreed. But commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb, designated as the county representative, said the city wanted to change the process to something between mediation and formally binding arbitration, and cancelled the talks.

Earlier this month he held a town hall meeting with the Sewell Manor residents.

On June 11 commissioners discussed, but took no action, after Ott briefed them about the dispute.

He admitted that there was nothing the county could do to stop the annexation, but said Marietta Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin had indicated the city would not act on the case as long as the county objected.

Sewell Manor residents have put together a flyer to urge their neighbors and others in nearby communities to turn out for the July 10 Marietta council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.

What they previously labeled a “Save East Cobb campaign” is now being called “Annexation Without Representation.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Lower Roswell rezoning/annexation case subject of community meeting

by

Lower Roswell rezoning/annexation

Residents living in the Sewell Manor neighborhood at Lower Roswell Road and the Loop have scheduled a public meeting for Wednesday to discuss a proposed annexation and rezoning case next to their community that’s going to mediation between Cobb County and the City of Marietta.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, just down the road at 2051 Lower Roswell Road.

Citizens living in Sewell Manor have been opposed to a proposal before the Marietta City Council by Traton Homes to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family detached homes on 7.48 acres at the northeast intersection of Lower Roswell and the Loop.

The rezoning request also requires annexation into the city, since some of that tract is in unincorporated Cobb.

Cobb officials initially objected to the request under a state law governing annexation involving high-density zoning matters.

Traton has come down on its proposal from nearly 12 units an acre to 6.5 an acre. The law’s threshold is 4 units an acre, but the county did not formalize its objection in writing.

The Marietta City Council could have voted anyway, but tabled that vote earlier this month and agreed to mediation with the county.

That process is set to start in June, and Sewell Manor residents want to brief their fellow neighbors on their concerns.

They include additional traffic at an already congested intersection, as well as other aspects of Traton’s site plan.

Sewell Manor homes were built in the 1950s and the neighborhood density is 1.75 units an acre. Some have said they’re not against new development but what Traton is proposing is incompatible with their community.

 

Related stories

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Lower Roswell rezoning/annexation request tabled again; mediation looms

by

A controversial rezoning and annexation request on Lower Roswell Road at the Loop was tabled again on Wednesday by the Marietta City Council.

Cobb County officials delivered a letter to city officials earlier on Wednesday, reiterating their objections under a state law that gives counties that right in high-density cases.

Traton Homes wants to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family residences on 7.48 acres at the northeast intersection of Lower Roswell and the Loop, a plan that residents in an adjacent neighborhood have opposed.

Many living in Sewell Manor are in the county, and they grew concerned when the Marietta City Attorney suggested Tuesday that a vote could go ahead because Cobb commissioners hadn’t voted on formalizing the objection.

At a town hall meeting elsewhere in East Cobb Wednesday, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said the council tabled the request, and that he had spoken to Marietta Mayor Thunder Tumlin.

The parties “have agreed to follow the steps of HB 489,” Ott said, referring to the state law in question. That allows counties to enter mediation when there’s such a dispute.

The law kicks in when a city wants to annex unincorporated land that would be zoned for more than four residential units an acre. Traton’s initial request was for more than 11 units an acre, but it’s revised it to 6.5.

That still didn’t set well with Sewell Manor residents who think the project not only remains too dense (their neighborhood density is 1.75 units an acre), but that they also believe will contribute to traffic issues at a clogged intersection.

Ott said the mediation process would include going back to county commissioners, but the possibility looms that the city could annex the land under Georgia home rule provisions.

The property includes three tracts of land already part of the city that front Lower Roswell, and six residential parcels that were once part of Sewell Manor, a community of small homes built in the 1950s.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!