Lower Roswell rezoning-annexation case

Lower Roswell rezoning case withdrawn as Marietta deadline passes

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Lower Roswell annexation/rezoning

A contentious rezoning application on Lower Roswell Road filed by a prominent Cobb homebuilder appears to be dead for now, as well as annexation into the city of Marietta.

Rusty Roth, the city’s development director, notified residents of the Sewell Manor neighborhood on Wednesday that Traton Homes had had not filed anything new after the Marietta City Council voted in July to give the developer a 90-day “stay.”

That 90-day period ended on Wednesday, and Roth said the request was not included on Thursday’s council agenda.

In his note, Roth wrote that without the applicant “giving written notice to reactivate the stayed motions . . . the actions shall be dismissed without prejudice.”

That means that Traton could refile the request at any time.

In a note to her neighbors, Sewell Manor resident Robin Moody, who led the fight against the rezoning and annexation, thanked community leaders, media outlets, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott and “the City of Marietta for being reasonable.”

The Marietta-based Traton had proposed building 39 townhomes and 13 detached homes on less than eight acres at Lower Roswell Road and the South Marietta Parkway, after asking Marietta to annex the land.

That property includes six parcels that once were part of the Sewell Manor in unincorporated Cobb. Three other parcels that front Lower Roswell Road were annexed into Marietta several years ago.

Residents there said the project would be too dense and would add to existing traffic problems in  their community. In addition, Traton did not submit a traffic plan and included 15 variances in its request.

The density of the project allowed Cobb elected officials to lodge an official objection under a state home rule law, but the county development staff didn’t meet a January deadline for having county commissioners formalize that objection.

Robin Moody, Sewell Manor resident
Sewell Manor resident Robin Moody

The Marietta Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of the rezoning in April, then the council delayed a vote the first time the matter appeared on its agenda.

In June, Ott met with Sewell Manor neighbors at a town hall meeting and scheduled mediation between the city and the county to resolve the dispute.

But the city called off the mediation, and another zoning notice went up in Sewell Manor for the July council meeting.

At that meeting, council member Michelle Cooper-Kelly, who represents that area of the city, stipulated in her motion for a 90-day delay a provision for a withdrawal without prejudice by Traton.

“We do all hope that should this matter be taken up again, that everyone will band together again,” Moody said in her note Thursday. “Please stay positive and let’s say unified!”

She said Sewell Manor residents will have what they call a “Unity of Community” meeting Nov. 1 at the Sewell Mill Library (2051 Lower Roswell Road).

 

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East Cobb neighborhood ramps up annexation fight with Marietta

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East Cobb neighborhood, Sewell Manor
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott and Sewell Manor resident Theresa Gernatt. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)

Residents of an East Cobb neighborhood want their county representatives to send a strong message to the City of Marietta about a proposed annexation they’ve been fighting for months.

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the Sewell Manor subdivision on Lower Roswell Road at the Loop, said he will offer such a proposal for his colleagues to consider next Tuesday.

It would replace an unratified objection the county made to a high-density residential development that’s being proposed on 7.48 acres right next to Sewell Manor in unincorporated Cobb.

But at a town hall meeting he called on Monday night, Ott reminded those residents that the city holds the power right now to annex six former lots in Sewell Manor and add them to three parcels on Lower Roswell that are already in the city.

“There is no obstacle to annex the land, based on the law,” Ott said to a room of around 100 people at the Sewell Mill Library. The crowd included residents in nearby neighborhoods in an older portion of East Cobb.

He made reference to a state law that allows counties to object to municipal annexations when related rezoning cases reach a certain density threshold.

Traton Homes is proposing to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on land owned by Ray Boyd, a commercial real estate broker.

That amounts to 6.9 units an acre, above the limit of of four units an acre for previously undeveloped land, and five units on land proposed for redevelopment. (The original site plan called for 64 townhomes, a density of nearly 12 units an acre.)

However, the county objection letter—signed by Ott, commissioner Keli Gambrill and chairman Mike Boyce—was never voted on by the commission. Ott said county staff neglected to include that item on a meeting agenda after Boyd filed a request to annex in January.

Last month, the Marietta City Council was prepared to vote on the annexation and rezoning, but for the second time delayed that action. A mediation session between Cobb and Marietta was scheduled for Wednesday, but Ott called it off because the city was asking for a different process.

“The city ought to show the county a little courtesy,” said James Rosich, who lives in the nearby Hamby Estates neighborhood. “Our county and community have been taken advantage of.”

An urban planner by training, Rosich outlined for the audience Sewell Manor’s objections to the Traton proposal, which includes 15 variances, and what Rosich termed “a hostile approach to annexation.”

For several years, the former commercial properties on Lower Roswell Road have sat vacant, an eyesore entrance to Sewell Manor that’s more than annoyed residents there.

“It looks like a third world country,” said Gernatt, who grew up in Sewell Manor. “The city of Marietta has allowed that to happen over the last decade.”

Boyd previously tried to get Marietta to annex the vacant Sewell Manor lots four years ago, but was denied.

Gernatt said she’s met with laywers who’ve told her the Sewell Manor neighbors should “sue the bejeezus out of everyone. But that’s not what we’re about.”

The main entrance to Sewell Manor on Indian Trail, and a view south along Lower Roswell Road. The empty lot once housed gas station and automotive repair businesses.

Ott said while he agrees with community concerns over traffic and density, the immediate focus should be on the annexation matter.

“You can’t sue until some action is taken,” Ott said.

He said in his 10 years as a commissioner, no other Cobb city has voted to annex land if the entire five-member county commission objected.

That kind of support, he added, “sends a huge message to the city.

“Why would they care about you? You don’t live in the city. Why have they not annexed? Think about that.”

Ott declined to detail what he’s presenting at the commission meeting Tuesday, with news media present at the town hall. Afterward, he told East Cobb News that “I do have some ideas,” but he still would not elaborate.

“They’re not going to be ready for what I’m proposing.”

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Lower Roswell rezoning-annexation update: Cobb-Marietta mediation hits a snag

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Lower Roswell rezoning-annexation

An update to the story we published Thursday about mediation talks between Cobb County and the City of Marietta about a disputed annexation-rezoning case on Lower Roswell Road and the Loop:

That mediation, scheduled for next Wednesday,  has been called off. Also, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who was to have represented the county and was scheduled to meet Monday with a small group of nearby residents opposed to the proposal, has opened the meeting to the public in a town hall format.

That word comes from Robin Moody (in photo), a leader of a group of Sewell Manor neighbors who are working to reduce the density and demand other changes from Traton Homes.

The prominent Cobb residential developer wants to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on 7.48 acres, which the neighbors say is too dense and would add to traffic headaches they already experience.

Some have called it a “Stack-A-Shack” proposal for how close the residences will be built on the property that abuts Sewell Manor.

(Read the revised case file here for Z-2019-04.)

In a message sent Friday to her neighbors and citizens in nearby communities, Moody said the City of Marietta wanted to change mediation from being overseen by retired Cobb Superior Court Judge James Bodiford to going before another, unspecified judge.

Ott declined, since that change would require approval of the other county commissioners, and he is planning to bring the matter up with his colleagues on June 11.

A Georgia local government law called HB 489 (passed in 1997) allows counties to formally object to annexation and rezoning cases in certain high-density conditions, and sets up terms for arbitration or mediation to settle disputes.

Moody noted the time provided for public comment at commissioners’ meetings and added:

“We are grateful that Cobb County will now hear the viewpoints (at least how Ott explains it) that the community has been voicing since January of this year.”

The Sewell Manor residents live in 1950s-built single-family homes with a density of less than two units an acre. Traton’s proposal is 6.95 units an acre, higher than a threshold of four units an acre as specified in HB 489.

Although the Marietta Planning Commission has recommended denial, the Marietta City Council has never voted on the Traton proposal. It has been pulled twice over the last two months.

Ott’s town hall meeting will be 7 p.m. Monday at the Sewell Mill Library (2051 Lower Roswell Road). Moody said citizens from more than a dozen nearby subdivisions have signed petitions opposed to proposed development.

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