BoC overrules Planning Commission; south Cobb townhomes approved
Apr. 21—At the Cobb Board of Commissioners' monthly zoning hearing Tuesday, four of the board's five members overruled the Cobb Planning Commission's decision to hold a rezoning application earlier this month.
Though the matter was not formally voted on, Chairwoman Lisa Cupid was clear she did not agree with the "exacting" move by the board.
Commissioners sought to rezone a piece of county-owned property on Mars Hill Road in west Cobb and put it up for sale. Two weeks ago, Planning Commission Chairman Galt Porter hammered the proposed zoning designation as "one of the most ridiculous requests I've seen come through in eight years."
Porter argued the proposed designation would "essentially take money out of the pockets of Cobb County" by reducing the property value, and alleged the proposal was a ploy by "somebody, and I know who the somebody is ... to kill development in that area."
"I feel like we need to send a message to the Board of Commissioners that this isn't a good stewardship of Cobb County assets and properties to sell it off cheap, instead of getting what Cobb County could get as a fair market value," said Porter, an appointee of Commissioner Monique Sheffield.
Send a message they did — the Planning Commission voted with four votes in favor, and Fred Beloin (appointed by Commissioner Keli Gambrill) abstaining, to hold the proposal.
Two weeks later, just a few minutes into the board's hearing, commissioners sent a message back. Gambrill invoked a section of county code which compels the Planning Commission to put the measure up for a vote, and announced she had the support of Commissioners JoAnn Birrell, Jerica Richardson and Monique Sheffield.
Cupid was taken aback. Calling it "a pretty strong move," she asked for patience: Why couldn't the board simply have a conversation with the Planning Commission?
Her pushback went unheeded by her colleagues. As Zoning Division Manager John Pederson said, "what a property sells for is not within (the Planning Commission's) purview, or this board's purview."
After the meeting, Cupid said she didn't disagree with the intent of her colleagues' actions. She was, however, disappointed the board couldn't work the issue out with the Planning Commission directly, even as she "definitely agreed" Porter's remarks were strongly worded. Porter did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Sheffield, meanwhile, said she cosigned Gambrill's effort because commissioners had already, as a board, decided on the appropriate zoning category for the property.
Gambrill cited the same reason, and took further exception to Porter's "tone and the inappropriateness of the comments that had been made." And that "somebody" Porter alluded to, Gambrill said, was undoubtedly her.
The board went on to approve three of the largest items on the agenda Tuesday, consisting of three townhome developments in south Cobb totaling 180 homes. Those include a 51-unit site at Blair Bridge Road and Riverside Parkway and a 93-unit subdivision on Mableton Parkway, both within a few miles of Six Flags Over Georgia. The third, a 36-unit townhome development, will be built on Austell Road, between Windy Hill Road and Milford Church Road.
