Opinion: No "Bold Action" From Lee on East Cobb Senior Complex Zoning Decision

By Susan Phillips

As one among hundreds of Cobb seniors and their families who support the comprehensive Continuing Care Retirement Community model, I was certainly disappointed by the action of the Board of Commissioners yesterday to deny the rezoning request from Isakson Living for the development of Tritt Walk. What Isakson Living has proposed is a tasteful, appropriate, environmentally responsible plan for the development of this property. It is visually appealing from Roswell Road and is neither commercial nor institutional as are so many other fronts along that corridor.

In the two long years leading up to yesterday’s BOC vote, the plan has been revised over and over to reach density goals imposed by the planning commission and to address issues important to neighboring communities. Each time the proposal was reconsidered, further reductions and refinements were ordered even though the stipulations set the previous meeting had been met or exceeded. It has been like watching Cobb’s version of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown!

Conspiracy theorists might suggest that another factor may be weighing the scale against the proposal. There is no doubt that the Tritt property is a valuable piece of real estate - the only one of its size left in East Cobb. Mrs. Tritt is ready to sell. By all accounts it would be impossible for a developer to purchase the land at its current price and be able to build affordable R20 homes. Property development is a business. The density of Tritt Walk has been reduced to the tipping point where the project balances feasibility for the developer and affordability for the consumer. However, if one believes that Isakson Living is paying too much for the property then a strategy for driving down that sale price could be to deny rezoning requests until potential buyers walk away and the seller is forced to reduce the asking price. Should this be a factor in the denial, we all need to be concerned that our leaders are willing to exert their power to control the sale price of privately owned property.

I want to believe that this scenario is as fictional as the drawing of a 100 unit design that was oddly discussed and supported by some commission members as if it were real.It is no more likely that this small development would be feasible for a builder and affordable for the consumer, than would homes offered within R20 zoning.I guess supporters should have submitted their own red herring, a drawing of an R20 subdivision on clear-cut, leveled land with lots right up to the minimum separation from neighboring homes.Undoubtedly Tritt Walk would have been preferable to that worst-case scenario.

Instead of taking the bold action Chairman Lee told the audience he was noted for, he voted against what would have been a bold move on behalf of Cobb’s seniors. We seniors are not going away.Our ranks are growingWe can be patient, but if the stalling to study and then redesign the county code with regard to CCRC and RSL drag on as long as consideration of this proposal, some of us may have to make the disheartening decision to leave the community we love to find the senior living option we have been denied.