Thanks to the MDJ for summarizing the meeting notes from a recent Cobb Amendment:

At most Cobb commission meetings, at least one resident attempts to persuade members into enacting either new or tougher ordinances.

Although there’s debate on the legality of some changes residents want, specifically those regarding rental properties, a draft of this year’s code modifications proves many concerns haven’t fallen on deaf ears.

Lengthy amendments imposing restrictions on blasting during construction, a weed ordinance mandating vacant properties be maintained and a burning ban are just a few of those featured in the draft released Friday.

Cobb commissioners are expected to hold two public hearings on the proposals Jan. 23 and Feb. 27, after which the board will approve or deny the changes, said Cobb Community Development Director Rob Hosack.

“Particularly the blasting ordinance - well, all three, including the weed ordinance and the burning ban” were drawn from residents’ concerns, Hosack said. “I think it’s a good example of how responsive the commissioners are.”

Mary Rose Barnes, president of the Oakdale and Cobb County civic coalitions and a regular board meeting attendee, first raised the issue of blasting last year.

Pulte Homes, the developer of a major condominium development being built off Oakdale Road, had been blasting through the blue granite for months.

The result has been extensive damage to a neighbor’s house, including a cracked foundation and driveway, and repeated tremors that registered on a seismic scale installed by insurance adjusters.

“Particularly, the 90-day required permits are wonderful,” Mrs. Barnes said. “They’ve been blasting here for nine months, and they blasted again this morning. It’s 500 feet from my house.”

Before the current 20-page new code restrictions, the county did not address the use of explosives by construction companies at all, she said.

“It’s very gratifying because we complain all the time about this and that and the other,” Mrs. Barnes said. “You just have to know about a problem and bring it to the Board of Commissioners’ attention because they don’t necessarily know. It is important that we take our time to do this, and it’s also very important that the commissioners listen to us.”

Outdoor burning, which has long been a county concern, has also been banned in the new code amendments.

According to Section 54-60, “The outside burning of trash, debris, leaves, wood, tree limbs or other similar substances, including the open burning of grass, weeds or vegetation is unlawful - and shall be prohibited except that grills, pits or outdoor fireplaces may be used for cooking purposes only.”

At the commission’s last meeting, a resident complained that open burning near her home had worsened the health of her husband, who has chronic respiratory problems.

“Myself having been past president of the East Cobb Civic Association, Tim Lee having (served) with the Northeast Cobb Civic Association, and Helen Goreham having been president of (People Looking After Neighborhoods), we have really insisted that both the homeowner and development communities have equal access to proposed changes and everyone be a part of the process,” said Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens.

A new weed ordinance requiring property owners to maintain landscaping at abandoned buildings is a step in the direction of quality-of-life ordinances being requested.

It may be a small step, but it’s one prompted by input from residents.

“The best example of how responsive we are was when we last approved code amendments,” Olens said. “There was a lady, Trisha Clemmons from the Northeast Cobb homeowners’ group. In her comments, she told us we could change the language and more clearly state what we were trying to do.

“That was the exact language we adopted. I doubt there’s many local governments that even after (code amendments are) published, even after the hearings, where commissioners will use wording suggested by residents.”

At this time, Hosack said, no other quality-of-life ordinances are being considered.

Beginning in 2007, commissioners approved amending the county code only once every year. Prior to that, Hosack said, the county went through the process twice.

In November, Winter Properties hosted a groundbreaking event for Meeting Park, a mixed use community just east of the Marietta Square. The $112 million redevelopment project, located on the site of the former Clay Homes public housing, will include 299 homes and 78,000 square feet of retail and office space.

The first phase, slated to be complete in fall 2008, will include 70 condominiums, 32 townhouses and 7,600 square feet of retail space. The entire community is slated to be complete late 2009. Resident amenities will include a swimming pool, fitness center, clubhouse, a central neighborhood park and additional green space and neighborhood oriented retail. The community will offer an urban village lifestyle with work and play options within walking distance.

Residential condominiums, 159 to be constructed in the entire development, range in size from 900 to 1,600 square feet.The development, when completed, will aso include 131 town homes, ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet, in Park, Georgian and traditional styles, all with rear-loaded garages. Nine single-family homes will be located at the rear of the development on Waterman Street to provide a lower-density transition into the existing neighborhood. Winter properties purchased the 12-acre site for Meeting Park between Roswell and Waterman Street from the Marietta Housing Authority (MHA) in 2006 after responding to a Request for Proposals (RFP). The MHA has sold two properties near downtown Marietta for redevelopment in the last three years and is preparing for redevelopment of the Lyman Homes property near Cherokee Street in 2007.

For more information on Meeting Park, visit,
www.meetingparkmarietta.com or call 404-760-1159.

With all the great redevelopment going on, we have to ask - what will happen to our schools? This MDJ article addresses some of the issues… what are your thoughts?

MARIETTA - City school officials say that next month they plan to seriously examine how Marietta’s redevelopment projects may affect the 7,500-student system in the future.

Marietta City Schools’ Director of Maintenance and Support Danny Smith said the system does not own any undeveloped land. Smith said buildings occupy much of the system’s 242 acres of land, now worth about $24.2 million.

About $918,400 from a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax that ends Dec. 31, 2008, is set aside for land buys, Smith said.

“We have properties that can be converted into schools,” board vice chairwoman Jill C. Mutimer said.

She cited an 18,000-square-foot building at 350 Lemon St. that school officials use for storage that could be converted back to its original use as an elementary school.

Ward 7 board member Irene Berens said the Lemon Street building would need significant renovations to meet state standards for use as an elementary school. But the option to convert that building, she said, provides the system only one good way to react the city’s redevelopment.

“I think we’re in a good position as far as being able to handle what might occur. I don’t foresee us building a new school in the next five years,” Ms. Berens said.

Smith said school officials have not discussed the possibility of building a middle school on Marietta High’s campus off Whitlock Avenue. With 60 acres, the high school sits on the largest plot of land in the system.

Ward 3 board member Randy Weiner said since many of the city’s projects call for two-bedroom properties, “we could lose as many (students) as we gain.”

He pointed to Emerson Overlook off Roswell Street and the Marietta Mill Lofts at the corner of South Marietta Parkway and Atlanta Street as examples of redevelopment that might not add many school-aged children to the city district.

Weiner added, “None of are schools are overcrowded. We’re not bursting at the seams.”

Requests for the maximum number of students that each school can accommodate were not answered by press time Tuesday.

The system made its last major land buys in 2001 when it bought 20 acres of land in northeast Marietta for Sawyer Road Elementary. The 700-student school opened in fall 2005.

In September, the board approved spending $2.8 million in SPLOST money to building 12 additional classrooms at West Side Elementary.

Almost four years ago, consultants with Atlanta-based design firm Urban Collage had suggested the system consider expanding West Side and Hickory Hills elementary schools. The $50,000 study was the system’s last in-depth master plan to outline new construction through 2008.

School board chairman Tom Smith said the board has “always wanted a school site on Franklin Road.” With land so expensive in that area, the only way the system could accomplish that feat is through a partnership with the city, Smith said.

He said future expansion comes down to student numbers.

“We respond to students who show up in our system and also to state law that requires us to find more classroom space as was required in (Gov. Sonny Perdue’s) change in class-size requirements,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, Cobb Schools also does not own any undeveloped land.

Cobb Schools spokesman Jay Dillon said the district owns 3,031 acres that is home to 122 schools and buildings. The district’s last major land buy in July 2005 was for Pickett’s Mill Elementary and Allatoona High schools, each slated to open in Kennesaw in 2008.