Blog for Concerned Citizens of East Cobb Over Isakson Living

Share your views with Chairman Lee

1/27/2015

Isakson Living Plan

Chairman Tim Lee

Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee will be the speaker at the next meeting of the East Cobb Civic Association (ECCA) on Wednesday, January 28, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. at the East Cobb Government Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road), and anyone is welcome to attend.

Chairman Lee has endorsed the Isakson Living proposal for a huge Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) development on the Tritt property on Roswell Road next to East Cobb Park. “I support it,” Lee told the Marietta Daily Journal in an article on January 1, 2015. Lee's statements to the Marietta Daily Journal are odd given that other Cobb Commissioners have consistently stated that they are not allowed to give opinions about zoning applications before those cases are heard before the Board of Commissioners.

Chairman Lee goes on to basically paint the Isakson Living opposition as a bunch of tree huggers: “Folks believe there’s a way to make it an extension of East Cobb Park. The folks that are against it because they want it to be park land are not being realistic. It just isn’t going to work. It’s not an option,” Lee said.

While we would all like more parks and green space in East Cobb, that is not the primary reason the Concerned Citizens are opposed to the Isakson Living proposal. Nor should the need for senior housing be a primary reason to support Isakson Living's plan. This is a zoning application, pure and simple, and the primary concern is how it would impact the neighborhood. The Isakson Living proposal is a huge 4-story apartment complex, plus a dense subdivision, with roughly 500 total units. If the Tritt property must be developed, we would much prefer a normal subdivision, that would be built at a scale and intensity that fits with the neighborhood. A normal subdivision also has little chance of failure, unlike Isakson Living's development in Peachtree Hills, which has been stalled for nearly 10 years. The Tritt property is zoned Low Density Residential, and it should remain that way. We are most concerned that East Cobb remains a great place to live.

Deborah Presley

1/27/2015 10:59:20 am

I am a senior, but an apartment facility 4 stories is not what all seniors want. Patio homes or residential is more appropriate for the area. This is a densley populated area of working parents and children that wasn't to go to school here..as a senior it's wonderful to see the kids enjoy growing up in this neighborhood environment. Perhaps use the land for rebuilding a landlocked high school, Walton, who needs the space. Keep the old school for an athletic complex then move most of the academics on tritt land....or move both party's there and use waltons land to build homes or senior ranch homes.

Teresa

1/27/2015 11:21:06 am

I'm in agreement with Ms. Presley
I also completely disagree that park space "just won't work". There is no reason why it would not work. We already have lost most of the green space in E Cobb that people move here to appreciate. And I think tax payers would be happy to pay for more park space. Have you driven by E Cobb park on a sunny day lately?

Rich Pellegrino

1/27/2015 11:52:49 am

This is just another example of Lee's arrogance and unethical and potentially illegal behavior...which he gets away with regularly because people don't stand up to him and for their rights.

Karen mariana

1/27/2015 12:21:21 pm

The key issue to focus on is to keep the zoning consistent with the community. Their massive plan does not fit our community. Who lives there doesn't make the high density any more compatible with east cobb. We are not a high rise apparment area. We can't let them wander from the point that there should be no exception allowing high density.

George Adler

1/27/2015 08:25:41 pm

I think that it has been amply pointed out that there is no shortage of senior living facilities that would justify an complex of this magnitude. In my opinion there is absolutely no reason to change the current code for the area. I just hope the zoning board will do their job of working for the best interests of the people and agree with the wishes of the residents of the area who will be primarily impacted. I would hate to see this set a precedent for corporations to bully other communities into accepting something they do not want.

Kay Haltom

1/27/2015 09:31:28 pm

I think it is unrealistic to think that this property is going to become an extension of EC Park. Many of us in the commmunity were able to raise 1 million for the park, which the county matched. But 20-25 million? If the Isakson Living proposal doesn't happen, it is highly likely that this will become a subdivision, which will not be attractive due to the topography of the property and will cause more traffic than a senior community. I'm also baffled by the energy being spent on this when no one has said a word about the hideous new development on Johnson Ferry. Or the development of the imposing Wellstar Health Park. It seems strange that there's so little emphasis on planning for the community as a whole and that all the focus has been on this project.

Lisa

1/28/2015 03:23:30 am

Kay - Commissioner Lee approved those monstrosities as well. It seems as though this is all about the tax revenue to an extent. There is a plethora of senior housing in East Cobb with plentiful vacancy, there is no need for re-zoning to allow for this development as there is no need for the complex. I am with Deborah Presley - Use the land for overflowing Walton HS or a development of ranch style patio homes for senior housing. We are not ITP nor do we want to look like we are ITP.

CCEastCobb

1/28/2015 03:23:44 am

You raise 3 important questions: the differences between the Isakson Living plan, the Perkins property (now Cobblestone Manor) and the WellStar Health Park, and here we will do our best to answer them.

1. The Isakson Living rezoning plan: The current zoning for the 54-acre Tritt property next to East Cobb Park is R-20, which means 2 homes per acre is allowable. Isakson Living wants to rezone this 54-acre property to a large Continuing Care Retirement Community, and build 500 units, or about 10 units an acre. Many acres of the property cannot be built on due to floodplains, stream buffers, steep hills and probable wetlands.

The traffic from a 500-unit CCRC would still be much worse than an 80-home subdivision, in fact about 2x worse. Also, the Isakson Living buildings would be 3-stories and 4-stories high on top of the Tritt property hills, even though the CCRC zoning code states that CCRC buildings should be limited to 2 stories. Given that the multi-story development would be built on hills, with 10-foot retaining walls to manage the floodplain issues, the views from East Cobb Park, the surrounding subdivisions and Roswell Road would be much worse than any subdivision.

The scale of their proposal is immense and difficult to imagine: The current Isakson Living proposal includes 414-units housed in 11 multi-story buildings in addition to an 84-home subdivision. The air conditioned space (not including the parking decks) is roughly 1,000,000 square feet, and equal to nearly all the retail space of Cumberland Mall. A subdivision would have roughly 80 homes under the current zoning, about 360,000 square feet total.

To give a better understanding of the scale of the Isakson Living proposal in terms of square footage, 1 Isakson Living development would equal more than 6 WellStar developments, and you can read about that here in a previous post, when a past Isakson Living proposal equaled 7 WellStar developments: http://www.cceastcobb.com/blog/7-wellstar-developments-1-isakson-living-east-cobb-proposal

2. The Perkins property built according to current zoning codes: The 32-acre Perkins property (now Cobblestone Manor) is completely different from the Tritt property in many ways, but we will limit this answer to zoning issues. The Perkins property is surrounded by commercial retail on the north and west sides, high-density (10 units per acre) condominiums on the east side, and a subdivision on the south side. Half of the Perkins property was already zoned RM-12 for condominiums, and 132 units could have potentially been built on it without rezoning. The current Cobblestone Manor development is for 125 units (85 houses and 40 townhouses), for a total of 7 fewer units than before rezoning.

In contrast, the 54-acre Tritt property is entirely zoned R-20, and the zoning application says that 93 houses could be built there (the zoning applications ignore floodplain and other encumbrances that will lower the number of units that could actually be built to about 80 homes). . The Tritt property is surrounded by low density residential subdivisions and parks on the east, south and west sides, and non-retail offices on the north. The first Isakson Living CCRC proposal would have resulted in 894 more units than the current zoning allows. The current Isakson Living proposal lowers that figure to still over 400 more units than the current R-20 residential zoning allows.

The Perkins property is a "transitional" piece of land, between a subdivision, condos and commercial retail. The largest lots are being built against the existing subdivision to help ease the transition. A post comparing the Perkins and Tritt properties is here.

3. WellStar avoiding rezoning completely: In terms of the WellStar Health Park, WellStar did not go through the rezoning process, and they also rebuffed community input requesting they abide by zoning rules. This website has mentioned that the new WellStar Health Park evaded rezoning by invoking the Kennestone Hospital Authority eminent domain to change R-20 low density residential zoning to medical office zoning, without going through the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, which handles all rezoning requests.

Other groups in the East Cobb community have made efforts and expressed concerns about the WellStar development, and you can read about some of those efforts here:
https://ccecwellstar.wordpress.com/

Rob

1/29/2015 10:10:52 am

WHERE have you been the last few years Kay? There was A LOT of organized opposition to Wellstar. NO ONE wanted it, except Wellstar & thanks to Commissioner Lee & others they got it. You're completely wrong when you say the emphasis is only on this project. If Lee actually cared about what the community wants (instead of what Isakson wants) this project wouldn't have survived past the initial proposal.

Lea

1/29/2015 05:04:15 am

I have watched the transition of East Cobb from 1978. It is becoming more of an ITP area than was originally intended. Enough is enough!
Use the land for Walton or senior patio style homes.

Kara

1/29/2015 10:10:14 am

I agree with the comment about planning for communities where seniors actually want to live. My mother (a widowed retiree) is moving to the Atlanta area and is searching for a patio-style home community such as the one on Johnson Ferry Rd - Heartwood. There is a waiting list of almost 20 people just to be notified when a property becomes available. There is much demand for senior living communities on a small scale that are not assisted living or nursing homes. Why don't they build more of those?

Kip

1/30/2015 04:58:04 am

Kara, the answer is simple: Profit. Patio-style homes aren't as profitable.

Mike

2/7/2015 07:09:57 am

Its very simple folks. Stop voting for Lee. His interests are clearly not that of East Cobb. We had a similar battle with him back in 08 and if its wasn't for a determined neighbor digging up some very helpful information we too would have had an eyesore on Lower Roswell.

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