Ron Sifen, candidate for Cobb County Commission District 2, addressed Madison Forum members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting on Monday, January 14, 2008, on the subject “Cobb at a Crossroads”.
Mr. Sifen began by saying that the challenges of tomorrow are going to be very different from the issues we have dealt with in the past. The decisions we make in 2008 are really going to define the future of Cobb County. Cobb County has grown dramatically in the past few decades. Cobb County is almost completely developed out at this point. We’re almost fully developed, so future development is really going to involve redevelopment at higher density throughout the County. He said that’s going to present some real issues. The County is really going to have to clearly define where we can accommodate higher density development, but also, clearly define where we can’t. We just don’t have the infrastructure to support higher density development.
Urban planners, Mr. Sifen said, tell us the solution to all our problems is to urbanize the suburbs. According to them, suburbs cause traffic, they cause disease, they cause obesity, they cause global warming. They cause anti-social behavior, fear, unfriendliness, and virtually any other absurdity they can think of. There is a huge issue of whether we should urbanize the suburbs.
Mr. Sifen said, let’s take a look at what is urban and what is suburban. An example of urban development would be Manhattan. In urban you have a lot of different types of land uses all mixed together and very compact, and they’re laid out in a grid type of road network that is an integral part of urban development. In suburban development, you have something very different. Instead of all the development being very close together, you’ve got space between all the buildings. You have a separation of land usage. You’ve got certain areas that are residential. You’ve got certain areas that are for shopping. You’ve got other areas that are for offices, and others for industrial. Your suburban neighborhoods tend to be single family detached homes on individual lots. That’s the character of most suburban neighborhoods, and relatively low density, so we have relatively large lots. You don’t have a grid type road system. You have a few main arterial roads, but most of the streets are not through streets. One of the benefits of that from a suburban perspective is that it allows the neighborhoods to retain their residential character.
We can see how this all relates to Cobb County, Mr. Sifen said, by logging on to AtlantaRegional.com, click on land use. On Envision 6, there is a Power Point presentation. Slides 19 through 28 are unified growth policy maps. On the map showing an 18-csounty area, the commission shows different kinds of land uses. We have mega corridors going along the major highways showing the most intense development in the entire region. Next in intensity would be urban development, and then suburban, and then rural.
The Cobb corridor of intense development extends between I-75 and Cobb parkway and between Cumberland and Town Center, which might be able to accommodate very high intensity development. But this corridor is about five to six miles wide. So, it extends about two and a half to three miles on either side of I-75. It takes up a pretty good chunk of Cobb County. Mega corridors are the most intensely developed areas in the region. High intensity development of mixed use high rise residential and office towers are appropriate. Mr. Sifen said two or three miles east of I-75, going into east Cobb is in the Rib Ranch area and beyond. The commission is planning for a future that is Manhattan style, very intense redevelopment for Cobb County.
The next area is projected to be future urban. This is less intense mixed use than mega corridor. Town Center type of development is appropriate along with medium density residential-like town homes and small lot single family residential homes. Mr. Sifen said, between urban and mega we are taking more than half of Cobb County. Every square inch of District 2 is either mega or urban. He said he does not agree with extending urban development all the way through basically all of east Cobb. And that’s what is being projected by the Regional Commission.
Mr. Sifen said, urban planners tell us that the way to alleviate traffic is that urban development will alleviate traffic. That’s based on the concept of the grid road system. Mr. Sifen said there are two major flaws with the idea that we can urbanize Cobb County. First of all, Cobb County is pretty much developed out. We’ve already developed as a suburban county, and we’ve developed with a suburban road network, so it’s unfair to the 600,000 who have already decided to live in a suburban county. We didn’t choose to live in Manhattan. We didn’t choose to live in mid-town Atlanta. It’s unfair to have the government tell us – we’re going to urbanize your neighborhood. The other thing is, we don’t have a grid-type road system. We have a suburban road system. There is no way to retro-fit an urban road system over Cobb County. We can’t tear new roads through your neighborhoods and everyone else’s neighborhoods. We need to figure out hoe to plan the best road improvements that we can, the best traffic improvements that we can, and plan future development in a way that recognizes that we have the suburban road network that we’ve got, and we’re going to have to make that work.
That’s the crossroads we are at, Mr. Sifen said. Are we going to urbanize Cobb County, or are we going to recognize that we are a suburban county with a suburban road network, and we’re going to have a suburban future that preserves the low density residential neighborhoods that we’ve got in most of the county. Accommodate high density growth where we can accommodate it, but basically recognize that we are a suburban county, and we’re going to maintain this as a suburban county.
Right now, Mr. Sifen said, redevelopment has been a big issue in Cobb County. We cannot continue down a path that says redevelopment is a panacea that justifies ignoring the zoning code and the land use plan, that justifies ignoring the adverse impacts on nearby neighborhoods, that justifies ignoring the traffic consequences that occur on our roads and our infrastructure, that justifies adversely impacting on our water supply. Redevelopment has its place. We need to plan redevelopment that is compatible with the infrastructure and does not adversely impact other neighborhoods. Nowhere in Cobb County is the problem with redevelopment that does not consider these impacts more evident than in District 2. He gave one example. There was a zoning case a couple of years ago where the developer wanted to squeeze so many town homes onto a piece of property that the fire department comment said that if certain units catch on fire, the department is physically obstructed from getting to the fire to put it out. The commission approved the development with a four to one vote. Mr. Sifen said, we can’t continue down a path where we say that higher density redevelopment is such a panacea that we’re not going to consider the impact on public safety. So, that’s part of where we’re potentially headed with redevelopment in Cobb County. Are we going to redevelop this county at a rate where we’re urbanizing and densifying the county, or are we going to stop and look at who we are and what we are, and say, yes, we have areas where we need to redevelop if the redevelopment is reasonable. We’ve got places where we can accommodate hither density development. But the bottom line is we’re going to preserve the suburban character of Cobb.
Higher density without the infrastructure to support that density will make our traffic worse, not better, and it will change the fundamental character of our neighborhoods. So, Cobb County is at a crossroads. The decisions we make in 2008 are really going to define the character of Cobb County in the future.