In the months since West Cobb voters first learned they would be asked to decide whether to form a new city government, one message has resonated loud and clear from cityhood supporters: A Republican-led city of Lost Mountain will protect the area from unwanted development.
The implication in that narrative, touted by prominent cityhood leaders like state Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), is also clear — the Democrat-led Cobb County government won’t side with residents over developers.
But the biggest and most controversial zoning case proposed for West Cobb this year undermines that justification in the eyes of cityhood critics.
A consulting firm led by Ehrhart’s husband represented a developer that wanted to pack more homes into a subdivision than the county code allows. The county planning staff recommended less density than developer Pulte Homes wanted, although it was still more than many neighbors would have liked.
The case involving undeveloped land near Lost Mountain Park has become a flash point for critics of the cityhood effort.
Developer Pulte Homes is represented by Taylor English Decisions, a consulting firm led by former Republican state lawmaker Earl Ehrhart. His wife, Ginny, ushered the cityhood legislation through the General Assembly, and has been active on the campaign trail to persuade voters to approve it over fears of rampant and unwanted development.
Ginny Ehrhart said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Taylor English Decisions’ representation of Pulte Homes is not a contradiction for her.
“It’s so far removed from me,” Ehrhart said. “The fact that there might be another employee at my husband’s company that happens to have a client that is a developer — that is irrelevant to our movement.”
Ultimately, the developer withdrew the request before it was put to a vote of the county commission or its planning board.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
But the Taylor English connection, while a visceral example, is not the only business tie among the cityhood campaign that invites scrutiny.
Even as proponents tout an anti-development message on the campaign trail, the movement’s leadership includes lawyers who represent developers, and the leader of a real estate agency.
Other Lost Mountain leaders work for firms that contract directly with public agencies, and could benefit financially from the formation of a new government. That includes two executives at C.W. Matthews, a Marietta-based engineering firm that does extensive work for state and local governments, including Cobb County, and is a major donor to political campaigns across Georgia.
Leaders of the Preserve West Cobb cityhood campaign dispute that their members’ personal and professional ties have any bearing on how the city of Lost Mountain would be governed. Any implication otherwise, they said, was a ploy by political opponents to confuse voters ahead of the May 24 election.
“The supporters are not pro-development,” Rep. Ehrhart told the AJC in an interview. “...That is absurd. This is a grassroots movement made up of local folks out here. Nobody out here has ties to development, we’re anti-development.”
Scott Johnson, the campaign’s executive director, said in an email that none of the campaign’s leaders or volunteers are motivated by commercial interests.
“Preserve West Cobb is not funded by any corporations or development companies and in fact, developers and commercial interests would be motivated to oppose efforts for cityhood and local control,” Johnson said.
Opponents, however, fear that those interests will bleed into how the new city is governed.
Lost Mountain would take over planning and zoning within its limits, a power that would enable it to protect the area from over-development. But depending on who is elected, that power could also facilitate the very development the campaign says it opposes.
“You’re more or less giving a rubber stamp to an army of land developers along with those who work for them and with them,” said Steve Lang, a West Cobb resident who runs a Facebook group devoted to debating the Lost Mountain cityhood effort. “That’s what they’re really after is that rubber stamp.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Cityhood leaders left little time for voters to weigh the arguments made by both sides. Over objections from county officials, Republican state lawmakers in January moved up the election dates for three Cobb cityhood referendums to the May primary ballot, rather the November general election.
With an abbreviated window, Lost Mountain supporters have been a frequent purveyor of misinformation. An AJC investigation found that the cityhood campaign has broadcast misleading and inaccurate information, claiming with little evidence that urbanization is coming to West Cobb.
When asked why voters should trust that a future city of Lost Mountain will protect West Cobb from development, state Rep. Ed Setzler, who co-sponsored the measure, noted that city residents would ultimately decide who leads them.
“If you look at the sentiments of the 74,613 people within the boundaries of Lost Mountain ... I think it’s crystal clear those people will elect representatives that will preserve West Cobb,” Setzler (R-Acworth) said. “Conversely, five elected officials across Cobb County, only one of which lives in West Cobb, will and have proven themselves to be committed to much more high density development.”
Setzler, who has spoken at a number of cityhood events and town halls, is among those with noteworthy professional ties.
He manages federal projects for CROFT, an architecture and engineering firm that also contracts with local governments, including the city of Acworth and Cobb County itself. But he disputes that his work, which focuses on ecological issues, federal nature preserves and historical preservation, represents a conflict of interest.
“As a firm, we stand to gain very little out of a city of Lost Mountain, other than as citizens who enjoy the rural residential quality of life,” he said.
As for Taylor English and its representation of Pulte Homes, Ginny Ehrhart says that’s the very sort of development a city of Lost Mountain would stand against. Pulte Homes initially sought to build 85 homes on land that is only zoned for 50 and currently lacks access to sewer services. Pulte reduced its request to 72, before eventually withdrawing it entirely amid opposition from neighbors who feared that it would exacerbate flooding from an on-site creek.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Rob Hosack and James Balli, consultants at Taylor English, represented the developer in its case.
Hosack is a former planner and director of community development, and County manager for Cobb, while Balli has represented the Atlanta Braves in matters related to the development of Truist Park and the mixed-used Battery.
Hosack told the AJC he needed permission from his client to talk to the media about the proposed subdivision, but did not give a response by the AJC’s publication deadline.
Even as cityhood leaders downplay their professional connections, Lang and other opponents say voters should closely examine them, and who they work with.
“Many of these people were the exact same people who sold Cobb down the river a decade ago,” Lang said, alluding to the 2013 deal that brought the Braves to Cobb at taxpayer expense.
“These aren’t conservatives, they’re opportunists.”
Cobb’s cityhood movements
Voters in unincorporated Cobb will be asked if they want to incorporate as many as four new city governments this year. Three referendums will be decided during the May 24 primary election: the proposed cities of Lost Mountain, Vinings and East Cobb. If any is approved, voters would elect their first city officials during the Nov. 8 general election. A referendum to form the city of Mableton in South Cobb is also planned for Nov. 8.
Only those who live within the proposed city limits can vote on each referendum.
In Sunday’s paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote about the issues that sparked the Lost Mountain cityhood movement. The AJC will have additional coverage educating voters on what’s at stake with each referendum as Election Day approaches. The last day to register to vote is April 25, and early voting begins May 2.
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