Megachurch Proposal Sent Back To Drawing Board By Cobb Planners

EAST COBB, GA — It’s back to the drawing board — again — for a metro Atlanta megachurch hoping to have zoning approved for a campus near the corner of Johnson Ferry and Shallowford roads.

The Cobb Planning Commission agreed unanimously Tuesday to hold off voting on North Point Ministries’ proposed church and residential development. The decision marks the third time the North Point proposal has been heard by commissioners.

Almost 70 people attended the hearing, according to the Marietta Daily Journal, with slightly more than half of them expressing support. But even though the North Point proposal had been tweaked since its last hearing to eliminate most commercial elements, opposition continued to focus on how the development’s residential part would “urbanize” East Cobb.

“Why do people want to live in east Cobb?” resident Ruth Michels said to the Marietta newspaper. “To get away from the density, intensity and busyness.”

The proposed development has drawn vocal opposition from most of its potential neighbors, including an online petition with more than 2,300 signatures as of Wednesday.

The North Point proposal would have the megachurch buy more than 30 acres of land, keep about 10 acres of it for its church and then sell the rest to Ashwood Development Company of Atlanta, according to East Cobb News.

Planning commission member Tony Waybright, who represents the area, urged North Point to further tweak its proposal to address concerns over traffic and density, the news website reported.

The proposal will be revisited in August.

North Point Community Church, an Alpharetta-based evangelical megachurch with national reach, said as of 2020 more than 38,000 people were attending its various locations. The East Cobb campus will be the eighth in the metro Atlanta area.

Read the stories in The Marietta Daily Journal and East Cobb News.

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