Planning Commission Approves East Cobb Senior Complex, With Conditions

A developer looking to build a new senior living facility in East Cobb may consider altering their site plans a bit after the Cobb County Planning Commission recommended conditions on their approval of the design during their Tuesday meeting.

After the Planning Commission made a 5-0 vote in support of the project, Isakson Living is one step closer to building a 481-room continuing care retirement community next to East Cobb Park in the Roswell Road area. When the project was originally proposed in 2013, the number of planned units was closer to 1,000, the Marietta Daily Journal reported earlier this week.

Delays and alterations to the plan are nothing new to the developers and the group of citizens who want to see the project stopped in its tracks.

According to Concerned Citizens of East Cobb (CCEC), the conditions the Planning Commission recommended include lowering the overall heights of the buildings to two stories, reducing the number of units to 450, and removing seven homes from the plans which would have interfered with or destroyed stream buffers on the 54-acre Tritt property. The recommendations are not binding, and the final decision will be left up to the Cobb County Board of Commissioners during a March 17 zoning hearing.

Although the group was pleased with the large turnout at the Planning Commission meeting, it continues to stress that a higher turnout is needed when the matter goes before the commissioners later this month. The ideal outcome from CCEC’s point of view is an outright denial of Isakson Living’s re-zoning proposal, but if the measure is approved the group will demand the commissioners hold the developers to the stipulations recommended by the Planning Commission.

The March 17 hearing will be held at the Cobb County Government Building at 100 Cherokee Street in Marietta and will begin at 9 a.m.