A growing church wants to build in a quiet East Cobb neighborhood, and residents say the plan will ruin their roads and shatter their peace.
What’s Happening: Grace Resurrection Methodist Church is asking Cobb County for special permission to build a 15,000-square-foot worship center with nearly 300 parking spaces on Oak Lane. The church wants to use a neighborhood road as its main entrance, even though county rules say churches must connect to bigger roads.
What’s Important: The Cobb Board of Zoning Appeals will decide the church’s request on December 10 at 1:30 p.m. at the David Hankerson Building at 100 Cherokee Street in Marietta. Neighbors have started a petition against the plan, saying Bill Murdock Road and surrounding streets cannot handle the extra cars, and that 22 LED light poles will disturb the area at night.
Between the Lines: The church needs two rule changes to move forward. First, it needs to use Oak Lane as its main entrance instead of a major road. Second, it wants to place a 6,200-square-foot playground eight feet from the property line instead of the required 50 feet. The property sits at the curved intersection of Oak Lane, Casteel Road and Bill Murdock Road, surrounded by the Blake Ford and Greyfield subdivisions.
Catch Up Quick: Grace Resurrection Methodist Church formed in 2022 after Mt. Bethel Church left the United Methodist Church. Former Mt. Bethel members who disagreed with that split started their own congregation. The church has grown from 30 worshippers to more than 300 in less than three years. It currently rents space at a former Lutheran church on Indian Hills Parkway.
The Big Picture: Churches in Georgia can build in residential areas without rezoning, but they must follow specific rules about road access and property setbacks. The Board of Zoning Appeals can grant exceptions when applicants show following the normal rules would create a hardship.
The church claims granting the variance would have minimal impact because surrounding roads are arterials, though neighbors dispute this characterization of Oak Lane, Bill Murdock Road and Casteel Road.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
