Warnock staff approached Richardson in aftermath of Dobbins zoning controversy

Aug. 14—Within a week of the Cobb Board of Commissioners' decision to approve condominiums inside Dobbins Air Reserve Base's Accident Potential Zone, Sen. Raphael Warnock's staff was reaching out to Commissioner Jerica Richardson with concerns about the move.

That's according to email exchanges obtained by the MDJ via an Open Records Request between Andrew Heaton, Warnock's outreach director for northwest Georgia, and Richardson's office.

"Our office has received a number of calls in the last day regarding this issue," Heaton wrote on Wednesday, May 26, "but to be frank, we were fairly unfamiliar with the discussion until recently. As such, we'd appreciate understanding both sides of the issue, as we have so far only heard one side of the discussion."

Richardson would then schedule a call for Friday, May 28 with Heaton, the emails show, setting in motion months of talks around a potential land swap between Cobb County and developer Venture Communities to assuage Dobbins' concerns about the condominium development.

The controversy erupted in mid-May with the commission's 3-2 approval of the development. Dobbins representatives had expressed their opposition to the project in the months prior, saying they opposed any residential development being placed within the base's accident potential zone.

Within days came a political firestorm for the three Democrats who had voted to approve the development, as Cobb legislators and Cobb Chamber of Commerce leadership fired off a series of missives to the commission, asking them to reconsider and warning that the decision could jeopardize the base's future.

Tensions came to a head on May 25, when Cobb Chamber Chair John Loud, CEO Sharon Mason, and COO Dana Johnson turned up to the board's 7 p.m. meeting to publicly petition them to change their votes. Commission Chair Lisa Cupid responded with a dressing-down of the chamber leaders, incensed at being accused of jeopardizing the base's future and arguing she and her colleagues were being treated with a double standard. Past boards had approved larger developments that had an impact on Dobbins' operation without similar controversy.

The following day came Heaton's email to Richardson. A month later, Warnock met with Cobb commissioners in a closed-door meeting during a tour of Dobbins, Lockheed Martin and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

"I think that Warnock and his staff have made it very clear through the visits that they ... (are) clearly very committed to doing everything he can to ensure that Georgia's military readiness, and the presence of the military in our state, remains robust," state Rep. Teri Anulewicz, D-Smyrna, who represents the area, said Friday.

Richardson said Friday that Warnock's office "just wanted to understand what the situation was. They'd heard from members of the chamber of commerce, they'd heard from state representatives, and they wanted to hear from the commissioner as well."

Little more was heard about the Dobbins controversy until last month, when Richardson let slip at a town hall that "active discussions" were underway about a land swap. Both she and Cupid have since declined to share details of the talks, but sources told the MDJ Warnock and his staff are helping to facilitate them.

The property where Venture plans to build its 36 condominiums is bordered immediately to the north by more than 23 acres of undeveloped, county-owned land. As Venture attorney Parks Huff said at a May zoning hearing, "Quite frankly, if our property was 800 feet north, I don't think any of our property would be in (the accident potential) zone."

At a meeting of "community stakeholders" this week — a meeting at which Heaton was present — Cupid reiterated she was not at liberty to discuss the details of the discussions.

Warnock's staff, meanwhile, told the MDJ Friday they were not immediately able to comment on the talks.

Dobbins' Jay Thomas, who serves as the base's representative on land use issues, said at the stakeholders meeting this week that continued development in the area would have an impact on the base regardless of the intentions of local decision makers.

"We obviously have no authority to not allow you to put a building right up against the base. But because our guidelines are oftentimes very rigid, that will cause us to have to change how we do things," Thomas said.

"Your decisions are important ... as we continue to talk about these developments, and as development moves in (and) around Dobbins, it kind of feels like, you know, we're getting squeezed out a little bit," he added.