East Cobb is an unincorporated community in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, with a population of 164,055 people.

History

The area was developed as a suburb of Atlanta beginning in the 1960s. In contrast to other northern suburbs of Atlanta, East Cobb has remained unincorporated. Residents of East Cobb typically hold a Marietta address, although they are outside Marietta city boundaries. The idea of incorporating East Cobb as a city was suggested in 2009 by the organization "Citizens for the City of East Cobb". Yet the first serious discussion of incorporating East Cobb was initiated in 1998 by then Cobb County chairman Bill Byrne. Under Byrne's proposal, the city's boundary lines would be drawn by the Cobb Legislative Delegation, the county government would continue to provide water, sewer, police and fire services to the city for a nominal fee of one dollar per year, and the city would be governed by an elected mayor and five City Council members, with wards drawn by the Cobb Delegation. However, Byrne was defeated by Cobb County Chairman Incumbent Tim Lee, who dismissed the idea of incorporating East Cobb as a "solution looking for a problem." In March 2019, Matt Dollar, a local representative in the Georgia House of Representatives announced that he would be submitting a bill to create the legislation necessary for East Cobb cityhood. The bill could not be approved by the legislature or by referendum until 2020; the Georgia Senate passed the measure on February 10, 2022, setting up a referendum vote by East Cobb residents in May 2022. If East Cobb were to incorporate as a city, it would be the largest in the county and the second largest in metro Atlanta (behind Atlanta), with around 150,000 residents. The referendum vote failed with 73% no votes, effectively precluding East Cobb cityhood. In 2021, following the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic's restrictions on the United States, drug use among tweens and teenagers aged 11-17 in the area saw a massive increase, particularly recreational marijuana and cocaine, with drug dogs and regular drug screenings in schools becoming a normal event. Crimes by the same age group, misdemeanour or felony, also increased around this time period. Common offences are usually drug related charges or public mischief. Despite this, East Cobb is still one of the safest places to live in the state of Georgia.

Geography

East Cobb is roughly bounded by: East Cobb is within the Northeast Cobb census county division.

Climate

East Cobb has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa). The climate is slightly cooler than other areas of the metro with a higher elevation, predominately above 1000 ft in most areas. Sweat Mountain is the highest elevation in the East Cobb area at 1688 ft above sea level. East Cobb receives in excess of 50 in of rain and roughly 3 in of snow annually. Two of the largest snowfalls historically in East Cobb were the 1993 Storm of the Century and the storm on 7 and 8 December in 2017. Both storms dropped anywhere from 6 - 12 in of snow on East Cobb.

Economy

Shopping

Merchant's Walk is a 367600 sqft open-air shopping center with retailers, restaurants, and a movie theater originally built in 1976 and since expanded and twice renovated, once in the early 1990s and again in 2008–2011. The Avenue East Cobb is a 236189 sqft open-air shopping center. It has a horseshoe-shaped form and a "period-style Main Street design" and "town square" concepts, according to its designers. Paper Mill Village is a collection of 33 buildings linked by over a mile of pedestrian walkways. The Village includes retail tenants, restaurant tenants, and service provider tenants.

Arts and culture

Taste of East Cobb is an annual event. The YMCA operates the McKlesky Family-East Cobb YMCA, a recreational area for the community. Civic associations include a Kiwanis Club and a Rotary Club. Cobb County Public Library operates the East Cobb Library.

Parks and recreation

Government

East Cobb comprises districts 2 and 3 of the Cobb County Commission.

Education

Public schools in East Cobb are part of the Cobb County School District. The area comprises several high school attendance districts: Pope, Sprayberry, Wheeler, Kell, Walton, and Lassiter. The western half of the Kell district lies outside of East Cobb. The extreme western portion of the Sprayberry district (the Town Center Mall area) also lies outside of East Cobb. The extreme southwestern and southern portions of the Wheeler district lie west of I-75 and south of I-285 respectively, thus excluding these small areas from being considered a part of East Cobb. The area known as East Cobb comprises the following middle school districts: Daniell, McCleskey, Simpson, Hightower Trail, Mabry, East Cobb, Dodgen, and Dickerson (small portions of the Daniell and East Cobb Middle School districts lie outside of East Cobb; a sliver of the eastern portion of the Palmer Middle School district can be considered a part of East Cobb).

Media

The paper-only weekly East Cobb Neighbor has a circulation of around 44,000.

Infrastructure

Cobb County operates the East Cobb Government Service Center, which contains a county police precinct, a Cobb Fire and Emergency Services station, and a license plate office.

Notable people