East Cobb is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Cobb County, Georgia Cobb County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia, located in the Atlanta metropolitan area in the north central portion of the state. As of 2020 Census, the population was 766,149. Its county seat and largest city is Marietta. Along with ...

, United States, with a population of 175,890 people. It is an affluent northern suburb of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

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 Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

. 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 "solution looking for a problem." In March 2019, Matt Dollar, a local representative in the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. ...

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 Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

(behind

), with around 150,000 residents. The referendum vote failed with 73% no votes, effectively precluding East Cobb cityhood.

Geography

East Cobb is roughly bounded by: *

Cherokee County Cherokee County is the name of eight counties in the United States: * Cherokee County, Alabama * Cherokee County, Georgia * Cherokee County, Iowa * Cherokee County, Kansas * Cherokee County, North Carolina * Cherokee County, Oklahoma * Cherokee Co ...

to the north * Willeo Creek and Roswell in

Fulton County Fulton County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. Most are named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first practical steamboat: *Fulton County, Arkansas, named after Governor William Savin Fulton *Fulton County, Georgia *F ...

to the northeast * the Chattahoochee River and

Sandy Springs Sandy Springs is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia and an inner ring suburb of Atlanta. The city's population was 108,080 at the 2020 census, making it Georgia's seventh-largest city. It is the site of several corporate headquarters, i ...

in Fulton County to the southeast * Bell's Ferry Road, I-575, and the Marietta

city limit City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate lim ...

s to the west, and * Interstate 285 and the Cumberland/Galleria

edge city ''Edge city'' is a term that originated in the United States for a concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional downtown or central business district, in what had previously been a suburban residential or rura ...

at the southern tip. East Cobb is within the Northeast Cobb census county division.

Climate

East Cobb has a humid subtropical climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Cfa''). The climate is slightly cooler than other areas of the metro with a higher elevation, predominately above 1000 feet in most areas.

Sweat Mountain Sweat Mountain is a mountain in far northeastern Cobb County, Georgia, in the suburbs north of Atlanta. The exact GNIS location of its summit is , and it has an official (USGS) elevation of above mean sea level. It is the second-highest point i ...

is the highest elevation in the East Cobb area at 1688 feet above sea level. East Cobb receives in excess of 50 inches of rain and roughly 3 inches of snow annually. Two of the largest snowfalls historically in East Cobb were the

1993 Storm of the Century The 1993 Storm of the Century (also known as the 93 Superstorm, The No Name Storm, or the Great Blizzard of '93/1993) was a cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 1993. The cold weather, heavy snowfall, high winds and s ...

and the storm on 7 and 8 December in 2017. Both storms dropped anywhere from 6-12 inches of snow on East Cobb.

Economy

Shopping

Merchant's Walk is a 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 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 YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

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

*East Cobb Park, established in 2001, East Cobb Parks hosts two playgrounds, walking trails, a bandstand, picnic pavilions, and stream overlooks. *Fuller's Park, which hosts baseball fields, a football field, a playground, and an indoor gymnasium used for recreational activities. *Harrison Park, which hosts baseball fields, a tennis court, and playground. *Mabry Park, which hosts a playground and walking trails.

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 Cobb County School District (CCSD) is the county government agency which operates public schools in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The school district includes all of Cobb County except for the Marietta City Schools, though a number ...

. The area comprises several

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

attendance districts:

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, Sprayberry, Wheeler, Kell,

Walton Walton may refer to: People * Walton (given name) * Walton (surname) * Susana, Lady Walton (1926–2010), Argentine writer Places Canada * Walton, Nova Scotia, a community ** Walton River (Nova Scotia) *Walton, Ontario, a hamlet United Kingdo ...

, 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 A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary 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

Alton Brown Alton Crawford Brown Jr. (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, chef, author, voice actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show '' Good Eats'' that ran for ...

, food and media personality *

Blaine Boyer Blaine Thomas Boyer (born July 11, 1981) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in MLB for the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, ...

, professional baseball player * Brett Butler, comedian *

Bobby Cox Robert Joe Cox (born May 21, 1941) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Cox played for the New York Yankees and managed the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays. He is a member of ...

, former manager of the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

* Missy Elliott, musician * Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2012 Republican presidential candidate * Ariel Gurian, former news anchor for The Onion, former WAGA Fox 5 News reporter *

Johnny Isakson John Hardy Isakson (December 28, 1944 – December 19, 2021) was an American businessman and politician who served as a United States senator from Georgia from 2005 to 2019 as a member of the Republican Party. He represented in the United States ...

, United States Senator *

Lester Maddox Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. (September 30, 1915 – June 25, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 75th governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1967 to 1971. A populist Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregatio ...

, former restaurant owner and governor of Georgia; resided in East Cobb before his death *

Ty Pennington Tygert Burton "Ty" Pennington (born Gary Tygert Burton) is an American television host, artist, carpenter, author, and former model and actor. His rise to prominence began with his role as carpenter on the TLC home improvement reality show ' ...

, Sprayberry High graduate, ''

Extreme Home Makeover ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' (''EM:HE''; sometimes informally referred to as ''Extreme Home Makeover'') is an American reality television series that aired from February 15, 2004 to January 13, 2012 on ABC. The series is a spin-off of ''E ...

'' and ''

Trading Spaces ''Trading Spaces'' is an hour-long American television reality program that originally aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series ''Changing Rooms''. The first ...

'' *

Cody Rhodes Cody Garrett Runnels Rhodes (''né'' Runnels; born June 30, 1985) is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. Rhodes is also known for his time in All Elite Wrestling (AE ...

, professional wrestler * Chris Robinson and

Rich Robinson Richard Spencer Robinson (born May 24, 1969) is an American musician and founding member of the rock and roll band the Black Crowes. Along with older brother Chris Robinson, Rich formed the band in 1984 (originally called ''Mr. Crowes Garden'' ...

The Black Crowes The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1984. Their discography includes eight studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer Ge ...

Tony Schiavone Noah Anthony Schiavone (, ; born November 7, 1957) is an American sports announcer, professional wrestling commentator and podcaster currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a play-by-play commentator and senior producer. He has pr ...

, former announcer for WCW, radio sports announcer, producer, engineer, currently announcer for

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...

Travis Tritt James Travis Tritt (born February 9, 1963) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 20 ...

, country music star * Lawson Vaughn, professional soccer player *

T. J. Yates Taylor Jonathan Yates (born May 28, 1987) is a former American football quarterback who is currently the wide receivers coach for the Atlanta Falcons. He played college football at North Carolina and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the fi ...

, NFL quarterback

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Cobb County, Georgia Unincorporated communities in Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia populated places on the Chattahoochee River