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 “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.
Learn more about East Cobb.