Mableton cityhood bill passes Senate, heads to Kemp's desk

Mar. 25—The proposal to revive the city of Mableton in south Cobb passed the Georgia State Senate on Friday, sending the bill to the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.

The bill by state Rep. Erica Thomas, D-Austell, was the fourth and final of Cobb's cityhood efforts to receive passage this year. If signed by Kemp, it will allow voters of the 70,000-resident area to vote on whether to incorporate in a November referendum.

As in the House, where it passed 134-2, the bill easily cleared the Senate where it was placed on the consent calendar.

"I want to thank my Senate counterparts for showing their bipartisan support of this resident-led cityhood effort," Thomas in a news release. "Knowing how close this community is, it is no surprise to me that residents already believe that Mableton is a city. I am proud to announce that residents are one step closer to establishing a local government for themselves."

Mableton is the only one of Cobb's four cityhood movements to have previously been incorporated. It first became a city in 1912, but four years later, the town's residents voted to dissolve the municipality after it was overwhelmed by flooding, necessitating county aid.

The boundaries as proposed extend from the Chattahoochee River in the east to Austell in the west. Its southern border would be the "V" of Cobb's southern tip, while it extends as far as Hurt Road in the north.

Like the proposals in East Cobb, Lost Mountain, and Vinings, Mableton is envisioned as a "city lite," offering zoning, code enforcement, parks and recreation, and sanitation as its services. A feasibility study commissioned by the South Cobb Alliance — the nonprofit group backing the effort — found the city would collect $14.6 million per year and spend $11.4 million, leaving it with a $3.2 million budget surplus without raising taxes on residents.

Cobb County government, meanwhile, estimates incorporating the city would cost the county about $10.8 million annually in lost revenue.

Thomas has compared the city's governance structure of a six-member council and a mayor to that of Marietta or Smyrna. Each council member would represent around 13,000 people and would be elected only by the voters in their district; the mayor would be elected citywide.

Unlike its three counterparts, which all specified that their referendums would be held in May, Thomas wrote the bill so as to hold open the option to vote on the measure in May or November. After the bill missed the 90-day deadline to advertise the referendum last month, November is now its only option.