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Cobb commissioners deny fence variances after neighbors say buffers were encroached
Summary
The board denied two requests to amend rezoning stipulations so homeowners could keep backyard fences inside required buffers, ordering fence removal and replanting after neighbors and staff said the structures intruded on protected landscape buffers.
Cobb County commissioners on Sept. 20 denied two separate requests to amend rezoning stipulations that would have allowed homeowners to keep fences placed inside protected landscape buffers, ordering removal of the fences and replanting of disturbed areas.
The board voted 3-0 to deny Other Business Item 34 (rezoning case C-47-2016, related to a property on the east side of Ellis Mountain Drive south of Sage Lake Bend) and Other Business Item 43 (rezoning case Z-47-2016, a nearby parcel on the east side of Ellis Mountain Drive north of Sage Lake Bend). In both cases the motion included a deadline of Oct. 16, 2025, to remove fence sections located in the protected buffer and Nov. 16, 2025, for any required replanting with the county arborist’s direction.
The denials followed public testimony from homeowners and the Winthrop Manor homeowners association. Camilo Fadairo, who said county code enforcement told him his fence must be removed after earlier conflicting inspections, asked the board to reduce a required buffer so he could keep a fence for the safety of his 5-year-old son. "The fence was okay," Fadairo said; later enforcement visits, he said, required its removal.
Karen Dickey, president of the Winthrop Manor Homeowners Association, and other neighbors said the buffer was intentionally required to preserve the view and to keep private yards from being visible across subdivisions. "They are adamant about staying within the buffer zone and the stipulations and preventing it from happening again," Dickey said.
Staff and a site-plan arborist clarified the county’s position. John (staff) and Matt Anthony, identified as the county site-plan review arborist, told the board that grading had been permitted in portions of the landscape buffer but that the "30-foot natural maintained landscape buffer" was never intended to contain fences. According to staff, placards installed on lots were meant to show homeowners where disturbance was prohibited.
One homeowner who testified, Adrienne (last name not specified), said her fence sits in a "disturbed" buffer area that she owns and not in the undisturbed buffer. She said moving the fence forward would cut her usable yard in half and expose a bedroom window. Staff showed GIS imagery and explained the distinctions between the permanent 30-foot buffer adjacent to power lines and the additional 30-foot natural-maintained buffer installed to protect the Winthrop Manor neighborhood.
The board’s motions to deny both other-business items included the same compliance deadlines; both motions passed unanimously with Commissioners Burrell and Cupid absent.
The denials require homeowners to coordinate with county arborists to restore any disturbed natural buffer plantings and to place fences within the marker line that denotes homeowner-allowed area, per the motions.
The cases underscored a recurring enforcement problem the county has tried to address by placing placards in the field to indicate buffer limits; commissioners and the HOA urged clearer communication among developers, builders and homeowners to avoid similar disputes in the future.
