Say 'NO' - Proposed Daycare needs a new Traffic Light on Stilesboro Road at Dennis Kemp Lane

Petition addressed to: Cobb County Board of Commissioners

DID YOU KNOW THAT COBB DOT RECOMMENDS THE ADDITION OF A TRAFFIC LIGHT ON STILESBORO ROAD TO ENSURE SAFE ACCESS FOR THE CLIENTS OF A PROPOSED DAYCARE FACILITY AT THE CORNER OF DENNIS KEMP LANE ???

1. Do you want the additional delays of a Traffic Light at Stilesboro Road and Dennis Kemp Lane?
2. Do you want more traffic due to the proposed 150 - 170 children attending this new daycare facility on Dennis Kemp Lane across from the Zaxby's?

If your answer is "NO!", then please support this petition and email our Commissioners to tell them that you do not want additional traffic and delays.

Petition Against Approval of OB-13-2026: Creative World Schools Daycare
Stilesboro Road & Dennis Kemp Lane – Commission District 1

The application proposes a one-story daycare center for approximately 150–167 children (infant to preschool age) on property at the northeast corner of Stilesboro Road and Dennis Kemp Lane. According to the official Cobb Department of Transportation comments:

• Stilesboro Road is an arterial carrying 14,000 vehicles per day and operating at Level of Service D.
• Trip generation for a daycare of this size is estimated at 117 vehicles per hour in the AM peak, 119 vehicles per hour in the PM peak, and 614 vehicles per day.
• The facility is anticipated to have 100% parent walk-in to the classrooms and therefore does not require an internal traffic circulation/queuing plan.

Severe Parent Parking Shortage Creates Direct Safety Risks
The site plan shows only 42 parking spaces. Cobb DOT notes that while this meets the Code minimum of 20 spaces, ITE Parking Generation standards indicate the 85th percentile requirement is 51 spaces for 150 students. Per the applicant, employees are expected to use 29 of the 51 spaces leaving parents at most 22 parking spots.

Because this is a pure walk-in facility with no pick-up or drop-off queue lanes, every parent must park, escort young children into the building, and later park again to retrieve them. With only 22 spaces available during peak times, the predictable results are parents circling or idling, overflow parking onto surrounding streets, and the potential for young children being walked across active traffic—creating serious safety risks.

A New Traffic Light Is Required — and Will Itself Create Additional Delays

County traffic engineers have determined that the additional traffic from this daycare will significantly worsen delays at the currently unsignalized intersection to the point that a traffic signal is warranted. The applicant is being asked only to contribute 10% of the estimated cost of $750,000, leaving the public to fund the majority of the 'improvement'.

While making the intersection safer for those leaving Dennis Kemp Lane, the installation of a new traffic signal will itself introduce additional delays for all travelers using Stilesboro Road. Drivers who currently proceed through the intersection will face new stop-and-go cycles, longer queues, and increased travel times—especially during the same peak hours when daycare and pre-school traffic is highest. The community would therefore absorb both the congestion created by this daycare and the further delays caused by the traffic light needed to manage that congestion.

The original 1995 rezoning (Z-121) required Board of Commissioners final approval of the use and design of buildings on this Office/Institutional property. Approving a high-intensity daycare that generates hundreds of daily trips, leaves parents with critically insufficient parking, forces walk-in operations amid peak-hour congestion, requires a new traffic signal, and will impose additional signal-related delays on the traveling public fails that protective standard.

We therefore request that the Board of Commissioners deny OB-13-2026 to protect the safety of children, parents, and the traveling public and to avoid imposing new and lasting traffic delays on the community.