Eastside Church's plan to build a 103-unit senior-living complex on Lower Roswell Road won't go before the Cobb County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 15, as scheduled.

The church's attorney, Kevin Moore, asked the Cobb Zoning Division on Sept. 9 for more time, East Cobb News reported. The Board of Commissioners hearing has been pushed to Oct. 20.

Moore said the church wants the delay "in response to community requests and comments" raised at the Sept. 2 Planning Commission hearing. He said Eastside is revising its site plan and design but did not say what changes are planned.

The delay follows a 4-0 Planning Commission vote on Sept. 2 recommending denial of the rezoning. Planning Commissioner Deborah Dance, who represents District 3 and is appointed by Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, made the motion to deny. Dance said the project did not fit the low-density, walkable neighborhood, according to East Cobb News coverage of the vote.

The proposal, known as The Haven at Eastside, would rezone 8.65 acres of the church campus at the corner of Lower Roswell Road and Little Road from R-20 to residential senior living. The plan calls for a 95-unit main building, eight independent cottages and a 150-vehicle parking lot. Monthly rates would start at $6,000.

Opposition has been fierce.

At the Sept. 2 hearing, 57 people testified against the project and 21 spoke in support. An additional 45 people filed opposition online. Red Oak Park resident Abby Shiffman told the commission a petition against the project had collected 232 signatures.

The East Cobb Civic Association has recommended total denial, citing density concerns and the precedent the project could set. The proposed density is 13 units per acre; the surrounding neighborhood is zoned R-20.

Richard Grome, president of the East Cobb Civic Association, was skeptical of earlier revisions to the site plan. "Nothing has really changed," Grome said at an Aug. 28 community meeting at East Cobb Library that drew about 70 residents. "The technicality is how high is this building and where is this being measured from?"

Eastside Church, formerly known as Eastside Baptist Church, dates to the early 1960s. It formed a separate nonprofit, The Haven at Eastside Inc., to develop and operate the facility. Eastside Christian School, which enrolls 275 students on the same property, is expanding its high school program.

A traffic study submitted the day before the Sept. 2 hearing estimated the project would add less than a two-second delay at surrounding intersections. Cobb County's transportation department said it had not had time to review the study before the hearing.

The Planning Commission's recommendation is advisory. The Board of Commissioners has the final vote on the rezoning, case Z-22-2026.