On July 26, 2021 the Johns Creek City Council approved a rezoning (RZ-21-004) to allow a 128 residential unit subdivision near Johns Creek High School on State Bridge Road. The applicant was The Providence Group who had sued the City of Johns Creek after the original case was denied.
Aside from the original case requesting a density of almost nine units per acre compared to the latest application which asked for a density of a little over five units per acre, there appears to be nothing of unusual public interest with the new case. However, an examination of the details tells a different story.
Warren Jolly is President of The Providence Group, a major regional developer and the main developer for the recent rezoning case RZ-21-004 described above.
As part of the required public documents for RZ-21-004, on 04/12/21 Warren Jolly signed a Disclosure Report Form stating that neither he nor any agent for The Providence Group made a contribution of $250 or more to the “Mayor or any member of the City Council” within the two years prior to the filing of RZ-21-004.
You can read the disclosure document on the PDF tab below.
Public records show that Kimberly Jolly, wife of Warren Jolly, donated $1500 to former Councilman Brian Weaver’s campaign on October 21, 2019. Tom Black, Sr. Project Manager with The Providence Group, donated $500 to the Weaver campaign on October 22, 2019.
This raises campaign finance questions.
Also of interest is that former Councilman Weaver resigned at the last possible Council meeting two weeks prior to the rezoning case coming before Council. Was this a coincidence or an attempt to sidestep the awkward publicity of recusing himself from the case as is required in the City’s own rezoning procedures?
Council members must recuse themselves from voting on rezoning cases when contributions of $250 or more have been accepted from applicants.
