Cobb County Board of Commissioners Work Session - February 24, 2026
Cobb County Board of Commissioners Work Session - February 24, 2026
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners held a work session on February 24, 2026, to receive updates on the county's Economic Development Strategic Plan and the Unified Development Code (UDC). No formal votes were taken. The meeting included presentations from county staff and consultants, followed by commissioner discussion and feedback.
Economic Development Strategic Plan Update
Sabrina and the KB Advisory Group presented an update on the economic development strategic plan approved last year. The process has included five public open houses in November, focus groups, stakeholder one-on-one interviews, and ongoing surveys (open until the end of February). Key themes from public input included workforce development, business support, connectivity, job opportunity, housing affordability, and balanced development. Target industries identified include education and healthcare. Data analysis showed that Cobb County has led peer counties in job growth since 2010, with professional services and healthcare as top sectors. However, a mismatch exists where more residents work in professional services than there are local jobs, while healthcare imports workers. Housing supply has grown 11% since 2010, lagging behind the region, contributing to affordability challenges. The county's commercial stock is aging, with most commercial development from the 1980s. Redevelopment opportunities along corridors such as Canton Road were discussed. Commissioners asked about workforce certifications, economic mobility, and coordination with cities. The next steps include one-on-one meetings with commissioners and a consensus workshop to finalize implementation strategies.
Unified Development Code Update
Community Development Director Jessica Gwynn provided an update on the UDC drafting process, now in its third phase (development standards). The UDC aims to modernize and streamline Cobb County's zoning codes, which have been in place for over 50 years. Key features include user-friendly formatting with graphics, consolidation of uses and definitions, elimination of duplication, and clear cross-references. The draft retains existing single-family detached districts with no changes. New mixed-use zoning districts are proposed to align with the comprehensive plan's future land use map: Mixed Use Activity Center Neighborhood (MXN, up to 8 units/acre, 40 ft height), Community (MXC, up to 16 units/acre), and Regional (MXR, up to 60 units/acre, 135 ft height). These would replace existing UVC/PVC/RRC districts and be allowed only in designated activity centers (primarily along I-75 corridor). Additionally, a new plan development district (PD) and a neighborhood conservation overlay district were introduced. Commissioners expressed concerns about the neighborhood conservation overlay, comparing it to covenant enforcement and potential perpetual constraints. Commissioner Burl noted opposition to perpetual designation, while Commissioner Kelly raised enforcement burden. The board discussed allowing administrative variances for minor adjustments (up to 10%) in development standards, but Commissioner Burl objected to including DOT stacking lane standards. Commissioner Gambrill noted that densities proposed for neighborhood activity centers (8 units/acre) and community activity centers (16 units/acre) represent significant increases from current levels and require further policy discussion. The district commissioner for Canton Road requested separate meetings to revise design guidelines. Commissioner C-Tu noted the importance of training citizens on the new code once finalized.
Key Outcomes
- The Economic Development Strategic Plan surveys will close at the end of February; one-on-one commissioner meetings and a consensus workshop will follow.
- The third installment of the UDC (development standards) is expected within 30 days (late March). Staff will review and then share with commissioners for one-on-one meetings, likely in late March/early April.
- Public meetings for the third installment will be held in spring 2026, followed by a full draft document and additional public outreach before adoption.
- Commissioners requested a summary table of policy-level feedback and a collaborative document (e.g., Google Doc) to track suggestions.
- The board directed staff to remove administrative variance authority for DOT stacking lane standards and will further discuss the neighborhood conservation overlay.
- Staff will meet with each district commissioner separately to discuss design guidelines for their areas.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, and welcome to today's Cobb County Board of Commissioners work session. I'm pleased today that we'll be receiving two updates. One with respect to our economic development strategic plan, and the other with respect to our unified development code. I believe we'll have Sabrina from Economic Development. We'll kick off our initial presentation. And that will be followed by our community development director, Jessica Gwynn. Sabrina, you can get started whenever you're ready. Good morning, Chairwoman. Well, good afternoon, Chairwoman. Commissioners and county manager. Today we're gonna we're going to provide an update on our economic development strategic plan that was approved by the board last year. We've completed many of the priorities throughout the process, including a lot of our open houses, well, all the open houses and public meetings. We've also engaged with our steering committee and had lots of focus group meetings as well. So we have KB Advisory Group here today to provide you all with an update on the status and the data that has been collected so far, as well as the next steps. So Katie. We're nearing the end of our target industries analysis that's giving direction on where economic development efforts at the county should be in attraction and retention. And we will be taking all of that into consideration as we come back to have a consensus workshop. This will include partners. We've got some one-on-one conversations planned with you all as well. So we'll get into that. We have our virtual survey that's going until the end of February. It really kicked off in November when we had all of our public open houses. These were open to the general public. We hosted five of them throughout the county. And thank you so much for those who were able to attend. We had really quality input at all of those, and it was also an education opportunity. Won't get too much into that. We're gonna go over with the results of that soon. So we're starting our we've been we've already begun our stakeholder one-on-ones and um completed all of our focus groups. We have one-on-ones planned with you all as well coming up. So this is kind of at the end of hearing from general public partners, and then finally the leaders that make things happen here in Cobb. So we're excited to be able to have kind of those one-on-ones before we have a consensus workshop. This is where we will have the implementation strategy ready for input and feedback so that everybody is a champion of this plan, and it's a plan for all. And just as a quick reminder here, we have one more steering committee meeting left, uh, but these are all of the members that are a part of that steering committee. They've provided a lot of input and feedback. So I will go ahead and hand it off to Eric Bosman with Kimley Horn. He's gonna go over our public input. Are we gonna get it? We have a question. Yes, we would like to have a copy of this presentation. You went too fast, I don't see. So yes. Okay. We could go to the prior slides. Okay. We actually have a blank copy that just had our notes all in it. So I don't know if it's yes. Can we just um go back to the prior slide so we can review that? Okay. Yeah, so the steering committee includes um all of the Board of Commissioners' recommendations in there, but we also have internal Cobb County representation between departments, so that's helpful in inner coordination as well as small and large business and education partners.
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