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.

Information for Way Bright in Washington needs to be swapped.

Yes.

Oh, I see.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate that feedback.

Okay, thank you.

Of course.

All right.

And Eric.

Thank you, Tate, and good afternoon, commissioners.

Pleasure to be before you.

So it's been our pleasure uh for our team to assist the KB team in helping structure and facilitate some of the public engagement and stakeholder input as part of this process.

So, what I want to do in the next few slides are talk a little bit both about the range of engagement opportunities that have been held as well as some of the preliminary feedback of what we're hearing through those efforts.

So the main thrust of the engagement effort so far was the series of five public open houses that were held throughout the month of November.

So these were in various locations throughout the county to try to make sure that we were hearing from uh different populations and different uh geographies from throughout Cobb County, both to hear what's consistent across the county, but also what's unique, special, and nuanced for each of our various uh areas throughout the county as well.

Several of the items that we heard throughout all of these open houses, continuous themes that came up.

Um, one about workforce development, training, uh capitalizing on the strong school system that we have here, uh, and finding a way for folks to participate within the labor force and within the workforce.

Business support over over again.

Um, your community partners are talking about the level of partnership, the level of collaboration, the support that they receive in Cobb County that they're thankful for.

Of course, we hear about connectivity.

We we can't be in Metro Atlanta without understanding that there are challenges related to mobility and accessibility, but how important connectivity is to supporting and fostering our local business environment, about job opportunity and really looking at the balance of wages and what the business environment will provide, but then also uh comparing that to the sixth bullet that's up there, which is housing.

How do we make sure that we have housing that our workforce can live close to where they work and vice versa?

And of course, that's not only a Cobb County problem, that is a Metro Atlanta and frankly a national problem, and then balanced development.

Um businesses understand that they are part of a bigger ecosystem, and as places have their own character and their own abilities throughout Cobb County being part of that overall character and environment of the community becomes very important in rooting their growth.

So, as part of these open houses, uh, we had a series of exercises.

And I think one of them was more of a word-based exercise, and one more of a map-based exercise, so that we could understand both how people see the business environment and economic development in Cobb County as well as where they see our businesses being anchored within the county.

Um, so I might start with the map on the right, because that one's a little more obvious that when you think about our major transportation corridors, I-20, I-75, uh the Cumberland and the town center area, as well as Marietta, where many of our business and commercial areas are located, it was not very difficult for folks to pinpoint where our key business locations and priority locations are within the county.

With the narrative on the left side, what you'll see is a variety of issues that span far beyond what we might traditionally think of as business environment and economic development.

I think that speaks to the sophistication of your population that understands that not only fostering a strong economy and a supportive business climate is important, but that it's all intertwined with quality of life, with open space, with livability, with accessibility and mobility, as well as with the housing piece that we mentioned.

Um, and your strong tie to your health care system and your education system is a key component for why and how people want to be in Cobb County.

So when we asked folks in the open house about target industries, there were a whole host that were mentioned, but the two that came up time and time again were around education and health care.

That folks see that as a strength within Cobb County, an opportunity to build clusters around and to build collaboration and opportunities around.

And as we ask folks about what makes Cobb County unique, why do you choose to locate your business in Cobb County versus other metro Atlanta areas?

You hear things like quality of life, diversity of the population, um, the access, the location within the overall Metro Atlanta business ecosystem, and the ability to get to locations in Cobb County more quickly and easily than possibly other locations, and again, a very business supportive, collaborative environment.

The folks know where to go to get help resources, information, and education.

Now, as we segue in from the the focus groups, we have a short video of the.

I would like to see more walkability work, uh, live and play facilities ride in just one area.

We have an opportunity to do an answer on that.

I think that will greatly enhance experiences of people who are living in Cobb County.

Focusing on the industries that Cobb can attract so that those industries can have people that can actually live in Cobb and work in Cobb.

Housing availability and affordability.

It's such an important topic for economic development leaders, but also our company at Home Depot.

So unlocking our existing stock is really important.

And then looking at how can we better stimulate new home building so that as we grow our business in Cobb County, we know there's a place for our employees to find a home.

We need more affordable housing in Cobb County.

We, as we are aging, we do not have the capacity to maintain those that are graduating out of Kennesaw State.

Housing is always a big problem at kind of saw state specifically, but with the approval of the economic development plan, we'll be able to see improvements in this to not only help myself but also help the future students that come through Cobb County.

Some things I would like to see in our community.

Healthcare.

You know, people are living longer.

So we do want to make sure that you know everyone's taken care of.

And then also training nurses and doctors as well.

Healthcare is important.

I agree.

But also technical educational skills are very important.

And we have to be prepared and prepare our kids and our young people towards better educational and technical skills.

And how we can retain students in Cobb County to help support our future workforce.

So this is a great investment.

This is us investing in our future and what we would like to see in our neighborhoods.

And the fact that the stakeholders have an opportunity to provide that is a great benefit to the future of Cobb County.

So that gives you a little bit of a snapshot of some of the things that we heard and sort of the flavor of those open houses.

The next step on top of the open houses, where we are currently running two concurrent surveys.

One that is geared and oriented towards employees in the business community, and a second survey that is oriented towards residents in the community at large.

So this first slide looks at the overall community survey pointed towards our residents in Cobb County.

And when we ask them about our top economic development strengths, you hear things about location accessibility, the growth and the diversity of the population, and the strong local business communities, particularly in keynotes within the county.

We ask about challenges, of course, you hear traffic, uh, but also uh some of the regulatory challenges of running businesses as well as balancing growth and community character and the tension between placemaking and growth while preserving what's unique and special about our various districts and neighborhoods within the county.

When we ask the business community likewise, what are our biggest strengths and what our biggest challenges strength wise, you hear about those support functions, the networking opportunities, uh the strong sense of community within our commercial nodes and within Cobb County as a whole, but then also the proximity to major transportation hubs.

So access and location again, both a big benefit, but also a challenge when we talk to getting people to the individual businesses.

In terms of top challenges, uh obviously the economy underlies all of this.

So rising operational cost, regulation burdens, and limitations of our infrastructure in order to grow at the same pace as our community.

So those are some of the things we're hearing through the survey.

Um the survey is remaining open till the end of this month.

We're very open to your feedback whether we need to extend that or whether we're okay to close up that survey as one of the engagement efforts at the end of this month.

In addition to the survey, we are also currently conducting a series of focus groups and one-on-one interviews.

These are a little more targeted towards the business community, taking the information that we heard at the open houses and through the survey and trying to drill down a little bit farther to get some additional information about what some of the opportunities and challenges are as well as some of the assistance and support that our businesses need in order to thrive.

And so, with all of that, this is our very complicated uh SWAT matrix of what we have heard so far.

Um, this is more than likely a slide and a set of bullets that will bear more conversation as this process evolves.

But when you hear about strengths, again, you're hearing about location, location, location, proximity within the overall Atlanta business ecosystem, but a really strong sense of pride in who Cobb County is and what Cobb County is, a lot of pride for folks that that like to be in Cobb and are very excited about the services and the support that we have to offer.

Then you hear some things about specific locations and about specific industries, as well as our strong business climate education and healthcare system.

When it comes to weaknesses, it's probably no surprise, much of our county was built several decades ago.

And so you hear a lot about aging, whether that's aging communities, aging infrastructure, um, our ability to keep our infrastructure supported at the same rate as the business environment to provide access, connectivity, and again, workforce support in terms of training and housing.

For opportunities, folks realize that we're at an age in the county where redevelopment is part of the key.

How do we take older areas that may not be performing as well and reinvest in those areas, and what are the variety of tools?

And the reality is you have a number of tools at your disposal, and hopefully, one of the key outcomes of this economic development strategy is cooperation on which tools to use and how to employ those strategically and appropriately to help you meet your economic development goals.

And then finally, when it comes to threats, um, you hear things about the underlying economy, rising land prices, uh, decreasing opportunities for grant funds, affordability, an aging population, and of course, again, a recognition that there aren't a lot of vacant greenfield sites to go develop in.

Redevelopment is much more difficult, it's more challenging, but that's going to be necessary in order to revitalize and reinvigorate some of our aging business cores.

So that's a little bit about what we've done from the engagement process and what we've heard.

What we do then is we take this engagement effort and then bump that up against the data.

And fortunately, I'm not the data person, so that's where I get to hand it off to Gabby.

Thank you, Eric.

Pleasure to be with you all um again.

So as Tate mentioned, we have we have done a lot of data digging, and we're just today just gonna go over just some of the highlights and big general trends that we have been seeing.

And so as a highlight of kind of what those are.

So of course the county is continuing to be an important part of our region to continue to grow, you're still able to you know attract and maintain you know well educated population, you know, underscored, of course, by your strong university system.

But that has already been alluded to, I'm sure you have read in many headlines so far, regionally and nationally, right?

Our communities are aging, right?

We're getting a little bit older, we're having you know smaller families, smaller household sizes.

So just thinking of what that will do kind of longer term for a strategy of how we want to think about you know economic growth and maintaining the stability within our county.

And as again, as mentioned, you know, healthcare is very strong, you are a regional hub in that regard, and you're able to actually draw in a lot of workers from outside of the county to kind of help support this industry that you have.

But at the same time, a lot of your residents work in what you would call your professional services.

So think of you know, engineering, accounting, law, graphic design, um, all of those firms and those kinds of um businesses.

And so a lot of your residents work in that sector, and so you have some of that here, and it is growing over the past couple years, which is good, driven a lot by your core in Cumberland.

But of course, given your proximity, they're also you know working in other cores across the region.

Thinking from your real estate perspective, so a lot of your you know, non-residential growth has kind of been in your industrial properties, um, but your you know, your class A, your most desirable properties are in your office product that you do have.

And then when we think about redevelopment, and then as we get further into this thinking about the strategy specifically for that redevelopment, where what we're learning so far is again, you know, it's really about the aging inventory that you do have and making sure that where there is info that you're using the tools to make that happen, but also making sure there aren't any properties that stay vacant for a while that become blighted, and that you're making sure that redevelopment is kind of like equally focused along your main transportation corridors, especially your east-west connection and not just focusing on 75 itself.

So digging into things a little bit in more detail.

So, right, you know, it is not the only aspect, but you know, population growth and having new households is a piece of the economic development pie in that way, right?

And so, as you can see on the map that we have, you know, this is largely driven by you know the spatial land use patterns that you all have, you know, adopted over the years and the regulations that you have, but most of your population density, of course, is located on the 75, 575 corridor.

And you have, you know, while you have not been growing, you know, as much as the region overall, there has still been significant growth within the county um since 2010.

But again, as I alluded to, right, we're seeing you know a shift and change of you know composition.

So while you know your younger age cohorts are still the predominant age segment, um, this 25 to 44 age cohort, which is um a big cohort that you know employers will look for because that is where they're gonna draw most of their workforce from.

That is still you know the large part of your population.

But if we look at you know recent changes over time, there has been more growth in your older age cohort, so those over 65, right?

And some of that, of course, on this graph is people aging up, right, as we get older.

But the main thing to keep in mind is that normally you would have a natural replacement of you know, as we get older, you bring in new families, people move in, people who are already living here have their own families, and you kind of have this natural cycle of replenishment, right?

But again, what we're seeing not only here, but regionally, statewide, nationally, is that we're not having as much of this natural placement happening as what force of the magnitude is shifting.

So over time, if things continue as they are, then our communities in general will just become older than what we have been used to.

So thinking about how we plan for that and what those preferences and needs will be.

And again, you know, this can influence you know, workforce and jobs for a Cobb County going into the future.

So on this graph here, the healthcare accommodations and food service and retail trade, the ones in the gray, those are kind of your current top sectors as of right now.

Um, but when we think about you know, again, changes over time, the professional service industry has had the largest increase in the absolute number of jobs that have been added from 2010 to 2023.

And so you can see um over 20,000 jobs over this time frame, right?

And so growing a lot again, I think that is largely due to a big success with you know your office core that is in Cumberland, as we've talked to as part of our one on ones with your regional and state economic development partners.

They have so they've been receiving you know more and more interest um for you know regional and corporate headquarters to be located within the county, and so that will drive a lot of this.

Um but when we think of you know rate of growth, then your um educational services sector has actually grown the fastest during this time frame.

And so this is you know gonna be largely driven by you know, KSU has been growing and expanding over this time, but this would also include growth and employment for um Cobb County schools in Marietta Public Schools.

And so when we want to do a quick comparison, right?

So thinking of job growth overall, since 2010, you actually have led your peers of Fulton Gwyneth and to Cab County in terms of the number of jobs that have been added.

Um, of course, as you can see, everyone took a dip, of course, uh, with the pandemic, and it has had a little bit slower, you know, progression since then, right?

But you all have been able to lead the pack in that regard historically about this growth.

And then with wages, this is obviously going to be skewed the fact that Fulton does have the city of Atlanta.

Um, so of course, Fulton is always going to remain probably of the highest, um, but you are pretty much in line with your peers, um, Gwenda, and you're above the cab in that way.

So we want to make sure that you know, not only are the employers that are here, they're paying a livable wage, but it's very competitive, and same thing for the industries that you know, Sabrina and then you know, partners that still let Cobb bring in into the county.

And I just alluded to, you know, you have healthcare is one of your top sectors, but most of residents that live in the county they're working in professional services, right?

So we're thinking of a general, we call it like a mismatch, right?

And so you're and there's always going to be you know people who are you know leaving the county to go work in other industries versus in versus in coming in, which thinking about which of those industries are gonna be kind of like net importers and net exporters.

So what you see on um we'll start with the bottom on the red, right, is saying that these are the industries where there are more residents working in these industries than there are jobs currently within the county, right?

So the main one, of course, your professional services.

So while it is growing, um, there are still significantly more residents working there than there are jobs.

So that sends a signal to Sabrina and her and partners that maybe this is where they would be kind of focusing on recruitment efforts and making sure that companies that do fit these industries that they're able to expand and stay within the county when they do so.

Versus when you have your industries in the green, you know, healthcare being the leading one is where you have more jobs than you do working residents that are working in that industry.

So that means that they're having to import workers from other parts of the region to fill those um positions, and so then that is a flag to be like, okay, this is where we want to focus our workforce development efforts to kind of balance that out.

And I think it's alluded to in our video, but um, so overall, there are in general, of course, more residents than there are um jobs in the county, so in that way, um, there is a general like outflow of um working residents within Cobb County, and this has kind of been decreasing a little bit over time, as you can see in 2010, we were closer to 40 percent of people that you know could work and worked um that lived and worked within the county, and now we're closer to uh 30 percent as of 2022.

So we're seeing that shift, um, and then what can play a larger role in this, of course, is thinking about not only wages, but how housing and infrastructure networks are being shaped and if they're being being able to be kept up with the needs and preferences of your various workers, for example.

I go back for a second, the fact that you what would influence, what could influence the fact that you know retail trade, wholesale trade, you know, accommodations, the fact that they're having to import workers is you know, some of those aren't always necessarily as high paying, right?

So, as you know, granted housing costs are outside of y'all's control, you know, fully, of course.

There's a lot of national economic things that shape that.

If wages of GAN don't keep up with that effort, then they're not able to kind of live in the county, and if they aren't high paying, are they really gonna commute an hour to come work at a restaurant in the county?

There's something to consider in that regard.

And I think I'm going to pass it back off to Tate to finish off some of our data, and then we'll get to questions.

Thank you.

Hello again.

Um, I want to start off here.

While this isn't a housing study, and we recognize that, when we have had all our public engagement and some of you know from the chamber to business owners, housing keeps coming up.

Um housing affordability is an equation of incomes and housing price.

And so we did want to take a look at from an income level how is this distributed spatially within the county?

So you have very healthy incomes in this dark blue is over 105,000 as a median household income, uh and even that middle blue is between 65 and 85.

Uh the flip of this, we also wanted to understand this other interesting data set that uh is provided by United Way, is asked um, it's called Alice, it's asset limited income constrained employed.

So these are folks who they are above the poverty line, they are employed sometimes with multiple jobs, um, but still financially constrained.

And that has implications on a local economy from a spending level, right?

So are you able to support the retailers in the in this area?

Are folks able to make decisions on education or health care or their quality of life?

And so I think that this is something, you know, we don't have all the answers to with you today on what the strategies around this might be from an economic development tools situation, but just want to let you know some of the data points that we are looking at and considering.

And with that, um again, I'm gonna touch on housing for just a second, particularly in its amount of growth as it relates to the workforce because we keep hearing this trend come up.

And so if you look at Cobb County overall, since 2010, um, you see that relative, you know, 11% growth in your housing stock.

So it's not keeping up with Atlanta MSA or the state of Georgia, and that's putting some some downward pressure then on supply, which ultimately impacts the price.

And so we're thinking about this from the perspective of uh public education, which we consider infrastructure in a way of thinking about workforce development.

And so we did a quick analysis here, looking at the share of new homes within each, these are all the high school clusters.

Um juxtaposing that to the change in the average new home price over this kind of pre-pandemic until 2025.

And so we can see where the share of new supply is added in the for sale market, you have curbed slightly the increase in housing.

And so this is important when we think about workforce development as well as household choice in thinking about you know which school district is available to them and which they can stay and retain in that school district.

Um that's all of our housing pieces here.

Um but this being an economic development study, right?

There's there's a huge emphasis on the business community and where business and commerce happens.

So looking now, the rest of these slides will be focusing on the commercial infrastructure.

Um not surprisingly, this is a heat map of all of the commercial property concentrations within Cobb.

Again, you see your corridors, you have an understanding of those key nodes up 75 with 285, and then 75 and 575.

Those are your big ones, but you can also start to see the east-west connections, which are um you know as important and thinking about particularly redevelopment efforts.

Overall, um, we like to look at peer counties here.

Um, this is taking a look at the commercial development by decades.

So you can see that the 80s was the heyday of commercial development within Cobb County in comparison to its peers.

Um Gwinnett County is a little bit more similar, but you see that it's able to gain a little bit more momentum in 2020 and and beyond.

Uh, City of Atlanta has had much more development since the 2000s on the commercial front.

And so this is, you know, again, where we start to think about how do we both retain the businesses that are here today and attract part of that is the stock of commercial that exists.

This includes office, industrial, retail, um, it excludes any residential or multifamily residential.

So we're we're really strictly looking at where business is done.

There are some implications, maybe from a broader fiscal finance and public revenues point of view, um, seeing just on your share of your gross tax digest, that 70% is concentrated there in residential.

And so as you move forward, can there be elements that can increase the value of your existing stock to take some of that burden, just diversify your revenues essentially, um, as well as adding uh higher higher value new commercial product, which really comes in as you think about the successes in Cobb County.

Think of the battery and the amount of of new office that has gone there at a at a high value.

And so this leads us to getting into some of how we're how we're thinking about the implementation and strategies moving forward, taking a very spatial look.

So these gray dots here represent any commercial property that is not class A.

Class A is really an industry definition within the real estate industry, so you can think of these as your B through F are maybe second, third generation spaces, they're not as amenitized.

Your class A are really leading the market, they're the top of the market.

And so those are represented by those green dots.

You can start to see where you've got really specific concentrations south of 20 there.

That's a lot of your new industrial that's high yielding.

You've got the battery in Cumberland, and then as you go up into Kennesaw around town center, 575 corridor there, you've got these nodes of class A activity.

And so our job now is thinking about the gray that is existing.

What are the opportunities there for higher and better use in fill redevelopment that isn't encroaching into the residential areas that are off of these corridors where people really enjoy their quality of life from a residential point of view?

And we've done a lot of data talking here.

Um before well, before I get into next steps, um maybe we stop here and take some questions, whether it's in public uh engagement or on the data side.

I know it's a lot to digest, and likely you know, we'll we'll have other conversations as we're getting into more of the finer grain data analysis here.

Thank you.

I'll check and see if any commissioners have any questions regarding the presentation thus far.

Okay, great.

Just a couple of observations.

I was in DC this past weekend for commissioner conference, and they spoke about two federal bills that will that may impact housing.

And as you talked about the generation of new housing units, there is a federal bill that may give winners and losers different types of opportunities through our existing federal funding, where if you're above the 50% level in housing unit creation, you're gonna get more resources from the federal government.

If you're below that 50% mark, they will take the money that you are already slotted to get and give it to those who are generating additional housing.

So that's something for us to be mindful of as we're making decisions when it comes to housing, how that could be exacerbated show that I think is the road to housing bill that is being considered.

Um another thing, I saw a slide on the screen that touched on economic mobility, and that is something that is becoming more dominant in discussions around economic development regionally.

Uh Metro Atlanta ranks 50 as far as being able to pull people from lower socioeconomic realms to higher ones, and that's just something we haven't really focused on, or I've never really thought about economic development in that way.

We've kind of just looked at it from a job perspective.

But what are the jobs that are going to pull people out of poverty and pull them into a more sustainable socioeconomic class is something that I would love to get some additional feedback on tools that we can consider for doing that?

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

I think you know, we've we definitely are data people, but there's there's the policy side of this, um, and you mentioned that, for example, a bill, like there are carrots and sticks.

Um, and so thinking about what is the right strategy from a spatial point of view is where we like to think about um economic development because economic development hinges on transportation infrastructure, on public education infrastructure, and so um we hope that the end result of this you'll you'll find some solutions or strategies that can be worked on in the next five years.

Okay.

Well, thank you for being rounded in the data that you are collecting so we can look at this more holistically.

Of course, thank you.

Yes, please.

Um, just to go back to the health care workers and the imbalance and the number of jobs versus uh the employees.

Um does your data support or share any type of certifications or credentials for those positions that are available, and also are there any barriers to Cobb County residents to access those jobs.

Um, yes, so our target, I think you're getting into a bit of our target industries analysis and what that will provide.

Okay, and that is thinking about you know, healthcare is a large industry.

There are multiple um income levels, education levels that that fall into health care.

And so what our job is on the target industries is to identify within that industry what are the subsects, what's currently being provided, and where there might be gaps, both from a county's perspective, but also from your your public education and private education partners, um, the technical services is as well as you know a KSGU, for example.

So there's going to be a lot more granularity in that.

I don't know.

I I asked Gabby to come up because she's she's our our expert in this area if she had anything else to add to that.

Yeah, just one quick thing is what we'll do is when we have kind of solidified, you know, more redeveloping, you know, your target industries is we'll provide a list for each of them of various occupations that would fall under those, and then we align, you know, what has is their projected growth within the state of Georgia because Georgia Department Labor has a very long list of occupations industries that they would look to attract with and also the certifications that are required.

So we'll be able to get into more granted workforce information about it.

Okay.

Thank you.

And finally, help me understand.

Are you working with the cities with this analysis, or is this primarily unincorporated?

I can't recall.

So we work with the the cities have been incorporated.

We had a CIDs and cities focus group because there should be alignment in kind of what are the efforts that are maybe in an incorporate, and then you do have maybe you have more of a hyper focus in the incorporated areas, but we should be aware of their going ons, right?

And so as not to repeat services or to leverage off of that into a larger one.

Okay, so this data does include data from incorporated.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, Commissioner Brown.

Thank you.

Um I will have to say that the uh the ones I attended in my district, open houses were not just educational, but fun.

Oh, thank you.

And no, I think that was fun for the attendees as well as myself.

So thank you for the interaction there.

Um, and this may be a question for Sabrina and staff, but um in 2013, we had a redevelopment list of properties throughout the county.

There were 38, and most of them were in my district, and uh Ben Commissioner Chairwoman's district, and I know that well, I had gotten all of mine down to but two when COVID hit.

So in 2019, from 13 to 19, I went from 17 sites to two, and the two were on Canton Road.

Now Sprayberry Crossing, which was deemed blighted, the first case to go to court with our blight tags um program or ordinance.

Um that has been developed as well.

So where are we with our original redevelopment list and moving forward with because a lot of folks, a lot of businesses have not didn't make it through COVID, and I know that doesn't just because they're vacant doesn't mean they're blighted or or whatever, but um how do we move forward with redevelopment along these corridors and um after COVID.

So we do maintain that list of redevelopment properties throughout the county, and that's an unincorporated cob only.

Right.

And you you were correct in that those that were within your district were concentrated on Canton Road corridor right now.

Well, at our last update, the majority of those properties were in South Cobb, which is now Mapleton.

So we won't continue to maintain that on our redevelopment inventory.

Um a goal of that was to reach out to those property owners to make them aware that it's on our radar and on you all's radars, the board of commissioners, to see if there was any idea or plans for redevelopment or additional investment in their properties.

Oftentimes we had difficulty reaching the property owners because they may have been out of state or had an LLC name with no additional contact information.

Um, but we do continue to monitor the properties that are in unincorporated Cobb County.

We have continue, and one of Robin's focuses for last year was working on um revamping and revitalizing our enterprise zones so that we could create those geographically based incentive areas to encourage investment in those areas to include Canton Road and other parts of Cobb County.

Uh we previously had an enterprise zone with Smyrna Osborne area, a lot of that area has been redeveloped since to consider like the Belmont area.

So they're going to be much smaller now.

So we're working on just creating some of those smaller areas, even looking at some sister cities, Savannah, for example, who you know they do enterprise zones from a completely different perspective.

So we're looking at different ways that we can approach some of the redevelopment opportunities to include some of the various tools within our tool belt that they mentioned that we could use not just in what was South Cobb and now Mapleton, but throughout to throughout the county to include town center, um, which is a key priority right now, um, and some of those other tools that we could use aside from the enterprise zone would be things like the TADS or special services district that was mentioned previously.

And some of those other tools that we could use aside from the enterprise zone would be things like the TADS or special services district that was mentioned previously.

So we do continue to monitor that.

We had a program, and this this is kind of going way far, but we currently have a program in the code, which is our commercial rehabilitation property incentive.

That program, I forget what year it was created, but no one has ever used that.

So we gathered together with the tax department, the development authority, and our economic development staff to see how can we improve this program.

So we're going to present that as a code amendment later in the year because, according to our tax office and the development authority, the way it's written is not something that people want to take benefit of because again, no one has so far.

So we want to rewrite that code on that particular incentive and just revitalize that so that we can hopefully get some interest in that.

So we're just really considering what economic development tools can we use to encourage investment through our underutilized underutilized and vacant quarters throughout the county.

Those properties that made that inventory list were 20 years older, and they could have also been vacant or just blighted for some other reason.

Um so we're exploring all those opportunities now, and we hope to have some input at the end of this uh strategic plan as to what are the best approaches to approach what are the best ideas to approach economic development and redevelopment in those areas, and we'll bring that to you all for your consideration as well.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am thank you.

Are there any other comments or questions?

All right, thank you.

Great.

Um I have a just some of our next steps here in thinking forward.

So we have you know, been able to get through the majority of that public engagement that you all heard about today.

I'm very glad to hear that your experience was a fun one, and it was also educational.

So I think it's two birds one stone with these kinds of public engagements on economic development, particularly.

We have finished um our focus groups and are getting through our one-on-one interviews, and so I want to make a quick plug here that the board of commissioners uh one-on-ones are coming up, and so that's when we will be able to talk more in depth with you all on some of the tools that we're thinking about and brainstorming that before we you know formulated into a plan.

Um, but we really would appreciate your time.

Uh, very grateful to to be able to talk through that ahead of you know, a 100% plan done.

We want your input and feedback and acceptance of the plan there.

Um, and then finally, I've got to do my shameless plug for our surveys.

Uh, they will be open uh through the end of the week.

We've really revamped some of our strategies here at the beginning of the year after some um after the open houses in November and and um holidays.

So if anybody and everybody here too as well, um there's a community and a business survey, as we said.

So in some cases, people can take both if they're both a resident and a business owner.

All right.

If there are no other questions, okay.

Any other questions?

Our report on it for today.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Okay, that now takes us to our next update of the day, and that is with respect to our UDC, and that presentation will be brought by our community development director, Jessica Goyton.

Thank you.

All right, good afternoon, Chair and Commissioners, Jessica Gwynn, Cobb County Community Development Agency Director.

Um, first of all, I know this is a lot of information today between the economic development strategic plan and also the UDC, but I think one of the things that really stood out to me as we're talking through the economic development strategic plan is just how intertwined some of these issues are economic development and community development.

You know, we're we're housed together because we really go hand in hand and the things that we do in community development as far as when we're talking about zoning and housing and those sorts of things.

It's all supports the economic development and then economic development on the flip side supports our residents also.

So they all definitely work together.

I think you know, we've got a lot of stuff we're doing in the agency this year with the strategic plan with the UDC, also kicking off the comprehensive plan.

Um, it's a lot of work for us, but I think it's also very opportune that we're working on all these things together because they all are important and all affect one another.

So appreciate your time today.

I don't have my consultant team here, so you just have me.

And a lot of the information I'm gonna share today is really stuff that we've already talked about, and I've talked with each of you individually.

We've done our public meetings.

Um, so I don't have a whole lot of new stuff to share with you today, but I do just want to kind of go through the installment to hear thoughts on some of the things that are in there that are new, give you the opportunity to discuss things as the board, if there's anything there that you'd like to talk about, and then also just talk a little bit about where we go from here.

We don't need to go through why we're doing the UDC.

I think we've been through this enough, but I really just an effort to modernize and streamline our codes and our development regulations, so really bring them into the the 21st century.

Um now that we're a quarter of the way through it, it's probably time.

Um, also eliminating inconsistencies throughout both our code itself as well as with the development standards and what have you.

And also again, uh the the code is a tool of implementation of the code or of the of the plan.

So we want to be sure that the code supports the goals of the comprehensive plan, and as we move forward with our new comprehensive plan update, again, it's very it's timely that we're working on these projects kind of simultaneously.

Work program going through five phases.

So, as you'll recall, first we had the project initiation and orientation that started way back in 2022.

Um code assessment after that, or the consultants came in, they looked at all of our existing codes and regulations, they met with staff, they met with commissioners, they did a survey, they did all those things to kind of get a good read on kind of the the current state of Cobb County as far as uh zoning and development regulations are concerned, and they produced the code assessment document, which identifies the things that they heard through that process that are potential opportunities for improvement through the UDC process, provided some initial thoughts on where we might go with that.

It was just sort of an opportunity to check in and make sure before they actually started drafting code that we're kind of on the right path.

Currently, we're in phase three drafting the UDC.

This UDC is a draft until it's adopted by the board.

It's basically a giant code amendment.

So it's still a draft.

After the draft is complete, the next phase will be testing the draft UDC.

So we'll look at different types of development.

If they were to come in under the code today, how would that move forward?

If they were to come in under the UDC, how would it move forward to make sure that we're getting the right results out of it that it's working the way that we intend for it to?

And then finally, we'll have the public hearings and the adoption process.

Um again, this is a code amendment, and as you know from the code amendments we do every year, once the code amendments advertised, we've got 60 days for the board to take action on it, or we have to re-advertise and go through it all again.

So that being said, um when I started this process when we when we initially you know embarked on this process, and I said it'll be two years, people looked at me like I was crazy.

Uh but here we are, and it's been three years now because I knew it was going to be a heavy lift.

And I think one thing that's important to make note of, and I've said it time and time again, this is important.

We've had our current code for over 50 years, it stands to reason that this is going to be a code that's going to drive development in Cobb County for several decades to come.

So we want to be sure we take the time to get it right.

So once all that being said, once we get to the point of advertising and doing the public hearings at that point, we need to have a document that's pretty well buttoned up.

That's something that we're comfortable with, and that we can move forward with and with within 60 days of that advertisement coming out.

So that's the goal.

As you'll recall, also, we're drafting the code in three installments, uh, three big bites of a giant elephant.

Uh, the first installment, of course, was really the general provisions, the more administrative side of things, the processes, procedures, how everything that gets reviewed through the community community development agency, how that moves forward, whether it's a sign permit or a rezoning or a land disturbance permit, how all that works.

Um phase two or the second installment really is again the meat and potatoes of the zoning district.

So we talk about zoning districts and use regulations.

Article 9, we keep adding to it, so that's where our definitions live.

That's a very important section.

We'll talk about that a little bit later.

We'll continue to add to Article 9 as we move into installment three, which is the development standard.

So, right now the consultant team is working on drafting installment three.

They've already sent staff some little pieces for us to look at to get some feedback on.

We looked at some landscape standards, some parking.

In fact, today, just today they sent me another piece, and they'll send us the whole document.

And once we have that whole document, we'll share it with the board, we'll review it as staff, and then we'll put it out there publicly for review too.

So, again, the the three key themes or goals that were identified through the code assessment for the project were first of all to create user-friendly regulations, looking at how do we update and modernize our zone district and use regulations, uh, how do we support additional types of housing?

We've heard a lot about housing.

We talked a lot about housing.

There was a lot of talk about housing at the at the Board of Commissioners' retreat a couple of weeks ago.

Looking at how do we modernize and update the development standards, and also then we also heard a lot about redevelopment, as we know there's not a lot of opportunity for green field development here in Cobb County.

So we want to be sure that community development and economic development working hand in hand that we've got the right tools in place in our code to support redevelopment or revitalization of our commercial corridors.

So as we talk about making our regulations more user-friendly, the new district layout, and we'll we'll go into these in a little bit more detail.

But we wanted to be sure that it was something that was gonna be visual.

Um something with some graphics that break things down so that whether a citizen's looking at it or staff member or commissioner or a developer, that it's clear what the what the intentions are and what the expectations are.

We consolidated all of the use and use related regulations into one section in the UDC, and then all of the zoning districts are in one section of the another section of the UDC, and then of course putting the key development standards, that next piece that's coming through the landscaping, the parking, the buffers, those sorts of things that'll be in another section, and then also just making sure that we're reducing duplication.

So I'll show you some great examples of that.

And some of you had the opportunity to come out to our public meetings, and so you've seen some of this, but for those of you that haven't, and for anybody else that's interested, um, if you look at our code currently, R20 single family residential zoning district.

R20 is as you all know from sitting here every third Tuesday, one of our our most predominant zoning districts in the county.

We have a lot of R20 zone property, just basic single family zoning.

If you look at our current code, you see we have, I believe that's one, two, three, four, five, about 10 pages.

10 pages of our current code speaks to the R20 zoning district.

That's a lot.

Uh, first thing you'll see is the purpose and intent.

Why do we have the R20 district?

Well, it's established to provide single family residential uses.

Then after that, we get into definitions.

And the first thing you see is definition of a community fair, and you'll see here that it's a fair such as the North Georgia State Fair.

Out of we've only got one location where we have the North Georgia State Fair.

Most people who are looking in the R20 section of the code probably are not looking for the definition of community fair.

But that's the first thing that you see after the purpose and intent.

Then we'll get into the list of uses.

You can see community fairs is one of the permitted uses in the R20 district.

Um, and then we'll get into like cottage food operators.

Well, so it says okay, you can have cottage food operators, and here's all the rules that go with that.

So it doesn't really make a lot of sense how it's laid out.

And then we get into the district group regulations, and this is where probably this is I think on about page four, um, where we really get into things people are probably most interested in, like what's the setback?

How big does the lot have to be?

So we finally get into that on about halfway through the R20 section, and we have these renderings here that have been they they were not done at the peak of good graphic design.

Um, we've graphic design, the the resources have improved a lot since then.

So, as you can see, these have been copied and pasted several times over the last few decades, and at this point they're not really legible.

Um, so again, we want to update those, make them something that there's that's a little bit more useful.

Um we get into within the district regulations talking about accessory uses, accessory buildings, and this is in every single single family zoning district.

So, again, a lot of duplication.

We get into NRC, NRC being one of our predominant commercial categories.

We have 14 pages of the code dedicated to the NRC zoning district.

Same thing, talks about district regulations such as traditional, you know, transitional buffer requirements, gets into detail about that.

Um, with the new UDC, that's gonna move into its own article.

So all the information you need to know about buffers is gonna be in one place.

Um gets into the general standards, just in general for the NRC district.

Um a few issues here, a few things that are problematic, and this is just one great example that the consultant pulled out.

Um, customary home occupation, and you all know what a customary home occupation is, or in every neighborhood, you know, whether somebody in and there's more and more of them now as more people are working from home.

We have a lot of people who have their little Etsy business or whatever.

Um so customary home occupation is very common here in Cobb County.

It's defined a total of 22 times in our current code.

Um in 21 separate zoning districts, as well as in section 134-1, which is the definition section.

Um, in each of the 21 districts where you can have customary home occupation, the standards are pretty similar.

There are a few little differences, and what happens, and as you all have seen when we've brought code amendments forward before, we'll make an amendment, we make it in one place, or we'll make it in five places, but then there's six more that we didn't realize we needed to update because there's just so much duplication.

So the more duplication you have, the more opportunity you have for over the years as the code is amended or what have you, as things are changed, that you're gonna have some inconsistency.

So we want to eliminate that duplication.

So this is just one great example of where we have a lot of duplication in our code unnecessarily.

So with the new code, customary home occupation will be defined in one place, it'll be in Article 9, the definition section.

Um, transitional buffers, again, duplicate regulations you'll see in several different sections of the code.

So this is pulled off me in a code online.

You can see every code, every zoning district speaks to that.

It's the same information, but it's just specified several times.

So again, as I said, it really does make the code a little bit more difficult to maintain and just keep up to date over the years.

Um, as I already shared, we already talked about how it's hard to find the important stuff in our current code.

So R40 again, the first thing you see after purpose is the information about the community fare, basic development standards, minimum lot sizes, you have to go again to the middle of the code to third page of that section to find that information.

So there you go.

Um, some of the things that really is as we move forward with the UDC are important.

You know, we're not the UDC is not intended to bring sweeping policy changes, and as you'll recall, and we talked about it at the border treat a couple weeks ago.

Um, when there was discussion about changing the definition of single family, that was brought as a separate code amendment.

When we talked about accessory dwelling units, that was proposed as a separate code amendment.

Those did not move forward.

And the reason that we brought those as separate code amendments when those were when we had a sponsor and a co-sponsor, we don't want something like that getting tucked into the UDC.

The UDC really is about cleaning up, streamlining, and modernizing versus making big policy decisions.

Um, so those things are still not included.

The single family definition still speaks to the same number of unrelated adults, there's still no provision for accessory dwelling units.

None of that's changed in here.

The real things we want to accomplish here is to make sure that whatever we say, we say it once.

Define each use one time, put it in the definition section where those things should live.

Um, have one set of use-specific standards.

Um, so for instance, customary home occupation, instead of putting the standards for customary home occupation in every single zoning district where you can have that, put it in one place in the use section where regardless of the zoning district, here are the rules for customary home occupation.

Umcorporating cross references so that way you know we recognize that there are you know, you you'll have your you know, your zoning district, but you'll have some other things you need to look at.

You need to look at what are the parking standards, what are the the landscaping standards?

So put in cross-references in the document so that way you know, hey, for this additional information, here's where you look and hyperlink that.

Say it clearly, use clear language, measurable standards.

When we talk about building height, how are we measuring it?

Are we measuring it from the finished floor elevation?

Are we measuring it from grade?

Are we measuring it to the top of the roof line?

Are we measuring it to the top of the chimney?

How is building height measured?

So again, make it clear how those things should be looked at.

Because one of these days, John Peterson's been here since 1998.

Um, and one of these days, John and I are not gonna be here anymore, and we want to be sure whoever's here then and whoever's sitting in your five seats is gonna be able to look at this code and be able to interpret it in its spirit.

The spirit isn't intended, that is clear, and no changes for changes' sake.

Um, you know, there was a initially in the draft, there was a change to change low rise office to office low rise because in our current code, we have office midrise, so it's like, well, if we've got office midrise, why do we have low rise office?

We said, No, no, no, we don't need to change it, we just leave it the way it is because there's no reason to change that just because the nomenclature is a little weird, it's fine.

It's not that is not substantial.

Um RO is what we all know.

We all know OMR, there's no reason to make it, you know.

OLR, I guess, with that OLR.

Yeah, so we're not making changes just for the sake of change, there's purpose.

So again, here we'll see the example.

We talked about those 10 pages of the R20 district.

This is what it would look like under the UDC.

Um, you say again the first thing you'll see is the purpose statement.

Why do we have the R20 district?

Then next it starts it speaks to use standards.

All it says for use standards is instead of listing out 30 uses that are permitted and another 15 that are accessory uses.

It says reference this section for all the uses, and it takes you to the use chart.

Table of dimensional standards.

So it'll tell you well, the front setback needs to be 40 feet or whatever that looks like.

And you'll see there's a letter, like for instance, height.

I can I can read height.

I remember height is letter A, height 35 feet.

Whenever you go to the next page, all those dimensional standards, the letter references the drawing.

So we see A is height, 35 feet.

Okay, well, how do we measure that?

Well, there's there's the drawing that shows you how that's measured.

Where do we measure the front yard setback?

What if it's a side yard setback and there's a two street frontages?

What does that look like?

So all of that is also illustrated here because as we know a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

Um then we'll get into the development standards.

This is on that second page of the layout, so it'll say here are all the other standards that you need to be aware of if you're developing in the R20 district, tells you where those are, and it'll provide cross-references to those so that you can find them easily.

And those are the standards that are coming in the third installment.

Likewise with NRC, it's a similar layout.

So all the zoning districts you'll see a similar layout like this.

So as we talk about the zoning districts, and as you all know, we've heard loudly and clearly that there were no changes, no no desire to make any changes in the single family detached districts, and that's that's what you'll see in the draft UDC.

The minimum lot sizes are the same, where there were some contradictory setbacks, those have been clarified.

Applicable uses are exactly as they are today.

There are no new uses proposed or all the same.

Um, and then the other standards with regard to landscape buffers and what have you also do not change.

So all of your single family zoning districts stay as is.

So that's single family detached, likewise with single family attached.

No changes, except that we did simplify the height measurement.

Right now, the code says this many stories are this many feet.

Well, depending on how tall your ceilings are, your stories may not always be the same size.

So let's just make it simple.

This many feet, however, many stories you can get in that many feet, that's what you can have.

That's the height.

Um, when we get into residential multifamily districts, RM8, RM12, RM16, those that we already have stay the same.

We did remove the maximum acreage standards for RM16.

The the big change here, and again, we've I've discussed this individually with each of you, but currently our code includes a residential mid-rise district and a residential high-rise district.

Both of those districts are still in the code and they're still available that the board could zone something that way if you chose to.

However, we're not accepting applications for those districts.

So someone couldn't come in and request rezoning to RHR, but if the board felt that the rezoning request that came in, that RHR was a more appropriate zoning designation, then the board could zone it that way.

What's being proposed here is to change RMR to RM24 and to put that as a district that would be available for application again.

It would reduce the density from the current 33 units an acre that's allowed in RMR to 24 units an acre.

Likewise with RHR, that would become RM60.

It would reduce the density that's currently allowed from 66 units an acre to 60 units an acre, but it puts it back on the books as something that could be applied for.

The RMR and RHR districts would only be allowed in a regional activity center.

So areas that are designated as a rack on the future land use map.

So those areas right there on the 75 quarter, right at Cumberland, right at town center are the only areas that those would be allowable zoning designations.

So you know, it's not 60 units an acre out on Dallas Highway or Canton Road or wherever else.

Um keeping those densities as higher densities in appropriate locations.

Commercial and office, again, no real significant changes here.

Um 70% lot coverage has been applied to districts throughout the county and the in the office and commercial districts as well as the industrial.

One thing that has changed, you know, as you know, currently we have the UVC PVC and RRC zoning districts.

Those are our sort of quasi-mixed use districts currently.

Those would be replaced by new mixed use districts that are intended to be a little bit more walkable and also allow for opportunity for residential in those activity centers, and they're also aligned with the future land use map.

So as we look at that, and of course, the commissioners can always add stipulations to any rezonings.

Um but as we look at that, the first one, the mixed use activity center neighborhood MXN.

This directly correlates to the comprehensive plan, that it would be something that would be allowable in the neighborhood activity center.

It could also go into commercial or regional activity center, but it would be a lower intensity than those two activity centers would typically allow for.

So you could have residential, and maybe you've got residential upstairs, maybe you have office or commercial downstairs, or vice versa.

And but really to be a low, pretty low to moderate intensity.

Density maximum in these areas would be eight units an acre, maximum height would be 40 feet.

Then we get into MXC, the mixed use activity community, which of course goes in the community activity center on the future land use map, or you could put in a regional activity center also because that would allow that is a higher intensity future land use classification.

So here you'll see it allows for more density up to 16 units an acre, a little little more height, and it incorporates block length and build to a zone that are intended to help those areas be a little bit more walkable.

And then finally, the mixed use activity center regional would only be allowable in the RAC.

So only in the regional activity center, which aligns with mixed use activity center regional.

Here again, you'll see this is where we had the highest density, the highest intensity, and that would be focused again in that 75 corridor.

Yes, ma'am.

Hi, we have a question here.

Okay.

So Jessica, these um like RM60 that are only allowed, are they only allowed in a RAC?

Yes, that's correct.

Zero minimum acreage that's allowed.

No.

So you could have the two-acre piece of property and a hundred and twenty units and 75 feet high.

If it's in a rack, if it fits on the site and it's in the rack, if it fits on the site and fits within the maximum height, you could have whatever that allows for.

I see here in the excuse me, Commissioner.

Here in the map, it has an A.

Does the A not dictate how high it could be, or it can be any height to accommodate the number of yeah, the A is for that is the building height.

So depending on what the zoning district is, that's gonna correlate with the A.

So yeah, if you're in RM60, well, I don't remember what the height was on R and 60, but for instance, here the MXR goes up to 60 units an acre, the maximum height is 135 feet.

So if you've got a two-acre site, you know, you're not gonna be able to get quite as many units out of it as you would be if it were a larger site, but yeah.

And that high 60 units an acre, I think should have a minimum acreage in a RAC.

Okay, we're we're open just to suggest.

Yeah, absolutely.

If we're gonna do RM60, I think that's kind of high.

Well, and just for point of reference, um, again, we're talking about in those areas that are the most dense areas already.

So like the apartments that were built a couple years ago right next to the AMC at town center.

So not the theater that's going to come down to have apartments, but the one that's already built there next to the EMC that's still existing, that's 48 units an acre there.

Just you know, for for reference to kind of give you an idea about what a little higher density looks like.

So we've already got this type of use out there, this type of density out there, um, but it hasn't been something that you couldn't apply right now for RHR or RMR.

Um, the other thing that I think is important to point out as we talk about all of this, no property is being rezoned.

So these are tools that are in your toolboxes, the board of commissioners, that would still have to come through someone who have to make the request, it would have to go to the planning commission through the full public hearing process, and ultimately it's up to the board, just like any zoning decision, to make a determination about what if the whether or not the request is appropriate for that site.

Staff will provide you with our recommendations, our feedback, whatever DOT considerations may be needed, but no property is going to be rezoned as part of this process.

These are just tools, zoning districts that would be available for consideration by the board.

Um, industrial districts again, they're really have stayed the same.

The 70% lot coverage maximum has been applied just for consistency throughout the county.

And then we get into the plan development district, and this is another one that's that's new-ish.

Um, another one that is new but not really new because Cobb County did have a plan development district historically.

Um development, ultimately, what that does is it allows for a little bit for some more creativity and development, but it would have to be done there.

There's definitely some sticks with the carrot.

Um, you know, a developer would have an opportunity or an applicant would have an opportunity to bring forward a proposal that may include, you know, maybe there's like for instance Brookstone in Northwest Cobb is a good example where there's you know, you've got residential neighborhoods, you've got subdivisions, you've got senior housing, you've got a grocery store, you've got a post office, you've got a daycare center, a vet.

All of that was done as part of a plan development district back when Cobb County had that.

Um, so this would put that back on the books as an opportunity.

Um, whenever someone were to come in with a plan development district, um, there are some standards that they'd be able to modify, some that they would not.

Um, they wouldn't be able to modify open space standards, um, no modification, defense and wall standards, land disturbance requirements, um, environmental standards that can't change.

Um all those things of flood prevention, those sorts of things can't change, but it does allow for a little bit more flexibility in terms of setbacks or um lot sizes, where different uses go, but all of it has to come through whenever if a plan development were to come through, and again, it comes through a full rezoning process, they would bring a plan development a plan.

And that plan, you know, whenever a plan comes to you through the rezoning process, a lot of times it's not a fully baked plan.

Um, some zonings are even done speculatively.

Uh, plan development couldn't be.

It would have to be brought with a plan that's pretty well cooked by the time it gets to the board of commissioners, and as well as a PD agreement, a plan development agreement.

The plan development agreement lays out how is the infrastructure going to be provided.

What's the developer responsible for?

Um, a lot of times with a plan development, there may be some civic space that's going to be incorporated.

So, are they going to provide a park area and how is that going to be maintained in the future and those sorts of things?

So, all of that has to come as a complete package to the board to say, you know, hey, we're open to some ideas.

You know, if you've got a great proposal, we're open to considering it, but we want to see it, you know, detailed, and needs a lot more detail than typically you would have with a rezoning request.

Um, and any changes that would be made if somebody wanted to deviate from the plan development plan, it would have to come back through that process again.

So a tool in the toolbox, it's up to the board of commissioners whether or not you want to use it.

Um, but it does put that out there as another opportunity.

Um, we do have, of course, the general overlay districts are the same.

The open space community district or overlay, the airport hazard civilian overlay and the airport military overlay have not changed.

Those are the same.

The one that is new is the neighborhood conservation overlay.

Um, this is one that was an idea that was brought forward by the consultant, and you know, hearing from the the residents, we want to protect our single family neighborhoods as a tool that could be something that could be considered to help further protect those neighborhoods if there's something specific, some unique character of it.

So basically, with the neighborhood conservation overlay district is something that would be applied for, and it would go through the rezoning process for the board of commissioners to consider.

Um, a great example here.

Um, you know, we think about some of our older neighborhoods, like Indian Hills is a great example.

It's an older neighborhood, large lots.

Um, a lot of those homes over the years have been purchased, they've been torn down and rebuilt with these huge houses on them that are not like the other houses in Indian Hills.

So if there was a neighborhood like that and they wanted to reserve the character that they had, they could bring that to the board of commissioners.

The board of commissioners could say, okay, well, let's put there there would have to be a neighborhood plan, and then the board of commissioners could consider putting in place a neighborhood conservation overlay that would keep some requirements almost like a historic district works where it's like okay, houses can only be this big, they have to have these features.

If, like, let's say there's some unique architectural features or whatever, they need to have ABCD.

So that way it is just another tool that could be considered for neighborhoods that do have a unique character to try and maintain that character over perpetuity.

You know, we see like we've got the Clarkdale Mill Village where we do have that.

That's a historic district, but not all neighborhoods are going to be historic districts, but that doesn't mean they're not special and worth considering some additional protection if that's the desire of the community and the board down the road.

So I don't have a problem with that.

I think using the term perpetuity for a non-historic district is perhaps a little too constraining.

There could be some natural evolution that I would feel very uncomfortable as a political body versus an HOA, something more close to that community dictating.

I just think perhaps there should be a time frame for reconsideration.

So if it's you know just something that gives notice to the community that could be this could be a reevaluated in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, versus it having the same protection that a historic community would have.

I just wouldn't hate to see those on parity and for us to be dictating because there could be few that are engaged in these processes because zoning isn't necessarily a uniform universally engaging process.

I would just hate for us to impose a character on a community into perpetuity from the dias.

I I share some of those concerns also.

Frankly, this is this isn't something I heard of before.

This neighborhood conservation overlay was like, okay, you know, it's interesting.

Um so uh yeah, I would I would love to hear more of your thoughts as a board.

One thing that's also an option is that you know, we could say let's pull this out for now and just keep it in our back pocket is something that maybe down the road we want to explore a little bit further and see if it is a good fit for cod.

It's just an idea that was brought forward.

Sure.

Um, so I would love to hear more feedback from the board on that, and we can definitely talk about that more detail down the register.

So listening to you explain this, the first thing that came to my head is we are now gonna be the enforcers of covenants because if you figure using Indian Hills as an example, I'm sure they've got standards that they expect their neighborhoods to uphold.

And this overlay to me means you're transferring that responsibility to the board, and we know the board is not here to enforce covenants, right?

So when you were explaining it, that is the first thing that came to my mind.

So to coven it.

And in a way, it sort of is like basically because you all would have decide what things you're gonna stick to, so yeah, it almost is codifying covenants, and some neighborhoods don't have covenants.

Well, and and I guess so.

We know if if a HOA is going to change covenants, they usually need a certain percentage of buy-in from the residents.

So I would almost hate to do that, but we would almost have to incorporate in that into here, right?

But then some have some have some kicker that says we'll approve it, but then you have to do it.

We we don't want to have that policing on there.

I'll need more code enforcement officers.

So I and that's a great point.

And I would love, I love this conversation.

So I you know, if today, and we don't have to make a decision on this today, but if if the consensus on the board is that you don't think we're quite ready to move forward with something like this, then we can say let's set this to the side for now, and if we come back to it down the road, we do, but if not, this isn't a hill I'm gonna die on.

It was just like, oh, that's an interesting idea, we'll bring it forward.

So any other thoughts on that.

Well, where I struggle with this is you're asking us for input, but I have not seen the language in its entirety for this.

This is in the draft that you have that I sent out.

This is an installment too.

Is it okay?

Because I don't I don't remember reading that one.

Yes, it's in there, it's an installment too.

Okay, but then also just to nitpick back on page 32.

You still have it as um, I'm sorry.

It's it's your slide, yeah, slide 32.

It's the office low rise and office, it's flipped.

There we go.

Okay, on through okay.

So we're we're still changing things to change things.

It's right in the code, though.

We've made that change on the code.

Okay, yes.

All right.

Um, so we'll continue as we get to the design overlay districts.

This is another, you know, we've talked about currently only the Austale Road design guidelines are codified since we no longer have the um Veterans Memorial Mapleton Parkway area.

Um, the other overlays are not quite codified.

I would really like to meet with each of you and talk about the overlays that are in or the design guidelines that are in your district because we recognize like Cantro is a great example where you know sometimes things are we've enforced it, sometimes we haven't, and based on you know the project and the feedback from the district commissioner.

I would like to talk to you all about your specific overlays about are there things in there that we need to change that are maybe outdated because they're all pretty old.

Um, and do we want to move forward with putting them in the code or keep them as they are, or put something in the code that gets the district commissioner some flexibility to allow for some waivers.

Yes, I I think those should come back separately, working with the district commissioner and one the whole board, but um the the Canton Road guidelines were guidelines, right?

And they're not really enforceable.

Um in the past, you know, we have tried to adhere to them if the developer agrees, and most of the time they do, but we kind of got away from some of the um requirements when the economy tanked and right before you know to put up because it put a hardship on some businesses to do the decorative street lights, right?

Or pedestrian street lights or the benches and trash cans that you know.

So I I like to work with um you and your staff to re revise those.

Okay, um and I obviously have some public meetings for citizen input, especially on Canton Road and Johnson Ferry.

Um I thought we did have those haven't been ever been codified and all that's codified or off the road.

Okay, yeah.

So okay, well, we'll I'll set up a time to meet with each of you one-on-one that you know to talk about the design guidelines in your area, so we can kind of walk through and see if there's things in there that maybe are dated um that maybe aren't working anymore, and then we can also talk about some some public engagement on those too.

Okay, Commissioner Gamble.

So just something for the board to think about before we meet one-on-one with Jessica in this for the the commercial developments in all the pictures, it specifically calls in the code for the buildings to be placed up front alongside the road that takes out all landscaping, and we know a lot of our commercial centers have landscaping decorative features and such.

So we're going to be getting into a conflict because if the code says you put the building up next to the road, where are you going to do the decorative landscaping?

That's gonna be in the pictures.

If you look at the pictures, not go to the commercial.

This is this is an RC right here.

Nope, go to the commercial.

That is the commercial, or you're talking about the mixed use, these right here.

This is one of them, right?

Yeah, these are the new mixed-use districts that are intended to be walkable.

Yes, so the the build to there is a build-to zone, so it could be between 15 feet or it can be 50 feet.

So it does allow that flexibility for the board to decide based on the plan where that goes.

Right, but having driven around in some of these, as soon as you add in the landscaping, you totally lose your site visibility around corners of building approaching um to the streets and such when you start putting landscaping in if you only do the 15 feet, such as you're shown here.

So to me, these pictures aren't taking into account any trees, landscaping, beautification, right?

That we have typically required that make the character of the area.

Right.

Well, they they have sidewalks in here.

Yeah, well, and keep in mind with these, these are in article three, which is specific to the zoning.

So when we get into the landscaping and all that, that's going to be in the next piece.

This is really just illustrative telling where are the setbacks measured.

That's what's that intended for.

Where is the front yard setback?

So that's why these drawings are here, is just to provide that point of reference.

But whenever we get into as we talk about the landscaping standards and everything in the next installment, and that's where we can have some of those conversations.

Because you're right, we do want to make sure that we're providing for adequate site distance and what have you.

And that's also why we have like DOT is a part of our review team.

They review everything that comes through.

Um, they provide a lot of feedback on that for us too.

So as well as fire, they always have a lot of ideas about how roads need to be designed.

Um so then, of course, we get into the retired districts.

Uh, we already have a lot of retired districts, districts that we don't use anymore.

Um, so those, you know, if property is zoned this way, like for instance, we have property that's zoned general commercial, we have property that's zoned um planned shopping center, even um, we have property that's zone PVC, UVC and you know, neighborhood shopping, those aren't going away, so that's still good zoning, it's just not stuff that we're going to continue to zone.

So we'll have these included in the appendix to the UDC with those standards so that way if somebody comes in, they've got a piece of property that's got good zoning, it's already zoned PVC, it was zoned PVC by the board back in 2015 or whenever it was, they can still develop that site in accordance with the zoning that was in place whenever it was when it was zoned.

So there will be other equivalent zoning districts for these categories.

Um so a lot of these are things that we already don't use.

So, like the office high-rise, um the future industrial, um, a lot of these are things that are already sort of off the books, but they're still in our code because again, we have property that's still zoned that way.

So it's the same thing with the UDC, we're just moving it to the appendix, so you can still get those properties zoned.

Okay.

Um, but for instance, with the the UVC PVC and the RRC, those are current zoning districts right now that are going to be replaced by the new mixed-use districts.

Okay, because I've never seen D-UVC, but I have seen UVC PVC.

Yeah, the D.

I think the D is just saying your dick like your decommissioning.

Yeah, those are all the I forgot what D stands for, but yeah, those the those are the retired districts.

Okay.

Right.

So then Article 4 gets into the use regulation.

So here's where we talk specifically about the uses.

First of all, we talked about principal uses.

So principal uses, and you'll see in a moment in the use table are identified by our organized by classification and categories.

Um go ahead and move to this.

So you'll see here, this is what our principal use table looks like.

It shows, for instance, here you'll see the residential use classification.

The use category is household living.

It lists all the specific uses you could have there.

You could have single family detached, single family attached, townhouse.

And then you'll see where it has a P, so you've got all your zoning districts across the top where it has a P, that means it's something that's permitted by right.

If it's S, it would be a special exception.

L is going to be a land use permit, and then anything that's designated as A, and this also needs to be updated because we've taken out PDT and D and we've just got the plan development district, but anything that's A would be something that would be allowable under an approved by the board plan in a plan development district.

Um then when you get to the end, you'll see a reference to use specific standards.

So for instance, writing stable has some specific standards for writing stables.

So it makes reference to that.

You go to section 4.2.4B 6, and you'll see all the things you need to know about having a writing stable.

So here you can see again kennel.

This is just an example.

So here you can see that a kennel is permitted in a lot of our commercial districts, really all of our commercial districts, um, all the way through industrial.

Um it tells you, you know, at the end it says 4.2.4E2.

You need to look at that to find all the rules about kennels, whether you go look and you say that unless you're in L I and HI, you can't have outdoor runs.

Um, it can't cause a nuisance.

It's got to comply with the rules of the Department of Agriculture.

And then there's only one place where you're gonna find definition of kennel in this entire document, and it's in Article 9.

So right now, there are a lot of uses in our use chart that we don't have a definition for.

Those now have definitions in Article 9.

So they're all there so that it's clear what exactly is a kennel.

When we talk about a kennel, what is it?

How is it different from an animal shelter?

How is it different from how what is an animal hospital versus a vet's office?

Um, so all of those definitions are included in Article 9.

Then we get into the accessory uses.

So that's the next piece of article 4, talking about you know, we've got our principal uses being the primary use on the property, accessory uses again, an accessory to whatever the principal use is.

So it shows all those accessory uses, what's permitted, and then just like with the principal uses, those are defined in Article 9.

So here, home occupation is our example of accessory use.

Um for a home for a home, the primary use is of course gonna be it's a house, it's a dwelling.

So home occupation would be the accessory use.

You can see here you can have home occupations and all the residential zoning districts.

There's one place versus 22 where home occupations defined, it's defined in Article 9.

And then there's one place versus 22 where you'll find what are the specific regulations for home occupations.

It's gonna go at 4.3.4.

I think that's an I, as you'll see at the end of the use table.

So there you go.

This is what that looks like.

And then we get into temporary uses and structures, same layout as before, all defined in Article 9.

And then it gets into interpretation of unlisted uses.

So there's always gonna be uses that are new that we didn't have before, like when drive-through COVID testing happened.

We don't have a use for that.

Right now, we don't have data centers as a use in our code.

So John, community development director, zoning division manager, have to make a determination about how what is this most similar to in our code?

Is it similar to anything?

Does or are we trying to fit a square peg in a round hole?

If that's the case, it probably just needs to be not allowed.

So this provides some some clear guidelines for how those interpretations should be made.

Umward.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

So on the use regulations, we're we're going to be allowing the director to determine if you should go there, not the board of commissioners.

I don't know if you caught that.

So this is this is something I was just explaining that for uses that are not in the code.

If it's not listed at all, it's not prohibited.

If there's a use that is similar, like for instance, data centers right now, we know there's not a use.

Well, we do have a use that says private utility, we do have a use that says warehouse, those are both permitted in light industrial and heavy industrial.

So to this point, that's how data centers have been allowed.

Is ultimately is an interpreter, and you're always gonna have these things are gonna come up where the director or designee, so in this case the zoning division manager typically will have to make a determination about whether or not it's in keeping with that use with the code.

So then would it still come before the board to be approved or so?

Essentially, this would be done as an administrative decision.

This has been done this.

This basically codifies how it already happens and how it has already happened for decades.

Yes, I think go ahead, Commissioner.

Well, I know we talked about data centers.

Um if they're gonna be allowed in heavy industrial only or a certain land use category.

Um we also talked about adding a slop so that they would have to come through that.

And I was just using data center as an example because it's not in our current code, but yes, you're correct, Commissioner.

The way that the the draft UDC is prepared, data center is being added as a new use because it is something that we've we've seen over recent years, so it is added as a new use that would be a slump in LI and HI with some use specific standards.

Okay, okay, all right.

Um, so when we get into Article 9 again, Article 9 keeps growing and shifting as new pieces of the code come on because you know we have definitions.

You know, first we incorporated the definitions that were pertinent to the administrative procedures.

Now then we've added the definitions that are pertinent to zoning, so all those different uses.

Next, we'll be incorporating the definitions that go along with the development regulations.

So that piece continues to evolve.

Um, and then of course, you also know that we've already released installment one in October 2024, which includes your general provisions, administrations, and nonconformities.

So general provisions, just really quickly, um hits kind of the the basic regulations that apply to the entire UDC.

Um, where do we get our authority to regulate zoning and development in Cobb County?

Well, it comes from state law.

Um, where does it apply?

Well, it applies in unincorporated Cobb County, um, and establishes the official zoning district map, so on and so forth, and then we get into administration, of course, which as I shared before includes all of the review and approval procedures for all development, it all goes into one place, and so then again, you'll see we have some illustrations here.

So the table there you see there, table two one is a table that summarizes development review procedures.

So everything from a code amendment to a zoning map amendment or rezoning to site plan stipulations, um, all of those it shows who are the recommending bodies.

So, for instance, with an official zoning map amendment or rezoning, the director or designee staff is a recommending entity, then it moves to the planning commission, also recommending body.

You see, it has the little carrots that designates as a public hearing, and then when it gets to the board of commissioners, it's a D because you all are the decision makers on those with the little carrots indicating that there is a public hearing.

We've also incorporated, and we've talked about this before, um, in a new administrative variance procedure.

This is not something we've had historically in Cobb County, but it's something that is very typical of most modern zoning codes.

Uh, this would allow staff to make some very limited adjustments with some very you know, some guardrails in place to specific development standards.

So you'll see here that for lot width, front yard setback, side yard setback, rear yard height, um, all of that would be limited to a maximum of 10 percent.

So, for instance, if you have let's say there's a really nice tree on a property in the subdivision that you want to save, um, but you're gonna have to, you know, it's gonna shift the setback.

Well, if the setbacks 40 feet, we could give you up to four feet reduction, but that would all that be the that's all that could be done administratively.

Um, ultimately, it needs to be shown that it's consistent with the character of the neighborhood, and that's something that's gonna be required due to an unusual aspect of the site.

Um plan development procedure.

We already talked about that, the interpretation procedure.

There's a zoning compliance certificate again or permit.

That's really not something new that we do, it just sort of codifies what we already do.

Um, if a property is being reused, but they're not necessarily moving dirt or building new buildings.

We still have to make sure that they've got the right number of parking spaces.

We've also proposed that minimum road frontage variances now be approved by the board of zoning appeals and set up the board of commissioners.

Open to any thoughts you all have on that.

Is this just a cycle?

Didn't it used to live there and then it came before us and now it's going back?

So it's like you live long enough, you'll see trends repeat.

Really, I mean it's a variance that the board of the Board of Zoning Appeals is where variances should go.

I don't know why it moved to the Board of Commissioners, and some of you may have some better idea what the history of that was.

But um we're we're proposing to move that back to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Okay.

If you go back a page to Article 2, administration, new administrative variance procedure.

Why are we taking out the requirement to show a hardship?

Because there this wouldn't require hardship, but it would require that they need to show that there's a reason for it.

It may not necessarily be a hardship that you couldn't develop the site.

But let's say that, like the example I gave was if like there's a specimen tree on the site that we want to preserve, but it's gonna require adjusting a setback six inches or three feet or whatever that we would have that opportunity administratively, or if it's a situation where we've got um let's say a shopping center that comes in and they're required to have 30 parking spaces, but they're only gonna have 28 for whatever reason.

Maybe they're preserving that specimen tree or whatever, or maybe they just don't need it.

We could make that determination administratively up to 10 percent without it going to the board of zoning appeals.

Well, you can do that in zoning anyhow, but each case is everything comes to us on a case-by-case basis, but I wouldn't put does not require a hardship, just leave it out.

Okay, we can we can get because ultimately what the what the administrative variance is intended to do is for those minor adjustments to not send somebody through the full public hearing process if it is a minor adjustment and to allow staff to exercise some professional judgment as to whether or not it's appropriate.

Um, and we'd certainly be glad to consult with the district commissioner on that too.

But well, that that'll be BZA, so we won't hear it, and it won't go through PC or us.

Right, it wouldn't go to BCA either if it's administrative.

Uh okay.

Well, that's okay.

I'm not going there then.

Okay.

No.

Now, in general, I have an issue when we're doing allowed allowable administrative variances for DOT requirements.

The last one says that you can reduce the stacking lane distance for 10%.

I really kind of struggle when we're given administrative variances for DOT standards that have to be upheld for development.

I mean, if DO if DOT says you have to have a stacking lane X feet wide, I don't think we should be giving community development, not DOT, the ability to say you can reduce that because if it's a DOT standard, then the DOT standard needs to be upheld.

So a couple of things we could do.

First of all, I'm perfectly fine if we just take that one out.

That's not one that comes up often.

Um, but that's also something when we say administrative variants, that could be something that DOT ultimately makes a determination on for that one.

Um, or we can just leave it where it is and it can come to the Board of Zoning Appeals and DOT can tell them what they think, but you know, all of these are still draft at this point.

So if that's not something the board is comfortable including, that's fine.

You know, and I agree with you.

DOT should weigh in on that for sure.

All right, I know I kept you here a long time.

So you'll also see in the draft, and you've seen this as we've walked through it, that there are a lot of footnotes in there, and the intent of the footnotes is to show for everything that's in there.

If it's something that's new, hey, this is new, this is why.

Or if it's something that came from the current code, well, you'll find this in current code section 134-272.

So that way it has those references, those cross-references, so they're easy to find.

Those will not be in the final draft of the document or the adopted version of the document.

Those footnotes will go away, but those are really there to help us as staff to help the community to help you as commissioners understand where things are coming from.

Uh again, I know it's been a long day, so I'm open to whatever you all want to give some input on, but some things I would like to have some input on as we move forward, and just so that we've got clarity because I again I've talked with each of you, but I think it's always helpful when you all have the benefit of each other's feedback and comments.

Um, you know, at this point, it's all a draft.

Um, non-residential use, the one that really jumps out as the data center is really the only big new non-residential use.

The accessory uses that are new, these are all really kind of technology related because it's new technology that didn't exist in 1972, like ATMs, EV charging stations, rainwater cisterns, solar energy conversion systems, um, all accessory uses.

We can talk some more about the neighborhood conservation overlay district, new processes, the administrative variants.

Also, of course, as we've talked about before, um, requiring a neighborhood meeting before rezonings, uh, before it gets to the planning commission and to the board of commissioners to give you know other, you know, East Cobb Civic Association, Bells Ferry Civic Association, they did do a great job of getting out ahead of rezonings and sharing that information with the community, but to have an additional step in there, especially for those communities that don't have those active civic associations or people who don't know how to be involved in those civic associations to be aware of zoning requests that are made that could affect them before it gets to the planning commission.

Um again at this point, we are the third module is being drafted.

We're getting little bits and pieces of those once we have that in its entirety.

I will share it with the board once staff gets it.

Please keep in mind, and I know last time I sent it out to the board, and then some of it got shared publicly, and you know, it's all public record, it's all public document, that's okay.

But you know, ultimately, whenever it comes to us and as and to staff, we still need to review it, and we're still providing feedback and we want to hear your feedback.

Um, but when we've got the public providing me comments down the road on an old draft because it was really just intended for staff review, and then it gets a little confusing because the page numbers don't align, or yeah, we've already changed that.

So I think it's always helpful if we before we really push things out publicly.

Again, it's public records, I can certainly see it.

We're not hiding anything.

Um I think it's helpful if we do have an opportunity for staff to look at it and for the commissioners to look at it and to share thoughts.

That way we can get it back to the consultants and have those updated before we put it out there really for a lot of public feedback.

So happy to answer any questions.

Looking forward to continuing the public engagement as we get our next installment, and then leading up to hopefully getting this thing adopted.

Anybody have any thoughts or questions?

Commissioner Gambrill.

Just some general questions, Jessica, because I know I've been giving input and making suggestions, and I'm still not seeing the changes in even this document that you've shown today.

Because for example, chickens are allowed in the R60.

Yet we know in an R60 development, you won't have 5,000 acres or 5,000 square feet per chicken.

So when are those kind of details going to be corrected?

Because I've been I've been picking on that one for years now.

Right, yeah, we're still so I guess where I'm getting frustrated, and I think the public is getting frustrated in this input process, is that we are giving these noted changes, like the ORL, right?

But we're not seeing it being modified in the document.

We hear you saying it, but we're not physically seeing it.

So when can we see that you're hearing us?

Right, yeah, and you will because we've been sending, you know, the draft that's out there.

I mean, this is the draft, and so as we've gotten feedback on the draft, we're sharing that with the consultant, but they're not going through and making every change and sending me a new one because there are a lot of changes.

So they would never they would never get the third module done if they're doing all those changes individually and keep sending it back to me.

So once we've got something, once we've gone through the whole draft and we've got it ready, like we've got it all updated, then we'll put it all out there showing reflecting the changes.

But we just can't continue having them update and update and update and send me new drafts over and over again because we won't ever get it done.

Well, and and I don't expect them to, but how do we know that even though they're not sending you those drafts, the updates are being taken and done because you figure each next installment ties back to one of the previous installments.

So again, if OLR is still being used in installment nine, but we told you to change it in installment one, they haven't made the change yet.

Right, and we'll make sure it's done, and we're keeping track of the changes that you all have sent us as well as the things that we hear from the public.

So, and then the things that I mean, staff, John Peterson, he's always got a lot of changes.

He's the expert.

Um, so you know, and we're going we'll do that quality control before it's put out in its final last push, last public engagement push before we take it forward to adoption.

We'll be sure that those are included.

And then my other, I know you keep saying this is just an update, we're not making changes to changes, but the biggest change that I think is going to be most impactful throughout the whole entire county is your mixed use activity center or neighborhood activity centers and um commercial because right now a NAC is pretty much located anywhere, and they're usually on you know, two lane roads, small communities, and we are now going to go from five units per acre to eight, but then in our CACs, you're going to be going from five units per acre to 16.

So now you are essentially going to be taking high density residential and putting it in areas that were essentially low density, very low density, because it used to be a NAC.

So that's a conversation for the board to have.

If the board doesn't feel like the densities that are being proposed is appropriate, we can adjust those.

It's all a draft at this point.

So if we feel like eight units an acre is too much in a NAC, and also, of course, as we're looking right now, we're working on a comprehensive plan.

We may decide that maybe some of those areas that are identified as a NAC right now, maybe they're not quite maybe that's not an appropriate future land use designation for them.

So again, these are all policy discussions for the board to have about you know what is the appropriate density.

These are being provided as recommendations, but we can definitely adjust those, however, you know, however, the board sees better.

Thank you.

Maybe along those lines, Jessica, there are two slides that preceded this one that's looking for our feedback.

And as you receive that, maybe just internally instead of going back and forth with the consultant.

If there was a table that had this and then had each of the commissioner suggestions on it, we can at least see what's being proposed, and at some place we see a compilation of feedback.

So I on these that are kind of policy issues.

I think that's where I'm really I would love to have some feedback that you're all seeing.

A lot of this stuff that like is kind of little tweaks that are I couldn't really even put together a table because there's something on every page.

So I think that's I mean, I could send you Commissioner Gambril's marked up version, but I don't think I think that probably gets a little bit more in the weeds that you than you want to be.

Um but these real policy decisions, like I think this is where it would be really helpful, and I'd be glad to put together some sort of document to sort of show what feedback I've gotten, or for you all to kind of see that feedback because these are these are the real policy decisions.

I just want to be sure that there's consensus on the board before we get to that.

Hey, we've advertised 60 days, we gotta take action.

Yeah, so I'm looking more for policy, not necessarily the details.

Got it.

Just for these that I see listed here.

If there's anything material that's being suggested in addition to these here that would be viewed as a policy change, but anything administrative, I wouldn't expect to see that circulate.

But it's something we can help populate too, so you don't just have to take a conversation, you put it in.

If you just send us something and we can just put our thoughts in on each one, we can at least see as that's um coming to you, and none of us are going to be surprised when we see the ultimate um final product because you'll look at it and you'll see that there's a majority of people that are interested in something, and therefore it's likely that would be considered.

Maybe we could do like a Google document, and that way everybody could edit it pretty easily and see in real time what the what the additions are.

Yeah, or yeah, yeah, okay.

That's once oh, go ahead, Commissioner.

Were you done?

I'm changing the subject, so if yes, you have something along these lines, correct.

Um, so what is the timeline for meeting with us individually and um rolling out everything public and final both, right?

So the next piece will be once we have the third installment in its entirety, staff has the opportunity to review it.

So I'm expecting I've actually got a call with the consultants on I think Friday.

Um so once we have that that document in its entirety, I expect that we'll have that full installment number three, probably here within the next 30 days.

At that point, staff will review it again.

I'll share it with the commissioners, I'll sit with you one-on-one.

Um, we usually try because it's a it's a lot for staff to review in addition to all their other like daily tasks.

Um so we do want to be sure that we allow enough time for them to review it thoroughly, especially some of our reviewing agencies, DOT and fire and water and storm water.

Um, so I would think I would look to set up meetings with you all, probably probably towards the end of March, first of April, one-on-one to walk through the third installment, and then once we have all the commissioner feedback, and once we have the feedback from um the the staff, we can share that with consultants.

Um, I think that we should probably look to have a draft of installment three out this spring for public review.

And again, just like before with the other installments, we'll have a round of public meetings specific to the third installment.

Changes will be made, then we'll have the full updated draft of all the installments.

Then we'll take the whole document out and be able to do a series of you know, whether it's open houses, town halls, whatever public outreach we need to do to be able to make sure that people have the opportunity to see that final document.

Of course, as new documents are added.

The the websites, you know, that's all available as people want to take a look and peruse it on their own.

Any other feedback?

Just a couple of other things.

Um, just going back, you're gonna reach out to the commissioners with respect to the overlay districts, too.

That's another policy matter that's I didn't think I saw in the last two slides, and then something that I'm very big in once this is all wrapped up and has a nice pretty bow on it.

Well, even before then, let me proceed that.

Thank you.

This is a big heavy lift to update our code that has been out since the 70s that we're still working in.

And there's a lot of discussion around affordable housing, and sometimes it feels as if we are not as forward as we could be.

But one of the most significant steps that I've heard discussed is that you need to have an updated zoning code to begin to tackle these things, and we are doing something that is significant that's taking its time and should take its time, but it's going to help us address other policy matters that we know are also important to the board.

So thank you for helping us move ahead and um being able to attack these new emerging issues, but just the general issues we've had in zoning all along with just conditions that have not been reflected in the outdated code that we've been putting on every case.

So thank you.

It's a lot of work for us to get here, but I'm grateful we're almost at the finish line.

Something that's important for me to see once we're done with this, is just to see tremendous training and education of our citizens who've been reliant on that old zoning code for us to become more familiar with this.

Commissioner Burl and I have had iterations of zoning 101.

I see us doing something like that here to educate people about zoning and to get them acquainted with this document.

All right, yeah, we can certainly do that, and also um, and I've shared this, you know, we've got some of our civic organizations, especially represented in our citizens focus group.

Um, you know, I'm always happy to come out and meet with HOAs or Realtors Association or civic groups or whoever.

I'm I'm happy to do that to come out and talk about this, walk through the code, and and once we get this done and it's completed at that point.

I'm also happy to go do that again.

Um, one of the things I really would love for us to see that I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do as we as we get ready to bring this on, is to look at using some AI tools to make it more accessible online.

Um, you know, the questions that people call and ask our zoning division if we could have it so they could go on at any time of day and ask those questions and get some look always, you know.

AI always always verify, but but um so just looking at ways that we can continue to make zoning information more accessible to everyone.

Excellent.

Speaking of that, I'm very excited about the community engagement aspect of this update that's going to better allow others to be comfortable with and a part of the zoning process.

With that, thank you so much for your time.

Our meeting is now adjourned, and look forward to seeing you back here at 7 o'clock p.m.

for our regular Board of Commissioners meetings.

Thank you.