The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted last week to spend nearly $500,000 for an outside consultant to assist county staff in the creation of a Unified Development Code.
The vote was 3-2, with the three Democrats voting in favor and the two Republicans opposed. Republican JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in Northeast Cobb objected because she said county community development staffers are best situated to do the work, “because they know the county.”
The proposed UDC has become the subject of some controversy since it was first raised last year, including from some East Cobb citizens who made heated comments that prompted a rebuke from Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
Birrell also said that updating the development code can be done through the current practice of updating code amendments twice a year.
But during the commissioners’ regular meeting last Tuesday, Commissioner Jerica Richardson, a Democrat who represents part of East Cobb, said the request for a consultant came from the Cobb Community Development staff.
“They’re telling us they need some help,” she said.
Director Jessica Guinn said “I can’t tell you how much time I spend getting code amendments ready” for that process.
She told commissioners that she would still be the project manager for the UDC process, which she said “is still going to be a huge demand of staff time.”
The consultant is Clarion Associates, LLC, a nationwide land-use and planning consulting firm which has provided services for a UDC in Hall County and design and development guidelines in Savannah.
Clarion also is conducting an overhaul of the zoning ordinance in Fairfax County, Va., an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C.
A UDC is a comprehensive planning guide which incorporates zoning, planning and land-use with design, landscaping, architectural and other guidelines. Local Atlanta-area jurisdictions that have them are the cities of Atlanta and Roswell and DeKalb County.
Guinn has said that Cobb’s zoning ordinance is more than 50 years old and needs an overhaul and needs more than periodic updates during the code amendment process.
Jan Barton, an East Cobb resident, has called UDC “a war on the suburbs” and leaders of the failed East Cobb Cityhood referendum republished a newpaper letter to the editor she wrote on the subject.
But Commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb said hiring a UDC consultant “isn’t a knock against the staff at all. You have more work that you have people.”
Cobb Community Development has created a special page to explain what it wants to achieve with the UDC.
According to an agenda item, the contract with Clarion, with a regional office in Chapel Hill, N.C., begins on Aug. 15.
Among the tasks include reviewing the project with county staff to assess the current codes and updating the county website, then holding public meetings and related sessions before preparing a draft UDC.
After that, there will be public hearings on the draft proposal, before commissioners would be scheduled to adopt a UDC.
A few virtual meetings an online feedback periods have already been held; Guinn said the consultants’ participation will take between 18-24 months.
“This will be a robust public process,” Guinn said in response to a question from Richardson. “It’s not something that’s going to take place overnight. It’s going to take time. It’s going to be a heavy lift and we’ll be engaging with all of you as well as staff.”
Cobb is currently conducting a five-year update the county’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which will be one of the main documents used during the UDC process.
Commissioners are expected to adopt that update this fall.
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