A consulting firm that is putting together a Unified Development Code proposal for Cobb County is suggesting the addition of a new mixed-use category to address “innovative” types of development that currently does not have a streamlined process under existing ordinances.

Geoff Green of Clarion Associates, a nationwide land-use and planning consulting firm, said during a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session Tuesday that the Planned Development category (PD) would make it easier to assemble such projects where they make sense.

He pointed to The Battery, the Atlanta Braves-financed restaurant, retail and entertainment center next to Truist Park, as an example of such a category.

The property also has hotels, office space and parking decks for a total in a 2.25 million-square-foot development.

Most of the land at The Battery and Truist Park is zoned regional retail commercial (RRC), which is a rarely used category in Cobb, reserved for high-intensity commercial use of at least 500,000 square feet.

Without specifying, Green said that other types of development would qualify under the Planned Development use, which would allow for modification of some standards, such as parking and landscaping.

Like any other zoning case, he said, PD cases would have to go before commissioners for approval.

Commissioner Keli Gambrill was troubled that she and her colleagues hadn’t seen the proposal before it was presented on Tuesday, saying “we haven’t been able t0 read and digest” a rather significant change.

Cobb Community Development Agency Jessica Guinn said Green’s summary is “a snapshot of what’s coming.”

Gambrill was especially concerned about a list of exceptions to the county code that would be included in the PD category, even down to details of how signs can look and how large they can be.

Guinn responded that those items are still “in progress.”

Gambrill said that “what I’m seeing is a lot of red flags” not just about the emerging PD standards but about the long-standing UDC process in general.

“We have a lot of animosity out there about this whole process and how it’s being handled.”

It’s been more than two years since the county hired Clarion Associates, at a cost of around $500,000. Gambrill and fellow Republican Commissioner JoAnn Birrell were against that measure, saying the work could have been done the Cobb Community Development Agency.

The UDC is working with the agency, whose goal, according to previous county statements, “is to produce a document that encourages and enables development and redevelopment in identified centers while preserving the unique character of the county’s rural areas.”

Community development officials said it’s needed because development regulations in Cobb date back to the 1970s.

Some critics have accused the county of launching ““a war on the suburbs,” but agency officials said it’s an increasingly common approach to pulling together all components of development projects.

Guinn tried to reassure Gambrill that her office will be posting more details of the proposals as they are completed, and there will be public feedback and community meetings along the way.

Clarion’s work is taking place over several phases, given the comprehensive scope of the project.

The first installment was released in November, and includes a 97-page public draft of the UDC (you can read it here) that includes general provisions, transitional provisions, definitions, terms of construction and related topics.

In his presentation Tuesday, Green said that in preparing for proposed new zoning districts, that one of the primary tasks is to preserve single-family neighborhoods that are popular with citizens and homeowners.

But other proposed changes to high-density residential zoning categories prompted questions by Birrell, of District 3 in East Cobb.

The existing residential midrise (RMR) and residential highrise (RHR) multi-family categories would be replaced by residential multifamily categories RM-24 and RM-60.

Guinn said the new categories would actually reduce the allowed density, from 33 units per acre to 24 and from 66 units per acre to 60, respectively.

“This process doesn’t change the zoning of any property in the county,” Guinn said. “They are just tools in the tool box.”

Green said the multifamily proposals will be finished next month and presented to commissioners before being made public.

The Cobb UDC website is gradually adding materials as they are completed.

She said there will be public meetings this spring on the first two installments of the UDC draft.

The third installment, which comprises the details of development standards, will follow that, with additional public meetings, before the county advertises the proposed UDC and commissioners are asked to adopt it.

“Ultimately, the document is adopted as a whole, as one big code amendment,” Guinn said. “We want to be sure that before we do that we’ve got something that the board will be comfortable adopting.”

Since the county zoning ordinance was first passed in the 1970s, she said, the UDC moving forward is likely to be in effect for a lengthy period as well.

Related stories:

• Chimney Springs pop-up food market proposal withdrawn
• Mt. Bethel Christian Academy master plan approved
• First Cobb Unified Development Code installment released
• Cobb commissioners withdraw ADU proposal

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