About the Project

Cobb County's development regulations were adopted in the 1970s to guide land use and development for a county of approximately 200,000 residents. Over the span of nearly 50 years, the regulations have been updated on an as-needed basis through a piecemeal approach, along with the Cobb County Development Standards.

Because there has been no comprehensive review of the development regulations for decades, they are poorly organized, internally inconsistent, lack features of modern codes such as illustrations and an easy-to-understand structure, and thus fall short of adequately addressing the County’s growth challenges. In addition, they do not support the policies in the County’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which is also being updated in 2022.

With nearly 800,000 residents and increased demand for housing, services, goods, industry, professional offices, education, recreational and lifestyle opportunities, the County is preparing a Unified Development Code (UDC) that will collect the development regulations scattered throughout the Code of Ordinances into a single, integrated, and easy-to-use document that best supports the county’s long-term plans to focus growth within identified activity centers while preserving the rural areas and existing residential neighborhoods that County residents treasure.