Cobb County is having a public meeting Wednesday, May 21, to discuss statistics on the impact that new housing is having on the county. The meeting will be from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Board of Commissioners’ hearing room, according to Ross Cavitt, Cobb County communications director.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners faced criticism recently from the Cobb County School District, specifically from Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. Ragsdale’s discontent steps from the number of multi-family residential permits gained approval over the past few years. Ragsdale’s comments came after a presentation of annual demographics study update during a work session last week.
According to school system data, Cobb County issued more multi-family permits than any other metro-Atlanta county since 2006 with 20,671 issued. It was followed by DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, and Forsyth Counties.
The impact of many additional families that come with multi-family permitting on the school systems is something Cobb County can’t continue to endure, according to Ragsdale.
Cavitt said the commissioners aren’t completely sure the numbers tell the whole story.
“We’re doing some of our own research,” he said, adding that how each county grew could play a role in the numbers.
“I suspect that’s because we started with the fewest and the rest (of the counties) has built out.”
Commissioners are questioning whether all the multi-family units constructed in Cobb County are housing families. Cavitt said Cobb County has a large amount of senior citizen housing and many of those units are used by students attending Kennesaw State University.
Cobb County isn’t the only area in Northwest Georgia facing permitting questions. Citizens question zoning and permitting decisions in Bartow County online regularly. Bartow Couty has grown by 19.44% since 2006. It went from about 88,000 people to about 107,500 this year, according to the World Population Review.
Sole Bartow County Commissioner Steve Taylor couldn’t be reached because he is out of town this week.
Cherokee County has also experienced a growth explosion over the past 15 years. It grew 30.7% from 215,225 in 2010 to 266,620 in 2020. It is currently growing at 2.3% a year with an estimated population off 297,418 in 2025.
Cherokee County commissioners have yet to respond to questions.
Cavitt said Cobb County permits go through the process of being considered by a Board of Planning and Zoning before reaching the commissioners. Stakeholders, like police, fire, ambulance services, the school system, and the Georgia Department of Transportation submit impact reports on larger permitting requests involving subdivisions and multi-family housing.
Cavitt said the commission relies on those reports for its decision on approving permits.
“Sometimes, there are serious traffic issues and the DOT is grilled about traffic studies,” he said.
Cavitt said the commissioners can’t legitimately deny a request if all the reports so little to no negative impact.
He also said the county follows a comprehensive land use plan that was last updated in 2024. It is working on a unified development code streamlining the approval process.
Cavitt said the country commission hasn’t studied the impact that illegal aliens, or their removal under the Trump administration, is having on county services or land use. He said the county isn’t seeing growth rise any differently than in previous years. Developers bring plans to them rather than the county government seeking development.
He said farmland being sold to developers has been happening over the past couple of decades and is continuing to happen in the western part of the county.
Melody Dareing is a freelance writer for publications in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Germany. She is a former news director of Adelphia Channel 4 and WBHF Radio.