COBB COUNTY GOVERNMENT
2024 Legislative Agenda 

Cobb County’s Mission Statement: To make Cobb County the best place to live and work through an efficient, effective, and responsive government that delivers quality services. To further this mission, we propose the following Legislative Agenda for the 2024 Session. Agenda

TRANSPORTATION
Major Mobility Investment Program - Cobb County
supports the state’s Major Mobility Investment Program
(MMIP), the 10-year, $10B effort to build Managed Lanes
along I-75/I-285/400/I-85 as one of the ways to address the
region’s mobility needs and encourage the incorporation of
transit elements such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as part
of these projects.

GENERAL GOVERNMENT
Creation of New Cities - The creation of new cities
duplicates local administrative structures and can disrupt
long term planning, create service delivery challenges, and
inefficiencies, and impose greater costs on taxpayers, both
within and outside the new city. To that end, any legislation
to create new cities should only be introduced following a
signed petition of at least 10 percent of the registered voters
in the proposed city’s jurisdiction. It should be introduced
in the first year of the General Assembly’s biennial session
and voted upon in the second year, with no changes in
boundaries of the proposed municipality in the second
year. Cobb County urges the General Assembly to place
several additional measures in the statute to provide more
certainty, transparency and equity in the process of
creating new cities in Georgia.

Home Rule: Design Standards, Short-Term Rentals,
and Build-to-Rent Subdivisions
In recent years, numerous bills have been introduced which would
substantially prohibit or preempt Georgia’s cities and
counties from responding to their constituents’ demands
through establishing appropriate local oversight of
residential design standards, short-term rentals and build-
to-rent subdivisions within their jurisdictions. Cobb
County opposes these state preemption efforts believing
that county elected officials, working with and accountable
to their community, are in the best position to determine
the oversight of these practices at the local level. One size
certainly doesn’t fit all of Georgia’s counties in these areas,
and this legislation sets a very dangerous precedent of state
usurpation of Constitutional home rule authority.

Service Delivery Strategy (SDS) Negotiations continue
to pose challenges to counties and cities alike. Technical
amendments and clarifications are needed to facilitate
implementation and minimize disputes. At a minimum, in
order to reduce conflict in future revisions to local service
delivery strategies, the Service Delivery Strategies (SDS)
Act should be amended as follows:
• Key definitions and principles detailed in the joint SDS
handbook authored by ACCG, GMA, DCA and CVIOG
should be clearly set forth in the statute.
• The frequency and scheduling of future revisions to local
service delivery strategies should be clarified.
• Replace the judicial dispute resolution procedures in
current law with a process resembling Georgia’s
Annexation Arbitration Process. Authorize a panel to
decide whether the city or county’s best and final offer is
more equitable when settling failed SDS negotiations.
• Ensure that cities cannot charge higher utility rates or
fees to unincorporated residents unless that cost is
“reasonably” related to the cost of providing the service.
• Amend current law to clarify that all revenues generated
by taxes and fees levied or imposed primarily in the
unincorporated areas of the county may be used by the
county to offset the cost of county services.
• Any service area granted to a government outside their
jurisdiction should be able to be changed without an
agreement if the authorized government is asked to
provide the service and fails to do so.
• Enact legislation that would result in all taxpayers being
treated equitably whether they live within a municipality
or in unincorporated areas.
• Enact legislation to prevent the subsidization of city
operations by counties and unincorporated taxpayers
through utility franchise fees, through county property tax
exemptions on municipal profit-making enterprises, and
through ‘double-dip’ distributions of sales tax revenues
that provide inequitable benefits to municipal residents.

Evictions Process - Cobb County supports revisions to the
evictions process that equally preserves landlord and
tenant rights. Legislation should be passed to address an
evicted tenant’s possessions being placed on the street.

Landlords/Inspections - Cobb County supports
legislation that requires rental properties be inspected
periodically to ensure tenant safety.

Public Notification of Tax Increase - With property taxes
being the largest revenue source for counties and inflation
currently running much higher than normal, it is nearly
impossible for counties to keep up with inflation in their
expenses without receiving some adjustment to their
largest revenue source. Counties must spend more money
now to provide the same level of services due to inflation.
Cobb County urges the General Assembly to adjust the
formula for the rollback rate to allow counties to adjust for
inflation.

Housing Affordability and Accessibility– Cobb County
continues to work to develop meaningful solutions to
address Georgia’s critical shortage of market-rate
workforce housing. While Cobb opposes preempting local
government zoning and land use regulations, we support
state-authorized flexibility and incentives to encourage the
development of more housing than someone making 120%
or less of the median income of the area can afford.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
• Allowing counties to create workforce housing zones
where they could waive or reduce impact fees and employ
fast-track permit approvals and more flexibility in design
standards to receive state financial assistance and lower-
interest loans for infrastructure.
• Providing expedited review for Developments of
Regional Impact (DRI), EPD and septic tank permitting in
targeted areas.
• Allowing qualified third parties to approve septic system
installations.
• Authorizing local governments to implement rental
registries to help with inspecting and remediating housing
code violations.

Continued Support for Dobbins Air Reserve Base -
Cobb County encourages the Governor, state leaders, and
the Georgia Joint Defense Commission to continue
providing necessary support for Dobbins Air Force Base.
Continue to prepare for any potential threats and place
the County in a position to be the benefactor of
increased missions.

Public Works Bidding– Currently, Georgia law requires
local governments to bid out public works projects that
have an estimated value of $100,000 or more. As this
amount has not been changed in over two decades,
inflation and material costs have increased, and many
vendors elect not to go through the time and effort to
submit bids for small projects. Cobb County asks the
General Assembly to raise this bid threshold from
$100,000 to $250,000. This will save counties time and
money by not having to bid-out smaller projects and
should increase competition among vendors who
otherwise may not be willing to go through the bid
process.

Speed Calming – Cobb County supports amending
existing state law to allow local governments to place
speed detection/citation issuing devices outside of school
zones, provided that any civil monetary penalties collected
due to the issuance of a citation from such speed detection
devices shall be dedicated to local law enforcement or
public safety initiatives.

MENTAL HEALTH
Mental Health Reform- Cobb County encourages the
General Assembly to address mental health reform
through the expansion of crisis centers, co-responder
programs, accountability courts, jail diversion initiatives,
and supportive housing. Cobb County also supports the
passage of House Bill 520.

Support for First Responders – Cobb County
encourages the General Assembly to continue to monitor
and support programs for first responders. Eligible first
responders are employees who work as a peace officer,
correctional officer, emergency health worker, firefighter,
highway emergency response operator, jail officer, juvenile
correctional officer, probation officer, emergency
services dispatcher or coroner.