Land Use Planning

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Contact Info: Dana Johnson, AICP Planning Division Manager This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it P.O. Box 649 Marietta, GA 30061 770.528.2018

The Planning Division is responsible for comprehensive planning for the county. Planning coordinates the plans and development policy between Cobb County and other jurisdictions. There are five primary responsibilities: long-range (comprehensive) planning, research, preservation, local planning (intergovernmental) and mapping.


2030 Comprehensive Plan

The Cobb County Comprehensive Plan, 2030 Comprehensive Plan: Mapping Cobb’s Future does not serve as a development ordinance, but rather as a growth management guide for unincorporated areas of the county. The plan is separated into two documents, per Georgia Department of Community Affairs standards, the Community Assessment and the Community Agenda. The Community Assessment (link) is the data assessment, preliminary analysis, and public participation schedule for the Comprehensive Plan. The Community Agenda  contains the vision, goals, policies, and implementation program portion of the Comprehensive Plan. The Community Agenda is updated annually with minor amendments. The short term work program, contained within the Community Agenda, is updated every five years. The entire Comprehensive Plan (Community Assessment and Community Agenda) is redrawn using updated demographic, projections, data, and major public participation efforts every ten years.

The Comprehensive Plan:

Identifies needs/trends Cobb may have to address in the next twenty years;

Lists goals and policy objectives to consider in order to realize its vision statement;

Identifies short term projects that could assist addressing a need/trend or in implementing its goals and policy objectives; and

Provides a generalized future land use map which complements the goals and policy objectives and indicates locations for a variety of land uses. A Future Land Use map is available for downloaded, which was last updated in 2009. Parcel specific information is concerning future land use categories is also available on GIS Silverlight web mapping, hosted by the County’s Information Services Department.

FLUM descriptive information on the meaning of each is available for download.

Master Plans/Corridor Studies
In addition to the Comprehensive Plan, the Planning Division also conducts and manages a variety of land use, economic development, and transportation plans that impact various areas of Cobb County.

Design Guidelines
The Planning Division also assists with the creation of and administers Design Guidelines for specific areas. The design guidelines are sections of the development standards that provide specific criteria for site planning and architectural detailing. The areas covered by design guidelines are graphically depicted for the following areas ( pdf files):

Atlanta Road

Canton Road

Macland Road

Dallas Highway

Intergovernmental Coordination
Every county and city in the State of Georgia is required to have a Service Delivery Strategy. The purpose of this agreement is ensure that local governments take a careful look at the services they provide in order to identify overlap or gaps in service provision and develop a more rational approach to allocating delivery and funding of these services. The service delivery strategies are negotiated between the county and its six cities once every ten years. In addition to service delivery, the agreements also set the framework for annexation activity by setting land use parameters on the cities so that there is some consistency between expansion of municipal limits and the county’s policies incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan. If a person has a question about a specific annexation proposal, they should contact the city pursuing the annexation to find out more details about the proposal.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) & Addressing
The GIS staff creates and maintains accurate digital computer maps and databases of the county.  This digital computer map contains technical and business information about locations and events within the county that will have value to many potential customers. The data contained in GIS is accessable by the county user departments, GIS partners, and customers.

All addressing and street naming requests should be directed to the GIS Section of the Planning Division. All buildings used for residential, commercial, industrial, institutional or governmental purposes shall be provided with an address identifying the building. Having an efficient addressing system helps to ensure timely emergency response time, as well as helping the citizens of Cobb County navigate throughout the County with ease.