Cobb superintendent sounds off on county's multifamily housing approvals

Cobb superintendent sounds off on county zoning

Cobb County School Superintendent Chris Ragsdale claims the county is approving too many multifamily homes and that it's putting the district's schools at risk.

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - The Cobb County School superintendent says he's extremely concerned over what he says is the county's rapid approval of multifamily homes.

At Thursday night's school board meeting, officials released a study showing that Cobb has approved more permits for that type of housing than any other county in the metro Atlanta area.

For nearly eight minutes, superintendent Chris Ragsdale laid into county zoning officials over what he said was a "troubling trend."

By the numbers:

According to the demographic study, the City of Powder Springs approved 304 multifamily building permits in 2024, bringing the total number of permits issued to apartments and other multifamily housing to more than 900 since 2022.

School officials also pointed out that around 350 acres of land in the county was sold to LLCs last year, a fact that could mean that more large-scale developments are coming in the future.

What they're saying:

Speaking on Thursday, Ragsdale said that the multifamily units put a strain on the school district, which has to find a place to put all the new students. 

"We are doing everything in the world we can to keep up, but when student movement is driven by outside decisions from local county and city leaders that don’t take schools into account, students are the ones who pay the price," he said.

The superintendent also brought up the possible impact of transient students.

"When you start talking about transients as it applies to all schools - that is the biggest indicator of struggle," Ragsdale said.

He said the district sends representatives to zoning meetings to bring up its concerns, only to find them ignored.

"I'm afraid people have either poked their heads in the sand or just really don't care. And, I'm afraid it's the latter because we have been trying to get this across and conveyed to those who are making decisions about how big of an impact this is. It's just being met with what seems to be a lack of care," he said.

The other side:

While a spokesperson for the Cobb County government did not give an official statement, he said that Ragsdale's assertion that they bring up the school district's concerns at every zoning meeting is an exaggeration. Instead, he said that the district send a person to read a "cut and paste" statement concerning the multifamily zoning issue that does not provide any data or evidence.

The spokesperson also said that, while Cobb County has approved the permits, it "lags well behind" other counties in the area for the actual number of complexes.