Sep. 29—Cobb County commissioners adopted significant overhauls to local housing regulations this week as part of a slew of changes to the county code.
The nearly five-hour commission meeting included more than an hour of public input on the code amendments, most of it honing in on two proposals: an inspection program for apartment complexes, and the county's first regulations on short-term rental properties, such as Airbnbs.
The former proposal came out of months of complaints from south Cobb residents who said they were living in dangerous and unsanitary apartments. The county will now require landlords to obtain regular inspections for their units, a proposal that was adopted unanimously.
"Insect and rodent infestation, raw sewage backed up in kitchen sinks, mold and mildew throughout the units — these are conditions that people regardless of income should (not) be subjected to," said Commissioner Monique Sheffield, who sponsored the proposal. "Appeals were made to the Board of Commissioners to help ... Well, we listened."
On short-term rentals, meanwhile, Cobb will now require operators to obtain a business license and designate local agents to respond to complaints, among other regulations. That proposal carried 4-1, with Commissioner Keli Gambrill in opposition.
The short-term rental measures take effect Jan. 1, 2023, while the apartment regulations begin in 2024.
Short-term rentals
This year was the latest attempt by the county to get a grip on the proliferating number of short-term rentals across Cobb. Community Development Director Jessica Guinn has repeatedly told the board that code enforcement has no means to rein them in.
Complaints about the properties are varied. Neighbors have bemoaned parking violations, trash and litter piling up, and noise issues. They've repeatedly singled out so-called party houses, which are rented out for raucous functions in residential areas.
By the time the county gets around to addressing the complaints, Guinn's said, the renters are long gone. The county's approach, following in the footsteps of other jurisdictions around Georgia, has been to place the burden on the property owner.
Today, the county has no enforcement method dedicated to oversight of the properties. When the new measure takes effect, it'll require owners to register a local agent and obtain a business license. They could face fines and canceling of licenses for repeated violations.
The county will also require property owners to notify their local homeowners association and neighbors when they apply for a license, among other rules.
But that led to criticism from Wendy Chambers, head of the Cobb Association of Realtors, that the board was unconstitutionally singling out rental operators.
"Short-term rentals that comply with existing zoning should not hold a different set of standards than any other compliant usage of the property," she said. "... I think that is a very slippery slope. I'm not sure that Cobb County wants to get into the business of taking away the personal property rights of the residents of our county."
(County Attorney Bill Rowling said the code proposal was in line with state law by his reading.)
Other residents who operate such rental units said while they welcomed more oversight, they worried about the particulars hurting their much-needed supplemental income.
"These short term rental codes that have been proposed will only empower larger businesses to come in and do Airbnb," said one, who didn't specify what provisions he was concerned about. "Us as homeowners, where we have space ... to be able to supplement our income — that's all we're trying to do."
Guinn and commissioners agreed while the proposal may need tweaking down the road, they had to start somewhere.
"To table this tonight, or keep holding it and kicking the can down the road ... we can always come back and change it once we see how this plays out," said Commissioner JoAnn Birrell.
'Holding landlords accountable'
Like the Airbnb concerns, complaints over living conditions in the Riverside neighborhood of south Cobb are nothing new.
In 2019, then-Chairman Mike Boyce and Cobb police officials were summoned to several complexes in the neighborhood where residents faced hazardous conditions such as rodents and a dearth of routine maintenance work.
Recent months have seen the board facing similar complaints, as Sheffield alluded to, and she said, to applause, that the county would be "holding landlords accountable."
Apartment owners and managers will be required to hire an independent certified inspector to examine 25% of their units in a given year, with all units in a complex being inspected over the course of four years. Failure to comply could result in the loss of a property owner's certification.
But commentators — many of them from the affected complexes — worried about the potential blowback from the proposal.
"My question is, what happens if you have to renovate a whole apartment complex? Where are some of these people forced to go?" asked one.
Another public speaker, Courtney Omega, warned the measure could be a harbinger of gentrification, while Monica DeLancy, a tenant rights activist, argued the board needed to tackle the broader issue of those tenants' rights, of which there are few under the law.
Sheffield and Chairwoman Lisa Cupid appeared frustrated they were still taking heat from the residents the measure was intended to help.
"This board has heard numerous comments, as she shared, with respect to habitability of apartments. Some of the same speakers that are asking us not to move this forward (are) asking us to be held accountable for improving the livability of the apartments," Cupid said. "We are very much in a Catch-22."
Cupid added while it's possible that repair costs could be passed on to tenants, the health and safety concerns come first.
"I can't say that there couldn't be that consequence ... but I can't see how we can not be responsive to the issues that have been shared, not only meeting after meeting, but year after year," Cupid said.
