Embarrassed to be from Cherokee County?

I was born and raised in Cherokee County, went to three different high schools in the county (divorce and redistricting), lived at home while attending Kennesaw State University, and now I own a business in the county as well owning 4 properties located in Cherokee. Many of my family members still live in the county (which may be the reason I moved to Cobb) and I am very proud to be from such a wonderful place. Yet lately, I have been embarrassed of Cherokee's elected officials for several reasons.

1. Placing private citizens responsible to control illegal immigration is wrong on many levels. Here is a great quote in regard to this issue from Jeff Dickerson of the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

"But private citizens, as taxpayers, are already bearing the brunt of this issue, paying for the services consumed by illegal immigrants. It's a double whammy to penalize them again for renting to illegals or hiring them.

Here's a thought: Since government created this problem, government ought to fix it. It ought not look to private citizens to do what it has been unable or unwilling to do."

Sheriff Roger Garrison also had a good quote on the topic:

"We have to keep bed space in our jails for people we are afraid of, and find an alternate means of punishment for those persons we are just mad at," Garrison said. "And for the most part, we are just mad at the illegals.""

2. Also, embarrassing is the fact that elected officials missed a golden opportunity to manage the impending growth of Cherokee County with wisdom and forethought. Even when reports from it's own departments suggest tremendous growth... Russ Sims, director of planning and forecasting for the Cherokee County School District, said "there are more than 2,300 houses in the county that are ready to be occupied, more than 5,100 lots prepped for construction and more than 13,100 undeveloped lots in neighborhoods where construction is underway. There also are more than 12,600 lots that are zoned for houses, but not yet under construction."

Sims added, "the school district is predicting both the county population and the student population will double by 2014."

Yet county commissioners continue to embrace "dumb growth" policies by not working to approve "smart growth" projects, such as the 4,000+/- acre project known as "A Village in the Forest" proposed by Macauley Companies. Instead they ignore all of the benefits of a master planned community and instead embrace smaller piece-meal projects scattered around the county.

In a recent AJC article..."Macauley, who has built or is building three other Cherokee neighborhoods, released a statement via e-mail saying he is withdrawing the request to allow newly appointed planning commission members to get acclimated. He also wants a cooling off period.

"Perhaps a 'time out' period will lower the volume of the rhetoric and allow for a more rational assessment of the merits of our proposal," he said. His team will also review the proposal and try to meet the concerns expressed by residents."

I was most alarmed when reading the same AJC article to see the following...

Commissioner Jim Hubbard said, "I am hoping he will come back with a plan with a little less density."

Hubbard said he hopes the county could use some local green space money to buy some of the property and preserve it as a county park. County voters approved up to $10 million from special purpose local option sales taxes in 2000 for buying green space and parks.

"It would not scare me, if we can detect a revenue stream, to go ahead and borrow the money and buy at least part of it," Hubbard said.

Perhaps Mr. Hubbard should read the following advice from a growth planning expert:

The executive director of the Urban Land's Institute's Atlanta chapter, Jeff DuFresne, said "When you look at the problems facing Atlanta - air quality, water quality, and traffic - the real challenge is the attitude toward change. People just see red when it comes to higher-density development, even though it may take cars off the street, use less land, improve the local tax base, and give mixed-use and housing options to residents. It can save taxpayers money."

It wouldn't hurt Mr. Hubbard to save the county citizens tax dollars by just allowing Macauley to preserve the 1,500+ acres promised as undeveloped green space for the project "A Village in the Forest", not to mention the $80 Million toward infrastructure and $4+ billion of tax revenue. I love the irony in Mr. Hubbard's quote, "It would not scare me, if we can detect a revenue stream, to go ahead and borrow the money and buy at least part of it." But it would scare him to accept the 1,500 acres of land to be preserved by a developer using the developer's money instead of the county citizens?

These type of statements are embarrassing.

3. Furthermore, the new Board of Commissioner will be appointing Mary Catarineau Ware to the Planning and Zoning Board tonight at 6pm. Mary Catarineau Ware is the Founder and was the president of (up until a few weeks ago) the Cherokee Coalition for Responsible Growth. It is my understanding she moved here in 2004 and shortly there after started this coalition of slow growth activists who are very vocal on many zonings and were very vocal in their support for slow growth candidates in previous elections. Mary Catarineau Ware has been featured numerous times in the Cherokee Tribune editorial section adamantly opposing zoning cases all over the county. Surprisingly, she is married to a high level executive of marketing and sales for McCarr Homes. McCarr homes currently has several high density developments in Cherokee County. Is there a conflict of interest here? I think so. Furthermore, "Slow Growth" is a bad plan for Cherokee County as all experts predict huge population gains over the next 20 years. Wouldn't "smart growth" be a better idea?

Embarrassing.

4. To top it all off, the future land use maps are seriously threatening Private Property Rights...
The Proposed Land Use Plan includes:

• 200 ft. set-backs.
• Discouraging of production-oriented agricultural activities like animal production.
• Denial of infrastructure to rural areas in terms of transportation and sewer
• improvements, and a low public services such as fire, police and libraries.
• More delays in zoning request
• County -wide equestrian trails.

The proposed plan features "Character Areas" which:

• Do not reflect current land use and preexisting or approved zoning.
• Do not allow for sufficient transitional areas.
• Will deter badly needed job-growth in our county.
• Ignore growth patterns of surrounding counties.
• Ignore growth patterns already present in Cherokee County.
• Ignore planned infrastructure to be put in place by Cherokee Co. Water and Sewerage Authority

I am an optimistic guy and hope that things change for the better on the Board of Commissioners, otherwise it could be an embarrassing four years for everyone in Cherokee County.