Community Engagement
In an earlier post, I mentioned the team leaders who organized to connect with all landowners in our 40,000 acre areas. There was about 500 individuals, families or companies to communicate with.
The tax files were sorted by the size of the parcel ownership. This was also challenging as some of the land owned by one entity was held in various names. Many times the mailing address for the tax bill was our clue.
In the fall and winter of 2001 we started meeting. E-mail and face book were not available to us way back then for communication, so we relied on mailed letters and phone banks. How things have changed in twenty years.
The meetings brought people together who had never connected. Most gatherings in the past were organized by church groups, the Farm Bureau, Brickworks or other interest groups. The Fulton County meetings that were held now and then in the Rico Community room were generally attended by 20 or so people. Our coffee chat meetings had great energy compared to the county meetings of the time.
Each team leader hosted the group in their home or one of the local church community rooms. The host provided home made sweets and fresh brewed coffee. I arrived with a slide deck and facilitated the discussion. A couple of those slides are attached.
The goal of these gatherings was to talk about the threat of urban sprawl and the reality of two developments that we were aware of. We wanted to talk about options short of simply fighting any development at the county zoning hearings. Preservation groups were busy in north metro Atlanta where there was urgency so preservation money was not an option. The threat to this area didn’t seem real or urgent to many. We talked about options, but most importantly we wanted to understand how people viewed the future for this area and what their wishes were. We wanted to instill a sense of empowerment to plan our future by coming together as a community rather than let remote developers and the county zoning board determine our future.
The groups were lead by the following people:
2.5 acres or less - Larry Keith lived on Hutcheson Ferry with his wife Monica where they raised two sons. Larry passed away several years ago and Monica eventually moved.
2.5 - 5 acres - Elizabeth Dean & Gene Griffith, who have Wilkerson Mill Gardens
5 - 8 acres - Bettina Brown, who now serves as the attorney for many home closings in Serenbe and who lives on Vernon Grove with her medical doctor/cattle farmer husband George where they raised their three children
8-15 acres - Ned & Janice Peek & and their son Rodney Peek who are next door neighbors to Serenbe and their family has been on this land for generations. In the years that followed, Rodney was elected to the original Chattahoochee Hills city council and now serves on the planning board
15 - 50 acres - Maggie Stokes who planted all the blueberry bushes on the farm now owned by the Aldridge family following the Stokes' move to Florida
50- 180 acres - Dave McMurrain lives east of Serenbe off of Hutcheson Ferry & Capps Ferry with his wife Deana
180 acres + - Steve Nygren
As these smaller meetings concluded, we started the public meetings with all landowners invite to come together. I will remember these meetings in the weeks ahead.
