Working With The County

In past posts, I have shared the concern our County Commissioner had with our efforts and his eventual support of the plan.  Steve Cover was able to bring the Fulton County Planning Department around to the idea that the overlay we were suggesting was possible and a positive approach to this green field section of Fulton County.  

While we had the support of our district Commissioner and the Planning Department, there were 39 other departments that would weigh in on our possible overlay.  Public works was almost our undoing.  We learned that the recent bond for the expansion of the  Camp Creek Waste Water Treatment center included a map showing our 40,000 acres with a grid of sewer lines for traditional sprawl development.  To prevent sprawl, our proposed overlay prohibited the use of traditional sewer structure.  We had multiple meetings with various people within the department whom we understood had to approve our overlay language regarding waste water.  We would get agreements from one group only to find they didn’t have the final say.  We could not figure out who could really sign off.  It felt like we were in some sort of a shell game but in fact the department as a whole had to agree to this major change in waste water treatment planning. We ended up scheduling a meeting with 16 people, everyone who could possibly have a say, in one room at one time.  We reluctantly got an agreement that they would not block our overlay and zoning request.  (For clarity, the waste water line that is now under construction is a high pressure line that only commercial or developments of scale can connect to by installing a pump station.  The proposed plan of 20 years ago allowed a single house or small subdivision to connect.)

With this approval, the Planning Department was ready to file the recommendation to amend the South Fulton Land Use plan which in turn would trigger new zoning for our  40,000 southern section of Fulton County. 

In the weeks leading up to the Commission Vote, Tom Williams and I scheduled personal visits with each county commissioner to answer any questions they might have.  With anticipation, we waited for the commission meeting where the attached map would be voted on.   

Attached is the map they would propose.  It has been noted that the three proposed villages in blue seemed like two eyes and a mouth and the green area showing the outline of Cochran Mill Park represented a nose creating a smiley face.