South Forsyth Story-Please, Not Again

I remember back in the day, when as a young builder it was about impossible to find a decent building lot in south Forsyth County.  Now that would have been the mid-late 1980’s or so.  Practically all that existed were large tracts of land, pastures and forests, hardly even a gas station.  As you drove 141 north out of Fulton County, long before it became Peachtree Parkway, I mean, you were out in the country.  I remember scouting around for a lot even before Aberdeen, long before Laurel Springs was imagined. I would drive curbless county roads where a few homes did exist, looking for ‘lot for sale’ signs.  Even though at the time there wasn’t much of a market for new homes in south Forsyth, I just figured that if other occupied homes sold, whatever I might build would eventually sell too.  Marketing genius, here.

I recall the many times driving down two-lane Mathis Airport Road, leaf-laden hardwood bows overhanging the entire way.  In those days, even on a sunny day, in some places along the route the filtering of light through the canopy of trees would resemble that of a moonlit evening.

My, my, how the times have changed.  These days when I drive down that way, which I try to avoid, I get lost.  That area has become concrete, asphalt, strip shopping centers, Krogers, Walmarts, gas stations, oh, and did I mention high-occupancy residential developments?  I mean there are so many houses, in so many developments that it is mind-boggling.  And the traffic, my goodness.  The traffic is punishing, nothing like it was.  That area is like a different planet from what I knew.

South Forsyth County Clear Cut Home Sites

And viewing the area through Google Earth, as I zoom in to see what’s really happening down there, wow, those homes look awfully close together.  Using the measuring tool provided, from overhang to overhang, I swear some of those homes are only eight feet, yes, I’m correct, only eight feet apart, maybe less.  Is that even legal?  And the lots are, what, a hundred feet deep and not even 60 feet wide, with a house shoehorned onto them?  Now who’s idea was that?  Surely the fire marshal, at least, would have had something to say about that.  Whatever happened to side restrictions? Setbacks? Fire codes? And since there’s no way to even drain home sites packed so close together, those clear-cut lots have no yards, one planted tree, and the homesteaders share a common concrete driveway/drainage “feature” down their rear property lines.  Surely this isn’t south Forsyth County, not the one I knew.  

Distance Between Homes 8 Feet or Less

And now, of course, predictably, the area is rife with political strife.  One group feels disenfranchised and underrepresented, so they try to start their own city, ironically, to gain separation from the county government that regretfully allowed them to move there in the first place.  And they have friends who are totally against it.  It’s almost like a mini-civil war, friend against friend, family member against family member.  Indulge me for some unsolicited advice, good neighbors: Remember, a house divided cannot stand.  That war was fought and everyone lost.  Save the Union.

And to help take advantage of all the discord…uh…I mean, ‘help the sides work things out,’ community organizers like ‘Smart Growth,’ with franchises in all 50 states, and home office in Washington, DC, insert themselves, ostensibly to “help” with all the problems.  Nice of them to “help,” don’t you think?

Notice Green Space in Fulton/Cherokee vs. South Forsyth

But look, none of this had to be this way.  South Forsyth could have grown along a completely different path, with well-designed, large-lot developments, automatically conserving trees and wooded areas, with carefully planned commercial districts, manageable traffic, and schools in which overcrowding would never be an issue.

And I guess today’s county planners have just given up on controlling growth.  Instead they’ve switched over to unconstitutionally regulating architectural design standards in new private developments.  I guess that’s a stab at making some of these homes packed in like sardines look a little nicer.  Funny, the solution to the problems government caused by not doing its job in the first place, which could have been easily avoided by restricting to larger lots, is more government regulation, more personnel costs, more vehicle costs, not to mention county infrastructure costs for all these new developments. 

And you would think that with that many more taxpayers, government services would become more affordable.  But since 2004, including another $300 million bond referendum coming up, Forsyth County debt will skyrocket over a billion dollars, increasing by factor of four, albeit during a time when the county population has less than doubled. 

Obviously, Forsyth County Government has not been doing its job.  And I do not necessarily blame all the present county commissioners who inherited this mess.  The poor decisions that led Forsyth County to where it is today were made over a decade by the board members at the time.  The present board is at least moving toward increasing lot sizes, which has been the answer all along.

But get this, friends, one of the principle members on former county commissions, directly responsible for decisions that have brought our county to the circumstances we deal with today, is looking for your vote to represent Forsyth County in the Georgia Senate.  That’s right, former long-time chair of the Forsyth County Commission, Brian Tam, whose tenure in office spans the time frame incorporating some of the worst county developmental policies in history, who could not adequately represent county citizens when dealing with south Forsyth developers, now wants to represent this county, dealing with professional lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol.

Now, really, is that what Forsyth County wants…again?