New Cherokee County Georgia zoning Plans. Canton, Holly Springs, Woodstock

County comp plan council set for busy run


A busy meeting schedule is in store for the Comprehensive Plan Steering Council, a 15-member citizen’s group working to finalize a draft of the future land-use plan for Cherokee County before early June for state review.

The steering committee met for the first time Feb. 13 in the Historic Canton High School auditorium. A series of meetings leading up to a June deadline for submission of the proposal will be held the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at county community centers, officials said.

The steering committee was formed by the Cherokee County Commission to take up the work of the Citizens Roundtable (CRT) to design a vision for county for the year 2030, including differing development patterns in the county. About half the size of the CRT, the steering committee has eight CRT members. Like the county, the steering council is made up of representatives of various views of the perennial hot-button issue of growth.

(Right: The latest version of the draft Cherokee
Future Development Map showing a tentative proposal of a color-coded vision for the county’s next 20 years ranges from urban development patterns along the southernmost edge of the county to rural areas north of the Etowah River in North Cherokee. County planning staff members emphasize the map is a work-in-progress that likely will be changed in some areas.)

Members include representatives of large homeowners associations, development interests, slow-growth advocates, the Stop Over-development in Sutallee group formed in opposition to the 4,000-acre Macauley Companies project in West Cherokee and of Cherokee Citizens for Property Rights (CCPR).

The latest draft of the Cherokee Future Development Map was shown to the steering committee during the meeting.

The map appeared nearing its initial approval phase two years into the update process.

The meeting drew an audience of about 150 people, including several dressed in red to show support for CCPR.

Members of the group, formed last fall, say the CRT’s tentative proposals would restrict rights of property owners to use their land as they wish and claim the membership of the steering committee is weighted in favor of slow-growth proponents.

Critics of CCPR say positions put forth by the group reflect inaccurate descriptions of the planning process in the county.

An audience of CCPR supporters attended a November meeting of the Citizens Roundtable as it was nearing completion of the land-use proposal.

Speaking at the start of the Feb. 13 meeting, County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens, who was elected last year on a slow-growth platform, told the audience that officials are “greatly appreciative of your concerns.”

Ahrens said the CRT is “on the sidelines.”

Bill Ross, the lead consultant hired by the county for the comprehensive plan update, said state law requires potential character areas be shown on the maps submitted for review to planning agencies, although the state gave no guidance on definitions for the areas.

Character areas shown on the Cherokee Future Development Map include Country Estates, Neighborhood Living and Suburban Living.

“The character area describes an overall environment and feel,” Ross said.

Character areas proposed on the draft Cherokee County map show “major, major changes” made in the past couple of months, Ross said.

Land-use is among the areas to be addressed in the comprehensive plan, which is required under state law to be updated every 10 years for a 20-year period to show infrastructure, including transportation and other aspects of the county.

County Planning Director Jeff Watkins told the steering committee of the challenges of spending many hours in drafting comprehensive plans and the reality of facing its implementation.

“Once the plan’s adopted, that’s when the real work starts,” Watkins said.

Watkins said the county has a deadline for completing the comprehensive plan update in 2008, a later deadline than was the case when the CRT was formed in October 2004.

Steering council member Dick Hall of Holly Springs, a former member of the Cherokee County-Municipal Planning Commission, called on his fellow members of the ad hoc committee to avoid “pie-in-the-sky” land-use proposes.

“We have to respect reality,” Hall said.

Clayton community resident Paul Weatherby, a former county commissioner, said plans should take into account the realities of water and sewerage infrastructure in some areas where development of houses under a 2-acre minimum zoning would be, in his view, unrealistic.

“It’s hard to classify Cherokee County as a rural county today,” Weatherby said.

The cities of Canton and Holly Springs are working on their separate plans that will be added to the overall county plan.

By Tom Brooks
tombrooks@ledgernews.com

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