Cherokee County could double it’s current population in 10-15 years. The geography, natural resources such as Lake Allatoona and the new Hickory Log Creek Reservoir, proximity to Atlanta, emphasis on job growth (see Bluffs of Technology Park), and relatively low cost of land all contribute to reasons that developers are considering Cherokee County. All of this activity will create a huge burden for county and city governments to ensure proper infrastucture is met. But ignoring it or trying to stop the anticpated growth will be a huge mistake. The result will be more sprawl and lss cohesiveness to Cherokee County. The quality of life for hundreds of thousand of current and future residents is in the hands of a select few elected officials. Let’s hope the citizens elected the right people to lead this county into the future.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle had this story about the expected real estate boom for Cherokee County….
Cherokee County has joined the ranks of outer communities that are poised on the brink of a housing boom that may just transform the once sleepy county just 35 miles north of downtown Atlanta.
Inexpensive land and a strong local economy are among the elements driving developments such as the 2,331-acre mixed-use development poised to get under way northwest of Canton.
"We were presented with the opportunity to get a large parcel of land close to a major interstate," said Paul Corley of PEC Development Group.
The Atlanta-based developer, which helped pioneer greenspace subdivisions in Georgia, along with Shoal Creek Partners, hopes to turn what was once a parcel of timberland into a master-planned community called Canton West.
The project includes a 250-acre town center with 449,000 square feet of retail and an additional 149,000 square feet of office space.
The town center will be a live/work/play development with residential above retail and high-density condos and townhouses nearby. Radiating from the town center will be single-family homes on lots up to 2 acres. About 30 percent of the property will remain open space, including walking and jogging trails, Corley said.
Critical to the development is a projected seven-mile parkway running through the property and connecting Georgia 5 to Ga. 108.
"If they are going to put in this huge development, they’ve got to make some kind of system, parkway or something that will take traffic off [Ga.] 140 because we can’t have any more traffic on that [two-lane] road," said Canton City Councilman Jo Ellen Wilson.
Although most of the property is in the county, a substantial portion will be annexed into the city.
"Several years ago, we drew our growth boundary line and that means the city of Canton, unless there are certain circumstances that we are not aware of, will grow to that imaginary boundary line and we agreed with it and the county agreed with it," Wilson said. "Anything within the growth boundary line we look more favorably on annexing."
Although the city and county have been upgrading infrastructure to prepare for this housing boom, one of the most critical concerns is the influx of new students the growth may bring. To help mitigate that growth, Corley says, his company plans to donate a parcel of land within the development for the county to build a new school.
Corley isn’t alone in thinking Cherokee is the next great housing frontier. Atlanta developer Stephen H. Macauley’s planned 4,000-acre, 12,000-home community just west of Canton will have apartments, townhouses, senior living residences and single-family homes. Macauley plans a model environmental community surrounded by forestland. The project, A Village in the Forest, is expected to take 10 to 20 years to complete.
The property is known as the Willoughby-Sewell tract and is just north of Lake Allatoona in Bartow and Cherokee.
Johnson Cos. is developing Lake Arrowhead, an 8,200-acre mixed-use project in northern Cherokee County near Waleska.
Developers are hoping that Cherokee will be able to escape the fate of counties such as Paulding, which have seen vast seas of rooftops crop up, but few jobs for residents. There are signs that more jobs may be migrating there.
When the Bluffs of Technology Park near Canton gets up and running, local leaders expect it to generate as many as 14,000 jobs for the area. Modeled after Johns Creek in North Fulton, the 700-acre office park is on bluffs overlooking a 370-acre lake near Canton.
County leaders expect the area to become a center of activity for Cherokee. In June, the board of commissioners voted to purchase 23.6 acres near the Bluffs where they plan to relocate government services.
