With all of the recent devleopment news for Canton in Cherokee County, the AJC poses a unique proposition in todays paper:
Cherokee County leaders and developers have a unique opportunity to show other counties the smart way to build new communities.Or not.
I am hopeful and almost optimistic that Cherokee County will get it right this time. If for no other reason that the fact that these new developments are in Canton. Mayor Cecil Pruett has taken a lot of heat recently and is always a lightning rod of debate, but he has the experience and training to help Canton make the right decisions. With that said, it will come down to the people of the area and their support and/or negative reactions toward growth. If the local citizens embrace the growth and push for smart infrastructure decisions, then everyone will win and Cherokee County will set the standard for suburban living.
The AJC story went to add…
Do it well, and Cherokee County could set a new standard for suburban living in metro Atlanta.Do it poorly, and “It could be just more sprawl, on a massive scale,” said Dan Reuter, chief of land use planning with the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Two of the tracts are already zoned, and developers hope to get two more before the County Commission and Canton City Council for consideration late this year or early next year. Groundbreaking on the projects could take place in 2007 and 2008.
The scale of the developments is seen as key to both the upside potential and downside risk to a county that is the second-fastest-growing in metro Atlanta.
The three largest developments are in the northwest section of Cherokee. The rolling, heavily wooded parcels are sporadically dotted with tin-roofed barns and a few small subdivisions. It’s so lightly developed that there aren’t even any schools in the district.
Paul Corley, a partner and developer who helped pioneer green space subdivisions in Georgia, is a principal in Canton West.
He envisions a cure for the common subdivision with a town center with more than 500,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, parks, schools and walking trails. Everything would be a walk, bike ride or short drive away from residences. “The larger the scale, the more we can contribute to schools, roads, sewer,” he said.
Giving away a 30-acre school site would financially break a developer building on 200 acres. But it’s possible for him, because the costs of infrastructure and public spaces would be spread across 5,000 home and business owners.
To the south, Stephen Macauley is talking about leaving about 1,300 of his total 5,000 acres as green space and building two town centers among 12,000 homes. He is negotiating with county officials over donating sites for public services such as schools and a fire station.
“If the county seizes the opportunity, they have the opportunity to define what Cherokee County is in an extremely positive way for the next generation and the one after that,” Macauley said.
But “if the same old 1- and 2-acre lots are built, then you are going to have more of the same old, same old. We know and have seen for the last generation that is not working very well.”
Let’s hope Cherokee does us all proud and sets the standard for suburban living.
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