Cherokee Citizens for Property Rights
Posted: January 15th, 2007
Category: Canton Real Estate
Many of my recent posts have been related to Property Rights and how Cherokee County’s future plans to control growth threaten those rights. The organization that helps every property owner fight to keep those rights is Cherokee Citizens for Property Rights (CCPR). Recently, CCPR had an article appear in the Cherokee Tribune. Here is the story…
Residents create group to protect property rights
A recently formed group of local residents is working to protect the property rights of Cherokee County landowners.
Cherokee Citizens for Property Rights (CCPR) was formed about two months ago and membership already tops 200, according to organizers.
The organization’s mission is to oppose any action that would limit a landowner’s freedom. The organization will support political candidates that share its views on property rights but will remain non-partisan.
Its goals include making sure the property rights’ position is represented to the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners, ensuring the county’s land-use plan is reasonable and legal and regarded as a guideline and building alliances with other groups opposed to eminent domain abuse.
The seeds for this group were planted last October during a community meeting in the Free Home community held by the county government and its consulting team. The purpose of the meeting was to show residents the proposed land-use map designed by the Citizen’s Roundtable as part of the comprehensive land-use plan update.
"We read and studied that document, and there were a lot of things in it that we did not think were right," CCPR member Ed Cochran of the Holbrook Campground community said of the land-use plan and map.
Attorney Nate Cochran, his son and president of the CCPR Advisory Board, said the map does not show growth coming to the county.
"It only reflects what is in the county now and it does a poor job of that. There are properties that are not shown on the map," he said.
The county’s future land-use map shows a majority of northern Cherokee as rural areas, with country estates, equestrian lifestyle communities and suburban growth areas in eastern Cherokee. Much of southern Cherokee is labeled as suburban living on the map as it has already been developed.
Members of CCPR said they think the map should reflect the way the county is growing, not county leaders’ vision of what they think it should look like.
"If you look at the map, you can see a natural line of where people are starting to move to," Nate Cochran said. "The map should plan for the growth. If the plan does not account for any change, then what kind of plan is it? The door has to stay open for everybody because that is how our country works."
He said not allowing for some growth, especially in the eastern part of the county, will actually hurt the county.
"Forsyth County is allowing development and businesses and sewer right up to the county line," he said. "People in Cherokee who should be shopping and eating in Cherokee are going over to Forsyth."
The organization also has a few other concerns, including the appointment of slow-growth activists to the Cherokee County Planning Commission.
Members also said it seems some county residents think rural landowners should keep their property undeveloped to supply free green space to the community.
"We have held on to the land and now we are being punished for it," said CCPR advisory board member Chad Milford of northeastern Cherokee.
I encourage everyone to understand the immanent growth Cherokee County is facing and work to create a smart plan to accommodate this growth. CCPR meets again on January 29th at 7pm - Creekview High School.
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