During a recent meeting, commissioners also:
• Appointed Chandon Adams as the Commission District 1 representative for the Parks and Recreation Board
• Approved an agreement with the Forsyth County Board of Education to lease .5 acres at the intersection of Kitchen and Mullinax roads that may be used to re-locate the late Dr. Leila Denmark’s practice to Denmark High School
• OK’d several projects to be funded by the Peachtree Parkway Improvement District from the county’s solid waste fund
• Asked the local delegation of the General Assembly to sponsor legislation to set a coroner’s salary at $53,000 with a cost of living adjustment and also approved a $6,000 supplement
• Accepted United Way’s 2016 Community Partnership Grant Award Agreement with Juvenile Court for an amount not to exceed $17,700
• Approved the Georgia Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia Victims of Crime Act Grant Award for an amount not to exceed $100,643 with a required cash match of $25,161
• Ratified an application made by the fire department to the Department of Homeland Security for a 2016 Assistance to Firefighters Grant for an amount not to exceed $173,033.39 with a required cash match not to exceed $19,225.93
• Allowed a lease with DiamondView Products LLC to install rectangular metal slits on fences to be used for pictures at county baseball and softball fields
* All items were 5-0 unless otherwise noted
Forsyth County commissioners continued to fine tune recommendations for the update to the county’s 20-year land use plan.
At a work session on Tuesday, commissioners spoke with Amanda Hatton of Jacobs Engineering to give input and discuss changes to Foster Forsyth, the update of the county’s comprehensive plan.
No action was taken, but commissioners will hold a special called meeting to discuss the plan on Monday, Dec. 19.
One of the most visible changes in the update is splitting the county into 11 distinct areas, typically named after a community or landmark and regional, community and neighborhood nodes, or areas with specified zoning standards.
The character areas are McFarland, South Ga. 400, Big Creek, Haw Creek and Daves Creek, Lanier, Vickery Creek, Campground, North Ga. 400, Chestatee/Jot Em Down, Etowah and Sawnee Mountain.
During Tuesday’s discussion, District 4 Commissioner Cindy Jones Mills said she would like to see the North Ga. 400 area be its original size, rather than a more narrow recommendation from the county planning board.
“When you look at that … the parcels go over so much greater on the west side than the east side of 400,” she said.
Mills said she is concerned that a potential overlay on the area would be reduced and not capture the entire area.
District 3 Commissioner Todd Levent said he heard from constituents that certain nodes need to be reduced.
“They feel that the node on McFarland has expanded and is too large … they want it back where the original node was, and they also feel the one on Post Road is a little bit larger than it should be,” Levent said.
Levent also voiced concerns on master planned district zoning, which are used for mixed-use developments, in neighborhood nodes.
Hatton also said multi-use districts MU6 and MU12, which have caused concerns due to higher density, is a professional recommendation.
Since April, consultants with Jacobs Engineering and Kimley-Horn and Associates have held a handful of meetings with residents and stakeholders, with nearly 1,000 coming to events and more than 4,800 responding to a community survey.
A final decision will not be made until next year, after the county’s two recently elected commissioners, Rick Swope in District 2 and Laura Semanson in District 5, take office.
A draft of the plan and other information can be found at Fosterforsyth.com.