Charles Shiflett Column November 28, 2004

The Future Of Bartow County

I don't need a crystal ball for this prediction. In ten years our county will be unrecognizable. In 1980,
the population of Bartow County stood at 40,760. Twenty years later, in 2000, it had jumped to 76,019.
Some growth projections place Bartow's population at 325,000 in just another twenty short years from
now.

Despite the growth we have experienced, our county is still pretty much a blank slate. There are huge
tracts of timber, pasture, and farmland remaining, most of which will eventually be developed to some
degree. Fortunately, there is still time for us to implement smart growth policies that will protect this
area for future generations.

Yes, Toyo Tire will forever change the town of White and that adjoining area along U.S. 411. And
Carter Grove and other developments planned along the soon to be widened Old Alabama Road will
have tremendous impact on Cartersville's booming south side.

Any reasonable person would expect that over time, areas along major highways and near cities would
give birth to industrial, commercial, or high-density residential development. What concerns me is the
trend in recent months of allowing higher density residential growth to occur in rural areas.

Very soon the Bartow County Planning Commission and County Commissioner Clarence Brown will
decide the fate of a recently submitted land use and zoning change application that will potentially
have more of an impact long term than any project to date.

The application involves 283 acres along both sides of Cass-Pine Log Road just below the cattle farm
of Roger Kahn. This land is currently zoned as agricultural, meaning that any homes built on it would
require a minimum lot size of five acres. Considering required new roads and topography, you might
squeeze about fifty houses onto these parcels.

The land use map shows the potential future use of this property as rural estate. Numerous nice new
homes on large three to five acre lots have been constructed in recent years immediately adjacent to
the subject property. If the 283 acres were rezoned according to the land use map as rural estate with
a three-acre minimum, developers could place about eighty homes here.

Even though eighty homes would negatively impact local schools and winding country road traffic, the
character of the area would be preserved to some degree. However, what the potential developer of the
283-acre site wants is something entirely different. He is requesting that the property be zoned for a
“planned unit development”… referred to by its acronym “PUD”.

The developer's plans call for 700 homes on tiny quarter-acre lots. The possibility also exists for
limited commercial use under the PUD designation. This is high density in a place where it should
never even be considered.

If this property is ever rezoned for anything other than rural estate, then no place in Bartow County will
be safe. A precedent will have been set and Bartow County will quickly disappear under a sea of
dense subdivisions.

Bartow County already has the lowest average home price of any county in the metro Atlanta area
according to a recent study. This is bad news, as starter homes do not generate sufficient property tax
revenue to cover their share of county services or their impact on the local school systems.

Other Atlanta “doughnut” counties such as Henry, Coweta, and Hall have in recent years increased the
minimum lot size requirement for homes “out in the country” from one acre to as much as five acres in
some areas. Many of our neighboring governments are also raising minimum home square footage
standards in order to attract higher quality homes.

If we are serious about keeping Bartow County as a great place to live, then our officials need to draw
the line now. Once a property is rezoned, there is no going back. Most local developers I've spoken
with would be satisfied with rural estate designations for most of the county with higher densities
restricted to cities and areas along major highways served by sewer.

Through the use of greenspace set asides and with the creation of a plan where developers could
purchase “development rights” from country landowners to offset higher densities in our cities, we
could create a balanced approach to growth that would preserve our rural landscapes and enhance our
quality of life.

During the debate over whether Toyo Tire should be allowed to locate near White, many county
residents stood on the sidelines because they were assured the Toyo project was a special case and
that the land use map would be adhered to in the future. If projects such the one proposed for Cass-
Pine Log Road begin to gain approval, then Bartow County citizens will owe Residents Against Spot
Zoning a big apology.

Commissioner Clarence Brown has taken a somewhat slow growth approach during his time in office,
but it will take real toughness from Brown and our planning board members to keep Bartow from
looking like Gwinnett County in a few years. Saying no to the proposed Cass-Pine Log Road project is
a good place to start.