Kevin Tanner

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – County Manager Kevin Tanner recommended that the Board of Commissioners use $17-$19 million of the $47.37 million the county will receive under the American Recovery Act to construct targeted commercial sewer that could generate many times the investment in new tax revenue.

Tanner, a former state representative, made the recommendation at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting after he met with members of county’s Planning, Water and Sewer and Economic Development departments and the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce.

The dollars would be spent primarily in north Forsyth where Tanner said “significant commercial, industrial businesses” have expressed an interest but where there is no sewer availability. “These are places we feel like we can have the highest return on investment,” he said. “We want to spend these dollars where 20 years from now citizens in Forsyth County are going to know where their tax dollars went.”

Laura Semanson

One sewer line Tanner recommend is located along Hwy. 20 and across Yellow Creek Road where it crosses Aaron Sosebee Road.

Slade Gulledge, vice president of economic development for the Chamber said there has been a lot of interest from commercial, industrial developers in the area of Settingdown Road and Bottoms Road. “These two sites have a potential for 1.4 million square feet of industrial development. An initial analysis on that very conservatively would yield $14.3 million over a 10 year span.  If you do nothing, it will get you $600,000 over those years.”

Commissioner Molly Cooper did not attend Tuesday’s meeting. Commissioners Todd Levent, Cindy Mills, Laura Semanson and Alfred John viewed the proposal favorably but wanted safeguards built in to prevent property zoned commercial for industrial projects from becoming high-density residential if the projects are not completed.

“My biggest concern is to make sure we are framing this in a manner that is legally defensible to reserve that capacity and simply for commercial use,” said Semanson. “Until it is developed, we are at risk. It could pay off huge but it could bite us in the butt as well.”

John said, “All of us know that any time sewer goes in, high-density residential follows.” He added that he too wants safeguards.

Cindy Mills

Mills said, “If we sit on our hands and let the past repeat itself, all of this land in my district will wind up being residential.”

Tanner suggested that staff be authorized to move forward with design and right-of-way easement acquisition but not construct anything until there is a commitment from a commercial development to locate there. “That is the difficult part of this,” he said. “That may take us two years.”

Ultimately, the Board agreed to allow staff to move forward, but do no construction until the county attorneys can draft the safeguards commissioners feel necessary and the issue comes back before the Board for final approval.