John Luchetti campaigns for House District 28
News April 23, 2022
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – Republican John Luchetti is the blue collar candidate in the Georgia House District 28 race. He is a contractor who has never run for an elected office. His campaign is almost 100 percent self funded and he has no campaign manager to help guide him through the political process.
But he believes very strongly in the issue of school choice. When the new House District 28 was created, he saw an opportunity to fight for that issue and he stepped in to fight for that issue.
John, age 42, is married with twin sons age 21, and a three-year-old daughter, who attends Horizon Christian Academy.
“School choice is my driving force,” he said. “I’ve been told that we don’t need that in Forsyth County because we have some of the best schools in the state. But as a business owner, I know what makes my industry better is competition. If the schools had competition, I would argue they would be even better.” John also believes that when a student chooses to attend a private school, the money the state provides for a student’s education should follow them.
Like most conservatives, he believes in smaller government and less governmental oversight.
“We were lucky here in Georgia to have fewer lockdown days,” he said. “But we could just as easily have been like California or New York and still be locked down which is why I believe in less government oversight. I also don’t believe in pushing vaccines on people, especially children.”
He is one of the candidates who will participate in next week’s District 28 Forsyth County Republican Party debate
Commissioners are working to improve annexation notification process
News December 8, 2021
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – County Commissioners want citizens to know that just as the state has no ability to enforce proper annexation procedures, county governments similarly possess no ability to serve as a check and balance to annexation abuse.
Even though counties can object for up to one year, the objection process remains futile and achieving a meaningful change after an annexation is more unlikely than before.
In fact, the Board of Commissioners did file an objection to Horizon Christian Academy’s request to be annexed into the City of Cumming. The result is pending.
Commissioners discussed the issue for nearly half an hour at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners work session after being flooded with calls and emails from citizens objecting to the annexation
According to the Association of County Commissioners Georgia, “The dispute resolution process, O.C.G.A. §36-36-11, enacted in 2004 to resolve conflicts between counties and cities is generally meaningless. There are a number of problems with the statute. First, it is nonbinding and there are no repercussions if municipalities do not follow the law and do not cooperate in the dispute resolution process.”
Reality is county commissioners hands are tied and the best they can do is to implement a notification process to alert nearby residents and property owners of pending annexations.
Attorney Molly Esswein presented the draft proposal at Tuesday’s work session. The process would include:
- Notices being sent to properties adjacent to or within 500 feet of the subject property (both in the city and county) similar to the public participation notices under UDC for rezoning;
- Affected addresses to be identified by Planning and Community Development
- Notices to be mailed by County Mail Room.
The notices would contain notification that the County has received the application for annexation, the identification of the subject property, the parcel number or address when possible a link to the County GIS with maps and more detailed information.
Staff is expected to draft a notification letter to present to the Board of Commissioners at the next work session.
BOC files objection to Horizon’s request for annexation into the City
News November 24, 2021
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – Forsyth County Commissioners voted to send a letter to the City Council Tuesday to object to Horizon Christian Academy’s request for annexation into the City. The school is located at the intersection of Bettis Tribble Gap Road and Sawnee Drive.
County Attorney told commissioners that if the land is eventually annexed, the academy could be subdivided at a significant cost to the count.
Local government can object to annexation on the following grounds:
A proposed change in zoning or land use;
A proposed change in density;
Infrastructure demands related to proposed change in zoning or land use.
Commissioners also approved:
- Approved the list of items as surplus with authorization for the Department of Procurement to dispose of accordingly;
- An extended warranty service agreement with Service Express for the calendar year 2022 for Systems and Technology and the Sheriff’s Office in the amount of $17,076.00;
- Change Order #3 with Buildline General Contractors for additional scope of work for the Sawnee Mountain Park Renovations Project in the amount of $66,513 with 35 days added to the schedule;
- Change Order with Cogsdale to remove Vocantas Interactive Voice Response (IVR) from the Agreement and add Invoice Cloud Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for the Department of Water and Sewer. The estimated annual expenditure is $27,360;
- Amendment #1 to the Task Order with T.Y. Lin International regarding RFP 16-57-3150 Engineering Services – SR 369/Matt Hwy from Cherokee County Line to Wallace Tatum Road in the amount of $359,024;
- Award RFP 21-136-1620 for Janitorial Service for the Department of Public Facilities in the amount of $353,280;
- The First Amendment to the Lease Agreement to renew the Lease for Suite 1201 located at 514 West Maple Street, which is used for office space for the Department of Public Facilities. The Agreement is for three years at a rate of $12.48/SF or $1,144.00 per month with an annual cost of $13,728.00 and allows for a 3% increase for each renewal year;
- Authorization for staff to apply for the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank Grant in the amount of $1,500,000 to provide an alternate route (Coal Mountain Connector) to the North Forsyth County School Complex and to provide congestion relief at the SR9 / SR369 intersection. No match is required;
- Authorization for staff to apply for the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) Grant for costs associated with intersection improvements at Punch Hammond Road and Highway 9. The total project cost will be $1,500,000 with $1,200,000.00 Federal Funding and $300,000 (20% match) local funding;
- Authorization for the Sheriff’s Office to accept an Amendment to a MOU with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) due to approval of no cost extension granted, award 2019-MO-BX-0025 FY2019 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Grant Program;
- To renew the Extension Services Contract with the University of Georgia for FY 2022 in the amount of $211,375 regarding the County’s portion of salaries for Professional Services;
- Task Order #23 with CH2M Hill, Inc. in the amount of $140,100.00 for Intake Water Quality Sampling for the Department of Water and Sewer;
- Task Order #24 with CH2M Hill, Inc. in the amount of $112,500.00 for Intake Permitting Support for the Department of Water and Sewer;
- Task Order #25 with CH2M Hill, Inc. in the amount of $1,705,800.00 for Geotechnical and Tunnel Analysis for the Department of Water and Sewer;
- A Contract Item Agreement between Georgia Department of Transportation and Forsyth County regarding reimbursement of an estimated $3,035,930 for relocation of water and sewer facilities on State Route 9 from SR 371/Post Road to SR 141/Bethelview Road due to road widening;
- Placing amendments to the Tree Ordinance on a public hearing agenda;
- Placing a County-Initiated variance process in favor of Andalusia Properties, Inc. related to tax parcel 217-004 at 3571 Browns Bridge Road, for that degree of variance necessary to allow the installation of Georgia Transmission Corporation utility infrastructure within the required landscape buffer/strip for parcel 217-004;
- A County-Initiated Conditional Use Permit for a personal care home, serving 10 persons or less on 5.286 acres currently zoned Lake Residential District (LR) – Parcel 269-041;
- Authorization for a County initiated rezoning of parcels 216-024, 236-044, 236-094, 236-006, and 236-005 from A1 to M1 (property assemblage located north of the intersection of Martin Road and Settingdown Road), with those necessary conditional use permits as determined by County staff that will allow the property to be used for warehouses, associated distribution facilities, Office Commercial Multiple Story (OCMS), and office uses, with the property owners to pay those direct costs associated with the rezoning (i.e., advertising costs, etc.), for an ordinary rezoning staff review to occur, and further authorization for the DRI process to be initiated;
- Closing of Hearthstone Lodge Senior Center and transitioning to Central Park and Cumming Aquatic Center;
- Reappointment of a Traci Jones as representative to the Keep Forsyth County Beautiful (KFCB) Board of Directors for a two-year term to begin January 2022 and expire January 2024;
- A staffing Incentive Plan for the 911 Center;
- A resolution authorizing acceptance of a .391 property donation adjacent to the Forsyth County Library – Cumming branch, and the conveyance of two (2) temporary and permanent sewer line easements to the Providence Group and/or the City of Cumming.