Forsyth County leaders heard a final draft review of the Forsyth County Economic Development plan as presented by the Cumming-Forsyth Chamber of Commerce.
The need for the plan stems from an important economic challege as Forsyth county leaders acknowledge the imbalance in the tax digest with with 70% paid by residential taxes and 30% by businesses.
Chamber President and CEO James McCoy acknowledged the steps commissioners are already taking to address this and gave them the good news when he said, "Project inquiries are up 113%. We're at 66 right now. The number of project announcements are up 93% from this time last year with 9 project announcements. Capital investment is up 19% at a little over $110,000,000 in new capital investment. We expect that's going to continue to grow through the end of the year."
He further stressed the impressiveness of the growth when he said, "In fact, that growth is far surpassing what we are seeing other economic development entities experience."
McCoy introduced the board to John Roberts of TIP Strategies out of Austin, Texas; a group chosen to help commissioners and the chamber successfully implement steps to grow the county's economy.
Roberts laid out the various factors that contribute to a healthy job market and gave them the most important goal for the county to achieve when he said, "Forsyth needs to focus on higher wage jobs with greater skills. There's no question in our mind that that is our number one recommendation to you."
Other recmmendations included the need for a convention center and hotel development, a mixed use development on Lake Lanier possibly with a medical anchor, and the designation of Georgia 400 as an interstate highway.
Roberts expressed the importance of giving up the idea of continuing to be a rural, bedroom community to Commissioners to which the board pointed out how many people who attend the meetings resist this change of mindset.
Commissioners instructed staff to put a link to the presentation on the county's website in order to encourage input from the residents.
Click here to view the presentation.
