After Forsyth County commissioners recently passed a moratorium pausing all high-density residential developments for at least one month, one Hall County commissioner is publicly calling for a similar move.
Forsyth commissioners made the decision at their meeting on April 17 after a resolution was passed by the Forsyth County Board of Education requesting the moratorium due to school capacity concerns.
"The Forsyth County Board of Education respectfully requests that the Forsyth County Government and the City of Cumming take effective measures to reduce or eliminate high-density residential development; and take proactive steps to attract, support, and expand high-quality commercial development across the county and city," the resolution from the board of education said.
The Cumming City Council has not held a meeting since the April 15 resolution by the board of education.
Hall County District 3 Commissioner Gregg Poole said at the end of the Tuesday, April 22 Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting that he would like to see a similar moratorium passed in Hall. His comments came after a 248-lot subdivision near Lula, within Poole's district, was approved by commissioners despite Poole's dissent.
"I don't want (high-density zonings) in my district," Poole said. "I don't want people telling me that I can have it in my district that don't even care about what my people want. It infuriates me."
No other commissioners commented on Poole's statement at the April 22 meeting. District 2 Commissioner Billy Powell, however, spoke to AccessWDUN on Wednesday, saying he does not support a moratorium.
"I don't think it's good for the Hall County economy. It says to the outside world, we don't want any more people moving into Hall County," Powell said. "I know there are some that feel that way, but from an overall economic development standpoint, I don't believe that sends a good message to companies looking to move in, especially with some of these huge companies bringing over $100 million of investment. Why are they going to come to Hall County and put their business here if we don't want any more people?"
Poole spoke on WDUN's "The Drive at 5" Wednesday afternoon and disagreed with Powell's argument.
"Who wouldn't want to come where we restrict high-density, where we're making sure we have quality growth?" Poole said. "Who wouldn't want to come to a quality area, because of the lake? Who would want to come to an area that's so congested, you can't get down the roads because the traffic is so bad?"
In a recent podcast by the Forsyth County Government, Forsyth County District 2 Commissioner and Commission Chair Alfred John said the goal of their moratorium is to allow time for commissioners and school board members to assess and plan for growth.
"We would like the board of education to have a seat at the table in these conversations, and talk about what does residential growth look like over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years," John said. "It's a good problem to have, but we all have to work together to figure out what the solutions are."
Forsyth County District 4 Commissioner Mendy Moore agreed with John's comments.
"I talked about maybe doing an inventory of what's out there, and what are, I kind of call them, ticking time bombs in District Four (northeast Forsyth County,)" Moore said. "They are large parcels of land that were zoned years and years ago, and at any moment they could pop right out of the ground...That impacts our school system dramatically."
Such moratoriums not unprecedented in the region, as Northeast Georgia continues to see rapid residential growth. Forsyth County instituted a similar moratorium in 2017, and Jackson County commissioners instituted a 12-month moratorium on all residential developments in 2021.
Poole said he doesn't have a specific timetable for how long he would want a moratorium to last, but he said he would want it to remain in effect until regulations were passed increasing the maximum lot sizes for developments.
"We've passed some this year that were 5,500-square-foot lots in South Hall," Poole said. "Nobody in my district wants to be like South Hall. South Hall doesn't even want to be like South Hall...I'm not even saying I'm against subdivisions, but the houses we're building are eight foot from eave to eave. Eight feet. That ought to shock most people."
