County to Benefit from Day’s Experience BY HARRY JOHNSTON
to be part of it. We’ve seen the damage that comes from the Brantley Day is the county’s new community development cities and the county working at cross-purposes. Coming from director. He replaces Geoff Morton, who recently was named Cherokee’s largest city, Brantley is in a unique position to help county manager. Brantley comes to the county from the city us create a true countywide plan that we all can adhere to. of Woodstock, where he served in a similar role, and the city We also will look to Brantley’s expertise for of Holly Springs prior to that. many other projects. For example, the county It’s a big job, second only to the county needs to finish a short-term rental ordinance manager, in its scope. Brantley will manage to get control over the currently unregulated the county’s road work, engineering, rental of residential properties for large parties development permitting, building inspection, and events. We also need to figure out how to and planning and zoning. These are all areas manage the proliferation of self-storage units. of strategic importance to the seventh-largest And, we need to continue to find ways to and second-fastest growing county in Georgia. encourage low-impact residential development There’s much to be done, and we have high by local builders, versus mass development by expectations. national companies. We must continue to build on our recent On another note, county staff need to momentum to improve roads. The state has determine what, if anything, we can do to stepped up to help with highways, and we’ve keep housing affordable for police, firefighters, focused on keeping up local roads. But, it’s an ongoing and growing challenge. We’re Brantley Day is Cherokee County’s new starting teachers and other essential workers who find it tough to buy a $350,000 home working on a major update to the county’s community development director. or pay $1,500 per month for rent. This means Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP), we need to decide whether to increase the development which will guide the county’s road work for the next 25 years. impact fee charged on new homes and other construction Immediately following the CTP update, we’ll start the significantly, or not. process to update the county’s overall comprehensive plan. We know we can rely on Brantley as we tackle these issues, It’s best known for its land-use component, which is the and many more. Welcome, Brantley! guide for managing the county’s growth and development for the coming 25 years. This plan is the primary template against which rezoning requests are measured and decided. Absolutely nothing is more critical to our county’s future Harry Johnston is chairman of the Cherokee County than an effective plan to shape and reasonably restrain our Board of Commissioners. He's a retired CPA and growth, to make Cherokee County even greater. accounting manager, and a former district commissioner. However, for a land use plan to be effective, the cities have
AROUND WOODSTOCK | September 2021
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