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Forsyth County man encourages 'smart growth'

A local volunteer-based organization is trying to create a healthy balance between new development and the effect it has on the environment.

CUMMING, Ga. — Smart Growth Forsyth County is working to save the trees but not in the way you might think.

“Smart Growth has worked with the county and inside the county to provide citizens, homeowners, and homeowners associations a forum to bring their concerns about development, and then work in a balanced way to find a solution,” Robert Slaughter, the group’s founder, said. “As the name implies, we're not anti-growth. We’re smart growth.”

Slaughter says he formed the group 15 years ago, after a prolonged fight with a major retailer. Through the years, more development has come to the area, which means more work for him

“At the end of the comprehensive plan in 2017, very specific recommendations were made that the county should relook at its tree ordinance, it's mass grading ordinance, and it's stormwater prevention or management ordinances,” Slaughter said. “It was kind of one of those aha moments where we said ‘well what about the trees?’ Everybody has complained about mass grading, and the ways development can get around mass grading.”

So Slaughter started working on a way to rewrite the ordinances in a way that creates a win-win situation. His proposal had four parts: plan for trees first, save the best trees, stop mass grading (widespread tree removal), and “beef up” the enforcement.

“A $1,000 fine is nothing to a development. It's just not,” he said. “$10,000 or a 30-day stop order, that would get folks attention.”

He says the county requested a plan that involves specifics things, including the revision of the tree ordinance, mass grading ordinance, and stormwater ordinance. The latter of the three has been put on hold because of federal changes to the Clean Water Act, but the other two are moving forward.

“The county went ahead with getting contract support to revise the tree ordinance and the mass grading ordinance,” Slaughter said. “They had I think somewhere between four and six public hearings where they brought these issues out, they collected the public's input, then the contractors went back and have been chewing on this now for three or four months, looking to rewrite the existing ordinances.”

This is becoming critical, he says, as the board will soon receive the initial draft.

“What we're trying to do is open people's eyes up, to get out of their backyard, send an email, call the commissioner, stop by to a Smart Growth meeting or one of their local meetings, and just express their concerns or support,” Slaughter said.

To learn more, check out the group's website.

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