Forsyth County commissioners continued ongoing discussions on updates to the county’s 20-year comprehensive plan.
At a special called meeting on Monday regarding Foster Forsyth, the county’s future land use blueprint, commissioners talked about changing the Coal Mountain neighborhood node to a community node, which serves a larger area.
Foster Forsyth splits the county into 11 distinct areas, typically named after a community or landmark and regional, community and neighborhood nodes, or areas with specified zoning standards.
The character areas are McFarland, South Ga. 400, Big Creek, Haw Creek and Daves Creek, Lanier, Vickery Creek, Campground, North Ga. 400, Chestatee/Jot Em Down, Etowah and Sawnee Mountain.
Commissioners also continued discussions on proposed mixed-use zoning districts, MU6 and MU12, which would only be allowed in certain nodes. District 3 Commissioner Todd Levent said he is uncomfortable with the MU12, but “could live with” the lower-density MU6.
Commissioners also discussed a zoning condition study for commercial districts but did not take any action.
On the work program side, officials chose to move a housing study conducted by the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce from 2018 to 2017.
Since April, Foster Forsyth has held several meetings with community members, with nearly 1,000 coming to events and more than 4,800 responding to a community survey.
A final decision will not be made until next year, after the county’s two recently sworn in commissioners, Rick Swope in District 2 and Laura Semanson in District 5, take office.
A draft of the plan and other information can be found at Fosterforsyth.com.