Published: 04 February 2010
Dear Editor,
The county commissioners have voted to give developers a break on impact fees to stimulate business in Cherokee, but they should have taken a class in Economics 101. The first rule is “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
Current economic woes began when the commissioners were given extravagant “lunches”: the promise of new taxpaying homeowners and businesses.
But, now we sit with subdivisions of empty homes, strip malls with only one tenant, and, worst of all, our beautiful countryside stripped of trees and soil waiting for a buyer.
With the reduction of impact fees, the commissioners must be hungry again.
By giving the developers an incentive to develop more subdivisions and strip malls, the county will have more streets to maintain, more vacant buildings to patrol, and an even more unsightly countryside.
All of this will cost the county even more money.
It is time to get back to what made Cherokee County the desirable place to want to live:
• Smart growth (minimal zero lot line and townhouses). These are offered to those who couldn’t afford housing in the first place.
• Reduced commercial zoning. Do we need a dry cleaner and cell store on every corner? Give breaks to business owners who lease existing sites.
• Limited virgin land development. There are plenty of paved over sites to renew. Make incentives for redevelopment.
Robert Callegari, Acworth
