Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog: October 2011

CUMMING, Ga. — From her home, Meg Sparwath can hear the West Forsyth High School marching band — Pride of the West — rehearsing.

Sparwath lives in the Ashebrooke neighborhood, about 1.5 miles from the school, but her daughter will not be attending West.

"They are trying to move us to Forsyth Central High School, which is over four times as far for us," Sparwath said.

Sparwath is one of several Ashbrooke residents upset at the newly redistricted student attendance lines, which places the Bethelview corridor students at a new high school.

Redistricting for the 2012-13 school year also adjusts feeder patterns and moves students from North Forsyth HS and West Forsyth HS to Central HS, which is under capacity by about 750 students.

"Because there's no funding for any new high schools or any additions in the foreseeable future, we have to relieve West and also populate Central," Jennifer Caracciolo, Forsyth County Schools spokeswoman, said. "West is not over capacity, but looking into the future, they will be next year."

North Forsyth High School is currently over capacity.

Forsyth County School officials began the redistricting process in order to populate the new Kelly Mill Elementary School.

The school district staff has received feedback on the first and second drafts of the 2012-13 attendance lines from local school councils at impacted schools that also include Chattahoochee Elementary School, Coal Mountain ES, Cumming ES, Sawnee ES, Vickery Creek ES, Whitlow ES, Liberty Middle School, Little Mill MS, North Forsyth MS, Otwell MS and Vickery Creek MS.

Feedback on the proposed redistricting of students is being collected until Oct. 31 through the Forsyth County Schools website www.forsyth.k12.ga.us.

Sparwath said the proposals she has seen do not include changes to the Bethelview corridor that residents have requested. She plans to continue to oppose the drafts to the local school councils and the Forsyth County Board of Education. Sparwath said among her concerns is longer travel times if there's after-school participation.

"Basically, we think they are not supporting us and they are just worrying about numbers," Sparwath said.

Caracciolo said the board of education wants to let local school councils collect the information prior to finalizing the maps in November.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, a public hearing will take place Forsyth Central High School, 520 Tribble Gap Road in Cumming. Several parents will voice their concerns with the redistricting, and school board members will be there to hear the feedback from the community. They will discuss all of the concerns they collect at their Nov. 3 meeting.

"Now, it's opened up for everyone to give feedback," Caracciolo said.

Labels: Forsyth, Forsyth County, Forsyth County Schools, Forysth, Forysth County, school district, School Redistricting, schools

There were 8,845 foreclosure notices in the metro Atlanta area in October, up 16 percent from September's 7,634, according to Equity Depot of Kennesaw.

Foreclosure notices are the first step in the process but do not always lead to a repossession. Property buyers can avoid foreclosure by paying loans or negotiating new deals with banks or lenders.

Bramlett said some of the businesses that one might expect a slow economy to affect are showing strains.

One example that showed up in Equity Depot's numbers were notices for a $175 million blanket loan that secures 19 separate Jameson Inns in Georgia. The W Hotel in Buckhead on Peachtree Street has been advertised for several months on a $36.5 million deed, Bramlett said.

"The economic affect on [hotels and motels], gas stations, truck stops, et cetera is very evident. Don’t expect much of this to change until economic conditions do," he said.

Among residential properties, about 70 percent of notices have run in a prior period, the numbers say.

"This indicates serious delinquencies remain very high," Bramlett said.

"There’s no way to know how many new properties are becoming delinquent based on foreclosure notices here," he said. "It may mean that lenders are simply running notices on the most serious delinquencies. I know [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] had instituted some one-year moratoriums for the unemployed. There may be too many factors to really know anymore. Delinquency rates on all mortgages, based on Mortgage Bankers Association figures, have minimally come down this year but are still very, very high."

During good years in metro Atlanta, there were between 2,000 and 3,000 notices a month. They hit a peak in November of 2010 with 13,834, and were above 10,000 for the first three months of this year.

12,000 notices down to date compared to last year. Seems to have hit a plateau at current levels.

Year over year, foreclosures are down 12,154 from totals of 103,603 in 2010 to 91,449 through September.

The lowest number of foreclosures in October in the 13-county metro region was Fayette County, with 135. The highest was Gwinnett, with 1,889, followed by Fulton, with 1,632, DeKalb with 1,377, Cobb with 977, Clayton with 750, Henry with 527, Cherokee with 363, Douglas with 315, Forsyth with 256, Hall with 252, Rockdale with 217, and Bartow with 155.

Labels: Forclosures, Foreclosed, foreclosed homes, foreclosed homes for sale, foreclosed land, foreclosed properties, foreclosure, Foreclosures, foreclosures for sale, Georgia

Several ideas would divert traffic from problem area

by Jonathan Copseywrite the author

Traffic in Crabapple is a known headache to those who have to travel through it. Vehicles get backed up significantly as they pass through the tight, one-lane squeeze that is the intersection of Birmingham Highway and Mayfield Road.

A community meeting held Sept. 27 at the Alpharetta Community Center was aimed at coming up with solutions to the problem.

First is a series of widenings and general improvements to the intersection itself, along with left-turn lanes on three of the four approaches. That's a done deal, said Milton Transportation Director Carter Lucas.

"We have money to build that, and one other option," he said.

That second option is what the meeting was about. Maps were presented to the public showing three different choices. All involved building new roadways with the eventual aim to create something like a ring road around Crabapple, as was promoted in the master plan created by planner Lew Oliver over the summer.

One option links Crabapple Road to Birmingham Highway behind the Olde Blind Dog group of shops, using several of the streets in the unfinished development at the back. This would create new roundabouts at both ends of the road.

Another option goes from that roundabout eastward and curves down to intersect with the traffic light at Charlotte Drive. This might also become a roundabout.

A third option could go from Mid-Broadwell Road and link up with Birmingham Highway to the south of the intersection.

Once a project is settled upon, any construction is still far off – it would be 2014 at the earliest, with a 2016 opening.

For more information on Milton's traffic projects, visit www.miltonintersectionprojects.com.

Labels: Crabapple, roads, Traffic

The two-acre property off Ga. 400 and exit 14 chosen by Cracker Barrel, 302 Tri County Plaza in Cumming, was formerly Pappy Red's (PR's) BBQ and Mrs. Winners Chicken and Biscuits. Both restaurants had been cleared by Venture Construction crews by Sept. 30.

The property is like an island within the city limits of Cumming, Gravitt said.

The city has planned and is in the process of annexing the property at the request of the property owner.

"We have the city on the north side and the city on the south side," Gravitt said.

The city provides water and sewer services for the property.

So far, no plans for the annexation have been submitted to Forsyth County, said Tom Brown, the county's planning and community development director.

Brown said Norcross-based Venture Construction finalized all of its permits Sept. 23.

The Tennessee-based company operates about 600 full-service restaurants and gift shops in some 41 states.

Labels: cracker barrel, Cumming