Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog

Not far from the backed-up traffic on Ga. 92 in north Fulton County, Mountain Park sits apart on a half-square mile of hilly woodlands that slope down to two small lakes teeming with waterfowl. The 500-some residents love the town’s tranquility, scruffiness, mishmash of housing and curling one-lane roads. “It’s quirky, it’s Southern, it’s intelligent, it’s backward,” said Keith Ridgway, an 11-year resident. “It’s like living in a state park.”

But paradise has a price. Town politics marked by apathy. Very high taxes. And a lawsuit that’s bleeding the town coffers.

On Wednesday night a town hall meeting was held to mull the eternal Mountain Park questions.

Should the town dissolve the charter and become part of unincorporated Fulton County? Would it be better for Mountain Park to be annexed into Roswell or even Woodstock? Why don’t more people run for town council?

But the gorilla in the living room was the lawsuit. And that’s such a touchy subject that Mayor Jim Still didn’t want it talked about.

“This is a brainstorming session, not a blame-storming session,” he said.

In 2005, the town council sued several developers in upstream Roswell, saying they ruined the lakes with sediment from building sites. The town’s lawyer, Martin Shelton, said it would cost $2 million to
$3 million to dredge the lake and haul off the spoilage. Though three of eight defendants have settled, no trial date has been set.

Meanwhile, Mountain Park has paid more than $1.76 million in legal fees, said town clerk Karen Segars. That’s a hefty tab for a bare-bones operation with a $482,000 annual operating budget. The town employs only one full-time employee — Segars — and three part-timers.

Because of the lawsuit, Mountain Park taxpayers have taken a hit. The owner of a $200,000 home in Mountain Park pays $942.40 in town taxes before exemptions. The millage is 11.78, higher than neighboring towns Roswell or Alpharetta, which offer city police, parks and a bevy of other services. Residents bear all the tax burden because Mountain Park doesn’t have a single retail businesses, not even a convenience store.

Some residents said the lawsuit has put the town in such a distressed position that it’s impossible to decide questions about the town’s future, such as whether to dissolve the charter. Hope Mays said shutting down the town is hardly a new idea.

“This is a question that’s always there,” said Mays.

Still said some problems will remain, no matter how the lawsuit ends. For instance, the town has trouble finding enough people to run for the seven council seats. Shrinking the council and changing terms from four to two years might increase participation, people at the meeting agreed.

The session ended with a decision to determine what residents want more information about.

Longtime resident Pat McLendon said it’s hard to get Mountain Park folks to agree on anything.

“We’ve always had a lot of fighting in Mountain Park, politically,” she said. “You have some that won’t change and some who want to change.”

Labels: developer, lake, Mountain Park, sues

Several years ago the graceful, long-necked birds showed up unannounced and were quickly adopted as mascots for the wooded town of 500 people built around two lakes in north Fulton County.

When a coyote killed Juliet, residents made sure the male, Romeo, was provided another love interest, also named Juliet. When she died of an infection caused by a fishhook in the neck, they came up with Viola last fall.

Residents loved to see the swans cruising the lake, but Mayor Jim Still said the birds and the town never had the right chemistry. The swans were too aggressive, especially at nesting time.

"It made it a little hard to go on the swing set when you had a large white swan chasing you," Still said.

The real violence started a few about a month ago when Viola's leg was mangled, apparently by a snapping turtle, said Karen Segars, the clerk and Mountain Park's only full-time employee.

Viola spent 10 days at the veterinarian and ran up a $1,000 bill, paid by a local civic club. The three cygnets were so young they had to stay with Viola. When mother and babies returned, Romeo started hurting a cygnet, apparently viewing it as a rival for food, Segars said. Viola joined the beatdown.

"Children were hysterical because the mother and father were attacking a baby swan," Segars said. "The decision was made on the spot that the babies must be saved."

In the following days, Romeo crossed into Lake Garrett and started killing wood ducklings. Before, he'd stuck to Lake Cherful. The city council called a special meeting June 27 and decided to find a new home for the birds. By that time, the birds had been moved to a private pond near Cumming, Segars said. The cygnets were sold, the money used to pay part of the vet bill.

That's the swan song for Romeo and Viola.

"They coexisted for several years," Segars said. "Then whatever happened, happened."

Labels: Forsyth, Forsyth County, Mountain Park, North Fulton, Swans

Riley says new county is financially viable

The Carl Vinson Institute of Government has released its study of Milton County. The new county would consist of the cities of Alpharetta, Roswell, Johns Creek, Milton, Sandy Springs and Mountain Park and would have an estimated population of about 311,121.

The estimated revenue for Milton County is about $209.6 million with expenditures estimated between $133.1 million and $147.9 million.

The Road to Milton County

According to District 3 Fulton County Commissioner Lynne Riley, the process of recreating Milton County would be similar to the recent city incorporations and involve just as much resident input.

A Johns Creek resident herself, Ms. Riley said a “cafeteria plan” would allow residents to pick and choose what they wanted in the county charter. But first, if it passes the legislature, the measure would be voted on in a statewide referendum on the 2010 ballot. Then, just as with the city incorporations, the legislature would have to pass the charter legislation. This would most likely happen during the 2011 or 2012 session, said Ms. Riley. Then a transition period to taking over county services from Fulton County would take about four years and the county would “open” in 2014 or 2015.



The case for making Milton County, said Ms. Riley, would be to create a county with a great deal of flexibility, easily affordable services and the opportunity for cost savings. Although she would no longer be able to serve as a county commissioner if Milton County were recreated, she would be involved in the new county government either as a resident volunteer or elected official.

Government Services

The Carl Vinson study assumes the new county would provide the following services:
Superior Court
State Court
Magistrate Court
Probate Court
Juvenile Court
Public Health
Emergency Shelter
Senior Services
Libraries
Emergency Management Services
Animal Control
Elections and Voter Registration
Government Administration
Tax Administration
School System

Based on the study, Ms. Riley said recreating Milton County is viable. She said a separate Milton County Board of Education would be created and the study shows that schools would remain at their current level of service delivery in north Fulton.

Because Milton County would have no unincorporated areas, the county would not need to provide police, fire, public works, transportation or water services, as those would be handled by each city.

Impact on Fulton County

The creation of Milton County would reshape Fulton County, changing its population from 900,200 to about 589,079. The median income, now estimated at $47,092 would drop to an estimated $36,930. The estimated median income for Milton County is $86,743.

According to Ms. Riley the new Fulton County would suffer no shortfall if Milton County were recreated.

“All the [tax] money goes into a shared pot right now, the money is shared equitably across the whole county,” she said. “With just a marginal adjustment, services in the remaining Fulton County could stay at the current level. Opposition to recreating the county, as it was with the creation of the cities, because Fulton County would be losing tax revenue is simply not the case.”

The full study is available at http://www.cviog.uga.edu/miltoncounty. Check our website for more details as more information becomes available.

Labels: Alpharetta, city milton, Johns Creek, milton county, Mountain Park, north fulton county, Roswell, sandy springs