Friday, June 22,
2001
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Fulton County infrastructure behind, not broken By THOMAS
C. ANDREWS
Imagine how odd the following headlines would be: "Faucet works every day for two years straight." Or "Street repairs completed without a hitch; No one notices." Good news is so boring it never gets reported. Most of the time during normal circumstances, basic government services work so well that nobody notices. Every morning we wake up, turn on the faucet, and clean drinking water comes out. What we flush disappears out of sight, out of mind. A quick call to 911 brings help in less than five minutes. These things happen so reliably, we rarely think about what it takes or costs for them to continue. Only when it doesn't work do we even notice. Every day, Fulton County employees maintain over 1,200 miles of roads and 1,300 miles of sewers. They repair bridges and potholes, operate libraries, provide health care and other support for needy residents. They protect lives and property through the Police, Fire, Sheriff and Marshals departments. They keep the bad guys off the street, and prevent others from going bad in the first place. They keep clean water coming, and dirty water going. For Fulton County residents, these services are delivered at an extremely decent price. Fulton County's 2000 general fund budget was about $540 million. Fifty-nine percent of that is funded by property taxes which, broken down by population (816,000), amounts to about $388 per capita. The approximately 262,000 residents of unincorporated Fulton County pay Fulton County (again through property taxes) about $153 per capita for municipal services (police, fire, parks). So for about $2,200 per year, a family of four gets roads, libraries, parks, police and fire protection, senior centers, health care, arts classes and sports camps. Fulton County is dealing with decades of explosive growth that has happened much faster than anyone anticipated. Fulton grew by over 160,000 people over the last 10 years, mostly in north Fulton. That's an increase of over 25 percent. While new residents do increase the tax roll, they never end up paying enough in property taxes to cover the costs of new services. This is especially true with infrastructure, because building and maintaining roads and sewers are the most expensive endeavors a local government undertakes. Over time, local government resources are stretched thin as funds are spent on addressing both new as well as existing needs. Keeping up with it all is a very real challenge. When discussing land use and development issues as well as planning for future infrastructure, we must assume the build-out of the existing Comprehensive Land Use Plan according to existing zoning. Much of the currently undeveloped land is already zoned for some other use. For the most part, property owners are free to do what they want as long as they follow current zoning regulations. The majority of Fulton County's zoning cases about two-thirds are consistent with the CLUP. Many of those actually result in a density less than what the land is zoned for. Zoning and the development process are related but separate processes. The building process, which entails several permits (e.g. land disturbance, building, certificate of occupancy), is closely regulated. Each permit is granted only after significant review and/or inspection. Throughout the building permit process, disclaimers on forms repeatedly warn that there is no guarantee of sewer availability. As we take on current and future challenges, consider several points. First, not a lot of developers stay in business very long by building things for which there is no demand. Furthermore, government has the responsibility to provide services for the health, safety and welfare for all who want to come. But finally, the good news: the explosive growth is itself evidence that many things have been done right. Our quality of life in Fulton County is very good, which is why so many people have come here over the last 20 years. "No growth" is simply not a realistic option. Fulton County government is doing everything it can to provide the best service we can to every resident of the county. Hopefully, we can all work together to shape a future that everybody can live with.
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