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Coweta population could top 200,000 in 20 years

By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com

A small but inquisitive crowd assembled at the County Commission chambers in Newnan Tuesday night to get a first glimpse at the county’s growth management plans for the next 20 years.

According to one estimate presented by consultants from Jordan Jones & Goulding, the county’s population could cross the 200,000 barrier in 20 years.

“If you keep developing like you are, in 20 years, you’ll look like Gwinnett did 10 years ago,” said Dr. Steven French.

French outlined four different scenarios for the commissioners to decide how they wanted to manage the upcoming growth. The first scenario outlined is the trend continuation. In this scenario, French said “it would be business as usual” and the county’s population would balloon to 175,000. The county’s employment would be nearly 62,000, while the lot size would remain the same at 1.6 acres.

The second scenario French called the service efficiency strategy. This scenario would see the county’s population jump to 206,000 and lot size would be reduced to quarter-acre lots where sewer was available. Growth would be concentrated along growth needs and infill development.

In the rural preservation scenario, the county’s population would only rise to 166,000. Lot size would be increased to 10 acres without sewer availability and half-acre lots with sewer. French said 50 percent of the growth in this scenario would occur in the incorporated areas.

The final scenario is the economic development strategy. The county’s population would top 166,000, but the employment would increase nearly 50 percent to 99,000 jobs.

“What type of jobs would these be?” asked Commissioner Paul Poole.

Poole said he assumes the county would be looking for high-paying manufacturing jobs, but with the state of the economy, it’s tough to find that many jobs.

“More of the property tax would be shifted to the industries,” said French.

Commissioner Greg Tarbutton looked at the different strategies and wondered if the county had to just settle on one of the scenarios.

“I see good elements in all of the scenarios,” he said.

French said the final plan would probably incorporate many elements from the scenarios, but wanted to make sure the consulting group was on target with the different strategies.

The commissioners also asked the consultants to do a strategy that was strictly based on the results of the surveys recently completed by Coweta County residents.

“That’s what we told the residents we would do,” said Tarbutton.

An open house will be held at the Coweta County Fairgrounds Oct. 6 from 4-8 p.m. for residents to offer public comments on the strategies.