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Project Organization and Timeline

Five groups of people are responsible for developing the Cherokee County Comprehensive Plan Update. They are as follows: General Public, Citizens? Roundtable, Joint Elected Officials, City & County Planning Staff & our Consultant Team. The relationships between these groups are illustrated in the Comprehensive Plan Organization Chart.

General Public

The general public is directly involved in the Comprehensive Planning process through their feedback at public meetings and their representatives on the Citizens? Roundtable and the Joint Elected Officials. A record of comments from general public meetings is available on the General Public Meetings (link to subpage) page.

Citizens? Roundtable

The Citizens? Roundtable (CRT) serves as a steering committee for the Comprehensive Planning process. They represent the many voices of the citizens in this process and have been appointed by the elected officials of the Ball Ground, Waleska, Woodstock and Cherokee County. They make recommendations to the Joint Elected Officials on each of the Community Assessment & Agenda elements. Information about CRT meetings is available on the Citizens Roundtable Meetings (link to subpage) page.

Joint Elected Officials

Having already been elected to represent the residents of the cities and the county in local government, the Joint Elected Officials (JEO) make the final decisions about the Comprehensive Plan based on the CRT recommendations. The JEO also oversee the work of the Consultant Team. Information about JEO meetings is available on the Joint Elected Officials Meetings (link to subpage) page.

City & County Planning Staff

The staff provides assistance to the Consultant Team and the Citizens? Roundtable in the planning process. Cherokee County staff is also the center for communications about the Comprehensive Planning process through direct correspondence, website development/maintenance and local media outlets. Contact information for the staff is listed below:

Cherokee County Planning & Zoning Department
1130 Bluffs Parkway
Canton, Georgia 30114
(678)493-6101 phone
(678)493-6111 fax
Contacts: Jeff Watkins, Director & Margaret Stallings, Principal Planner

City of Ball Ground
P.O. Box 285
Ball Ground, Georgia 30107
(770)735-1234 phone
(770)735-7623 fax
Contact: Eric Willmark, City Manager

City of Waleska
8891 Fincher Road
Waleska, Georgia 30183
(770)479-2912 phone
(770)720-4615 fax
Contact: Marguerite Cline, Mayor & Debbie McEntyre, City Clerk

City of Woodstock Planning & Zoning Department
103 Arnold Mill Road
Woodstock, GA 30188
(770)592-6037 phone
(770)926-1375 fax
Contact: Richard McLeod, Director

Consultant Team

Cherokee County and the Cities of Ball Ground, Waleska and Woodstock have engaged the services of a multi-disciplinary team of consultants to update our Comprehensive Plan. Each of our consultants brings different strengths to the project. The members of the team are listed below with their areas of expertise and role on the team.

Ross & Associates 2161 Peachtree Road, NE Suite 806 Atlanta, Georgia 30309 (404)355-4505 phone (404)352-6926 fax denise@planross.com	This Atlanta-based planning firm has extensive experience with Comprehensive Planning in Georgia. Ross & Associates will serve as the lead consultant for our Plan.
McBride Dale Clarion 5725 Dragon Way, Suite 220 Cincinnati, OH 45227 (513)561-6232 phone (513)561-1615 fax Contacts ? Greg Dale or Emily Crow	Planners with McBride Dale Clarion in Cincinnati, Ohio have extensive experience in many types of local planning around the country. For this project, they are focused on the public participation process and coordinating the communication between the CRT & JEO. McBride Dale Clarion is part of Clarion Associates, which is a national planning firm.
Day Wilburn Associates 1718 Peachtree Street, NW, Suite 461 Atlanta, Georgia 30309 (404)249-7550 phone (404)249-7705 fax	This local firm specializes in transportation planning. Their staff will focus on planning for the transportation needs of the Cities and Cherokee County.
Robert Charles Lesser & Co. 999 Peachtree Street, Suite 2690 Atlanta, GA 30309 (404)365-9501 phone(404)365-8363 fax	The work of this Atlanta firm will be focused on real estate and market analysis. The results will help the residents understand the long-term fiscal impacts of the elements of the Plan.

The Public Participation Plan provides additional information the roles of all of these groups in the process.

Project Timeline

The Comprehensive Plan Update process will take roughly 2 years to complete. The Comprehensive Plan Timeline shows the activities and tasks involved in each of the three phases of the planning process. The Consultant Team began work in the spring of 2005. Two rounds of General Public Meetings have taken place around the county during the summer of 2005 to gather preliminary citizen input for the plan. These activities are all part of the initial Community Assessment phase of the project. The second phase is focused on specific issues to be addressed in the Community Agenda. The final Agenda document serves as a blueprint for the local government decisions and projects for the next 10 years. The final Plan Review and Adoption phase is discussed in more detail on the Comprehensive Planning page.

Main Page

Comprehensive Planning Process in Georgia

Project Organization and Timeline

How to Get Involved

Meeting Schedule & Documents

Comprehensive Plan Documents
Public Participation
Community Assessment
Community Agenda

Links to Resources

Cherokee County Georgia

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