I Can’t See the Forest for the Houses
categories: Crabapple, New Construction
I’m a self professed tree-hugger. Maybe it is because I’m from Denver, where we really don’t have many trees, that I value them so much. My tree pedigree includes planting trees in British Columbia one summer after college for a reforestation company. On an average day, I’d plant about 750 trees; for the whole summer I figure that I planted about 100,000 trees. That was hard work but I’m proud I have those 100,000 trees to my name.
I’ve also ordered the “Ten Free Trees” you get with a National Arbor Day Foundation membership, even though I had no where to plant them in my own yard. I wound up planting them surreptitiously in public spaces along roads and in parks - I don’t even remember where.
As each of my children were born, I planted a tree in their honor: My son is a bald cypress; my eldest daughter is a magnolia; the baby girl is a redbud. Since the kids had trees, I figured my wife and I should too, so she is a weeping willow, which she requested so don’t think I’m making any sort of commentary with my tree selection. I’m a dogwood which I don’t know is fitting for me or not, but I love them so what the heck.
Which brings me to my point: The face of Crabapple has been forever changed by the clear cutting
for the most recent of the THREE new Crabapple developments. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t oppose development. I’m sure that this latest development ($400k townhomes and $700k custom homes which is still un-named as far as I’m aware) by John Weiland Homes will turn out to be a very nice community, but do we have to cut down ALL the trees in order to build a house? Plus, when they demolished the old ranch home that was along Birmingham Highway, they bulldozed about 20-30 beautiful dogwoods. Each spring that old homestead was fireworks. Maybe I’m just bitter.
The tree cover in Fulton County is down from 56% in 1991 to 48% in 2005. This according to Professor Liz Kramer at the University of Georgia Natural Resources Spacial Analysis Laboratory. Every DAY 54 acres of trees are taken down in the Atlanta metro area. HALF of those acres are replaced with “impervious surfaces”, that is driveways, rooftops, parking lots, etc. We truly are paving paradise.
North Fulton is bad enough, but I had an opportunity to recently review current satellite imagry of Forsyth County. It is simply amazing what it looks like from space: a checkerboard of green and red. The green represents the existing trees and the red is the Georgia red clay that is all that is left after all the trees are cut down.
One of the marketing slogans, and frankly one of the actual selling features of The City of Atlanta is that it is “The City Among the Trees”. Fly into Hartsfield airport and that is immediately obvious. The City of Alpharetta also makes claims in this vein. Alpharetta is a Tree City USA, as awarded by the Arbor Day Foundation and has been for seventeen straight years.
So how can all the trees be getting cut down and the cities still claim to be tree lovers? Builders have to protect or replace ”specimen” trees only. If there isn’t enough room to replant, the builders can make a contribution to the Tree Bank and recently Alpharetta planted 382 trees with bank contributions.
The problem is that while we are preserving specimens we are losing the woods, the solid acres of trees that give the area its character, provide privacy and are easy on the eyes, not to mention home to many critters. At the end of the day, it is the woods - and hills - that give North Fulton (and particularly Milton and parts of Roswell) its differentiation from any other American suburb. Cut down all the trees and build cookie cutter and we could be in Indiana, Illinois or Iowa but with humidity and NASCAR.
There are some neighborhoods in the area where you still have the “woodsy feeling.” Those that come immediately to mind are Providence Lake, Sable Point, Stonebrook Farms, The Hermitage and Enniskerry. In these neighborhoods, the developers figured out how to build among the trees. I don’t know why that is so hard when it so obviously has a good affect on sales. If I had a dollar for every time a client told me that they liked a house be were disappointed that all the trees had been cut down.
Last weekend I was visiting friends in Roswell and was driving through Litchfield Hundred subdivision. There is a new section called Litchfield Overlook in the back and we were checking it out. My son piped up, “I like the older part better. There are lots more trees to play in. Big houses and lots of space.”
We should just let the kids run the zoning board and pass building ordinances.
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Kevin, I share your views about the developers clearcutting every tree to start building. I remember years ago when an out-of-town guest commented about how nice Atlanta was because so many of the trees had been spared during development.
You almost have to laugh at the various counties that have a “GREEN” program. They allow the developers to cut everything down, build cookie cutter homes on zero lot line lots and then plant 1 or 2 small trees in the front yard and claim to be enviornmentally friendly.
Nice Post.
The thing that concerns me most about the Weiland development is that nobody is talking about what is actually going in there. I’m not sure anybody even knows.
The area might be restored to a thing of beauty — a true downtown for Milton. Or it could be another developer drive-by. Kill everything standing, throw up maximum density and move on.
The Weiland organization was invited to a Milton Town Hall meeting about the development, but did not respond.
Does anybody know the full extent of the plans? How many houses? How many office buildings? How many retail stores?
Six Hills is already wrestling with an issue re: the impact on our lake. It has become a retention pond for the run-off from the clear cut area. Beautiful blue-green turns to mud brown after every rain — and stays that way for weeks. Milton has tried to help, including citations, but the problem continues. We have had to involve the Georgia environmental protection division.
Great blog, by the way. Congratulations.
Thanks.
Bill: Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment.
To answer your question about Crabapple, I agree. I’m not sure anyone but Weiland knows what is going in on the land behind the Shell. There still isn’t any information on the jwhomes.com website about it.
What I’ve heard, though is that there will be about 130 single family homes (in the $400’s) and another 40 townhomes. There may also be some commercial along Birmingham Highway.
Of course you know all that because I saw your post on the Appen Newspaper site: http://northfulton.com/1editorialbody.lasso?-token.folder=2007-02-01&-token.story=153947.112113&-token.subpub=
It is extrememly discouraging that all the work done in planning the Crabapple Master Plan was essentially ignored by Fulton County and they left us with the legacy of their shortsightedness in their last days of control. To me, that is reason enough to form a (re)newed Milton County.
As for the runoff issues, it is also amazing to me how poorly the state enforces environmental ordinances on this sort of thing. We recently had a development upstream of my neighborhood and it turned our lakes into red soup, too. It makes you wonder if anyone actually cares about what they are doing and the impact on others.
For anyone who wants to see what could have been in Crabapple, go here: http://www.fultonecd.org/planning/crabapple/plan-crabcross-.htm
Milton Mayor Lockwood says he want to “take a fresh look at the entire project”. That is great, but every day the bulldozers are moving on that ground. I don’t see how you can undo what is done now without issuing stop orders to the developer and I don’t know what grounds you would use.
I have lived within a stones throw of the “Old Crabapple” for almost three decades. I understand and appreciate development but not at the expense of that “feeling”.
I remember the four way stop sign at Crabapple Rd and 140 as well as the farm that is now Kroger. Why did we need another shopping center when the old Ingles center was half empty?
As to what has happened in Crabapple - high six figure slab houses, brownstones that belong somewhere else, clear-cut land that will not look proper for decades, I could go on but it is pointless. Greed has destroyed paradise; logic has been lost in the torrent flow of money.
Sadly progress could have improved the area as it now stands progress has destroyed it. Eventually a new wave will buy into the hype - Crabapple will become something, I have no idea what and life will move on.
Milton seems doomed at this point. For lack of a better term I call our dysfunctional government “decision by garden club”. The ship came in and we failed to get on board. We are moving.