Archive for the 'Johns Creek Real Estate' Category
New School Update for North Fulton | Johns Creek High School Gets Principal
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, Schools
With Spring Break over, all attention is back to the classroom and CRCT testing which began this week. I’m sure our students will keep our scores in North Fulton the highest in the county and among the top in the state.
As students sharpen their No. 2 pencils, new classrooms are under construction to house the continued influx of children into North Fulton school districts. The growth that we experienced in 2004-5, when 2,236 new students enrolled in North Fulton schools, has subsided somewhat. However, we still have over 1,000 new student each year.
By the 2011-12 school year, projections show that there will be almost 50,000 students in North Fulton public schools, up from about 45,000 today. Growth pains, as they say, are a good problem to have, but we have to find a way to have classroom space for these students. Currently we have some elementary schools that were designed for 850 student packed with over 1,000 students.
The most construction progress has been shown at the new North Fulton High School, which has creatively been named Johns Creek High School. It takes about two years to build a high school, so Johns Creek High School is not
scheduled to open until August, 2009. None the less, discussions between the School Board and community started this week to define the school’s attendance zone. Two more community meetings are scheduled for May.
As one insider at Alpharetta HS told me: "Johns Creek High is going to be an academic powerhouse. It is going to get the best of Northview and Chattahoochee High Schools."
Johns Creek High School Principal Appointed
Johns Creek is also getting Buck Greene as its first principal. Greene is transferring from Alpharetta High Schools, where he has served as principal since opening in 2004 and which won the Governor’s Cup this year for most improvement in SAT scores. Alpharetta HS was ninth in the state last year for SAT scores with an average score of 1647.
Birmingham Elementary School Planned to Open August 2009
In contrast to the visible progress on Johns Creek HS, is Birmingham Elementary School. You can’t tell by looking at the land - because no disturbance has been done at all - that in a little over a year there will be a new elementary school at Wood Road and Birmingham Highway, in Milton. The School Board is completely committed to this school, the plans are selected and the Board says construction should start soon. It takes about nine months to build an elementary school, they say. Looks like they are going to take it down to the wire.
Planning sessions with the community will begin this fall to discuss the new attendance zone. I’ve received a number of inquires from people about my opinion of who will go where. My OPINION - and it is only that - is that all neighborhoods north of Providence Road and west of Freemanville Road will attend the new school. Some scattered other neighborhoods like Fieldstone Farms, Wood Valley, The Oaks at White Columns and Highland Manor will also likely be zoned to Birmingham ES, but again, this is only a guess.
Just as Johns Creek HS stands to be very good academically because it is drawing from a good base, Birmingham ES will be a quality school academically no doubt because it is drawing from the same population as Summit Hill, Crabapple Crossing and Cogburn Woods, all excellent schools.
Freemanville Road High School
The Board of Education maintains that it is still committed to building a new high school on Freemanville Road, dispite the community opposition. The only thing that has changed recently is that they have pushed back the scheduled opening date a year to the 2012-13 school year.
The Board of Education also has mentioned building a Middle School adjacent to the Freemanville HS that wouldn’t open until 2014. Some private individuals who are opposed to any school development on Freemanville have paid to have an environmental impact study done which has revealed that, due to septic system demands, at best only one school could (or should?) be built on the proposed site just south of White Columns.
It remains to be seen how this will play out. I still maintain the the best solution is to redevelop the "old Milton High School" site with a multi-story design that work on the smaller land parcel while still providing all the amenities of a modern school. Obviously, many well designed high schools are built around the country in urban settings on far fewer acres. We shouldn’t rule out redeveloping the old site just because we have a templated model of how we build high schools in Fulton County.
This case calls for breaking the model because the alternative is to build a (sprawling?) high school on a piece of land that (1) is not well suited for it and (2) will definitely impact the character of the area. Will it "ruin" the area? No. Is there a better option in my humble opinion? Definitely.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Buyers Throwing Cash at Builder in Johns Creek | Alpharetta
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, New Construction
JOHNS CREEK - You won’t see this reported in the mainstream media: Over the weekend, buyers were literally throwing deposit checks at the onsite sales agent at Jaden Woods.
The agent put TEN lots under contract and had to ask buyers to leave and come back for scheduled appointments.
It seems that not all builders are hurting for home sales.
Jaden Woods is a new home community by Ashton Woods of 66 homesites. The price for a four bedroom, three and a half bath home starts at a little over $400,000. Over the weekend, Ashton Woods opened phase two at Jaden Woods.
The community is located off McGinnis Ferry Road east of Hwy 141. Being in the Northview High School district and close to the new Emory Hospital are two of the main selling points of the location.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 5 Comments »
The Real Estate Glass is Half Full in Georgia and Alpharetta
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, Local Market Conditions, Milton Real Estate, Roswell Real Estate
 |
|
Click on Map to Enlarge |
I’ve said on this blog before that you can lie with statistics - or at least mislead by not telling the whole story. I find this often with the current housing crisis.
The headline of the most recent Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report, referenced on the front page of the USA Today today, reads: "House Price Weaken Further in Most Recent Quarter, First Quarterly Price Decline in U.S. since 1994." That sounds scary, doesn’t it?
While this is technically correct, if you looked at the report in more detail, you would probably not be so scared.
I’m not saying the housing market is a bowl of cherries, but it is certainly not all gloom and doom as most media outlets would have you believe. Frankly, I’m growing a bit weary of hearing about how bad the market is. I hear it from other agents, usually the ones who aren’t selling anything, and I hear it from frustrated sellers who can’t sell their homes because they are overpriced, and I hear it every day on the news.
Personally, I prefer to look at it this way: Atlanta is a growing metro area with steady job creation; Alpharetta and North Fulton have some of the best public and private schools around; people want to live in the South because of the weather, jobs and because it is cheaper to live here than other regions; people want to live in Alpharetta and the surrounding cities and they appreciate the informed, professional real estate services that we provide them. My business is up over last year. Can the market be that bad?
Housing Crisis Centered in Four States, Not Georgia
If you dig into the actual report, which no one ever does because it is 89 pages long, you’ll see that the housing crisis, in terms of negative appreciation, is isolated to California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada, with Massachusetts and Rhode Island, playing a small role. There are still twenty states that have experienced 5% or better appreciation from Q3 2006 through Q3 2007.
Yes, that is a drop from the double digit appreciation of 2004 and 2005, but do home owners expect the market to continue like that for ever? To me, it has sounded like some homeowners thought they were in some way entitled to double digit home appreciation and now when they are trying to sell they say, "Well, I’m not gong to give the house away." If I had a nickel every time I’ve heard that in the last six months ;->
If you zero in on the Southeast, home appreciation has been respectable in the last year given the overall economic climate: Tennessee 6%, North Carolina 6.5%, South Carolina and Mississippi 5.1%, Alabama 5.3%. Georgia is the low man on the totem pole at 3.5%.
Atlanta’s Housing Appreciation is Average for the Country
If you look at just Atlanta, it ranks 139th out of 287 metropolitan statistical areas. Atlanta has had 2.61% growth over the past year but a -.56% drop in the last quarter. Over the past 5 years, Atlanta real estate has appreciated 20.18%.
Looking at other cities in the U.S., seventeen of the twenty cities leading the the DEpreciation were in Florida and California. The other three were in Michigan. Surprise there! My reading of the OFHEO report is that while certainly appreciation has come down across the board, that this problem is mostly concentrated in a very few states.
Alpharetta Real Estate Continues to Appreciate
Even within Atlanta, there are pockets of variance in the real estate market. While the city as a whole may be relatively flat price wise, I wrote on this blog back in September that average sales prices have continued to increase in North Fulton (Alpharetta, Milton, Roswell and Johns Creek) on both sides of GA-400 by $30,000 over last year. People want to live in North Fulton, that is obvious - and we are here to help them accomplish that goal!
It is a great time to buy real estate in Alpharetta. Sellers who have remained on the market are truly motivated to sell. But buyers, don’t think that Alpharetta is a fire sale. Yes, it is a good time to buy. Yes, you can find a lot of house for the money. But good houses still sell quickly, so my advice to buyers is not to get too high on the hog.
I don’t know about you, but my glass is half full and I don’t subscribe to gloom and doom in Alpharetta. Looking at the details of the housing data tells the more complete story.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Johns Creek Walk Means It: Live There and You Can Walk to Dinner
categories: Buyers, Crabapple, Johns Creek Real Estate, New Construction
When was the last time that you walked to get ice cream after dinner at home? When was the last time that you walked home from the bar after happy hour on Friday evening?
If you answered “Absolutely Never”, I’d believe you.
Around Alpharetta and the other cities in North Fulton – and around most of suburbia for that matter – we drive everywhere, usually because we have to. We live in neighborhoods with one road in and one road out and the only way to the grocery story is via Chevrolet.
We are starting to get some options, though. “Mixed use” developments are all the rage and starting to make their way onto the North Fulton real estate scene. Let’s not kid ourselves: As quaint as the idea sounds we aren’t going to get rid of our cars anytime soon and all of a sudden start walking and biking everywhere as if this were Manhattan or someplace in Europe. However, the occasional walk to a restaurant or shop would certainly be a move in the right direction and one of the aspects of life that is lost when you move from “in town” to the suburbs, or as we say in Atlanta, “outside the Perimeter.”
One of the best new examples of mixed use is Johns Creek Walk at State Bridge and Highway 141 being developed by Atlantic Realty Partners. While of Phase 1 is still underway, the finished product will consist of a mixture of single family “Manor Homes”, townhomes, apartments and retail/restaurant space. There are also resident amenities that include a nice pool, a 24 hour lounge/cyber cafe, meeting space and an exercise room.
Single Family Homes and Townhomes
In Phase 1, there are seventeen single family lots and currently only one Manor Home available, while two others are under construction at the mid $600k price point. There are six unsold vacant lots still available.
Thirteen of the 44 townhomes are sold. These are Artisan and Craftsman style townhomes with sloping roof lines, stone and brick exteriors and shake accents.
Apartments
There are also 210 units of apartments, which is the first apartment development in the Johns Creek area in 10–12 years. Local residents resist apartment buildings because of “the clientele” they attract, but the fact is that a mature real estate market needs to offer housing solutions for all segments of the economy and with the completion of the new Emory Hospital in Johns Creek and all the peripheral medical offices that are developing, there is a greater need for apartments.
Retail Space
My favorite part of Johns Creek Walk is the combination of the retail space to the residential space, which puts the “mix” in mixed use. There are clothing, children’s and computer stores; framing and art shops, a small grocery, a real estate office and a couple restaurants and bars. The sports bar has a TV in each booth so you can watch exactly which game you are interested in. Plus, Johns Creek Walk is catty corner to Super H Mart where you could easy walk to the grocery to to get your dried octopus and some kim chee.
Best of all, there is a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream store which I can only hope stays open late for those end of day chocolate issues. Image how easy it would be for a man if he lived in Johns Creek Walk with his pregnant wife. He could walk around the corner to fulfill her ice cream craving and would be only one mile from the hospital when the moment of truth arrived.
From a retailer’s perspective, the greatest thing about the retail space is that there are apartments in the back of the retail shops. This can either be used as a “back office” or for a true apartment for someone who wanted to actually combine their work and residential space or for someone who lived further away but found it convenient to literally sleep over at the store during the week, for instance.
Crabapple
Elsewhere in North Fulton, Crabapple has a chance to become more mixed use. I’m hopeful, but cautiously optimistic. As part of the new Crabapple Crossing development, there is some retail planned, but nothing other than an Italian restaurant, a dry cleaners (like we need another one of those!) and a women’s fitness studio has opened. I’m waiting for the ice cream store…or better yet, a gelato store. Then, I’ll actually park my car and walk around, but until then I’m still just driving through.
Vickery
Just north of Alpharetta, in Cumming, is another good, new example of mixed use, the Vickery community that includes awesome parks, amenities, retail and even a YMCA. It also has gelato!
In Alpharetta, Prospect Park, which is under construction at Old Milton and GA-400 will be mixed use and the Roswell East development at Holcomb Bridge and GA-400, which is currently “in hibernation” was also proposed to be mixed use with a lot of actual office space included in the design.
Mixed use is clearly a development model that is here to stay and making headway in North Fulton. Developers see it as a way to build higher density, which is necessary given the higher land costs and lack of any remaining large parcels of land. Politicians like it because more new development means more tax base and mixed use potentially means less car trips. Anything to alleviate traffic is good for politicians and the public alike. I’d be curious to know what you think of mixed use. Would you prefer to live in a “traditional neighborhood” or do you like the idea of being to run out for Ben and Jerry’s without the car keys?
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 4 Comments »
Why Can’t I Find Johns Creek or Milton; Will Someone Please Give Me a Map!
categories: Crabapple, Johns Creek Real Estate, Milton Real Estate
Recently there was an article in a local newspaper about a Milton resident who found a lost dog. No big deal, right? Well, the resident wound up bemoaning Milton as a “sorry town” because he couldn’t figure out how to contact the dog catcher. He went on to say: “I don’t know where I live…Where is Milton?”
I don’t agree with a newspaper editor using one resident, who in my opinion doesn’t fairly represent the general population because heck, this guy doesn’t even have a computer, to characterize an entire city. And, I don’t agree that Milton is a “sorry town.” However, I do agree with the general point that was trying to be made.
Where Are Milton and Johns Creek?
Milton – and Johns Creek for that matter – are suffering from identity crises and some growing pains as new cities. However, I also believe that residents of these cities have a responsibility to inform themselves. If you have a computer, it is not that hard.
I’ll make the point slightly differently. We should all know where we live. Period. We might not know exactly where the city lines are as we drive around, but we should know if our house is in Milton, Alpharetta, Roswell or Johns Creek. There are only four possibilities – it is not that hard. And we should know the general location of the cities.
For instance, Johns Creek is the eastern most portion of North Fulton County, mostly east of Jones Bridge Road. Milton is in the northwestern corner of North Fulton, etc. This is simple geography and basic civic responsibility. Here are some maps for reference: Map of City of Milton, GA Map of City of Johns Creek, GA
Emotional Centers Are What is Missing?
My point would be that while the physical boundaries of the cities should be well known, the emotional centers of the new cities, Milton and Johns Creek, are missing. Roswell has its Roswell Square and Old Mill historic areas. Alpharetta, at least, has its Main Street in “downtown” Alpharetta, although that is admittedly stretching the definition of “emotional center”. It is a physical place, though, and the Alpharetta City Hall is located there. Milton and Johns Creek don’t even have that. They are more a state of mind and a physical affiliation. Both new cities currently have their “city halls” in office complexes and Johns Creek’s City Hall and Municipal Court are not even in the same complex.
As far a service offerings by the new cities, some residents understandably still don’t know where to turn when they need help. Remember that we still all live in Fulton County and the County still is responsible for certain important functions: water and sewer service; judicial services; health and human services; and, some environmental services including animal control.
The cities are now responsible for public safety (police and fire), community development and land use planning and some local public works like parks, traffic engineering, road maintenance. The major impetus to incorporating as cities was to have control over local land use and to improve the service levels for public safety.
The challenge now is to communicate to residents who to call for what. My experience with both cities is that they have done a good job making information available via their web sites (www.cityofmiltonga.us and www.johnscreekga.gov) and they have main phone numbers where you can speak to a person or the call is quickly returned. I left a voicemail on the City of Milton’s main number early one evening and at 9AM sharp the next morning someone called me back with the answer to my question.
What is in a Symbol?
The larger challenge is creating literal and symbolic “hearts” for these two cities. Even little Crabapple has the silos. What do Milton and Johns Creek have? If you look at the masthead on Milton’s website, the graphic is of a playground and concession stand at Hopewell Baseball field, some horses and the clubhouse at White Columns. When the concession stand is a good as it gets, there is a problem.
Johns Creek’s graphic symbols are just as allusive: a strip mall, twisted tree trunk, golf carts, street sign (saying Johns Creek Parkway) and a girl on a slide. That could be anywhere.
While the question posed by our Milton resident, “Where is Milton?”, seems simple on the surface, the real test of the new cities is whether they can carve out an identity of their own and create local symbols to reinforce that identity.
[Credit for dogcatcher graphic to Dean Yeagle. Thanks.]
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 1 Comment »
Alpharetta Scores Culinary Coup with Whole Foods; Johns Creek Welcomes Super H Mart
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, Local Affairs
They say that you can measure a town by the quality of its restaurants – and there are some decent places to eat in Alpharetta and Roswell. For instance, I enjoy Pure Tacqueria in downtown Alpharetta and think they have the best quacamole around. Plus they give you a ton of it.
However, if you live in the Atlanta area and you’re planning on having “a nice night on the town” you’re most likely going to head to Buckhead. From Alpharetta, that is a short 20–minute drive down GA-400.
Atlanta in general measures pretty well on the restaurant scale. But if you want to measure suburban areas like North Fulton, I think you are better off considering the grocery stores rather than the restaurants. After all, with a family of five, my family spends more of our time and money at the grocery store than in restaurants.
I’ve previously written about grocery stores in North Fulton. We have a Trader Joes, Harry’s Farmers Market, Fresh Market, Whole Foods and the ubiquitous Krogers and Publixes. The new development is that Whole Foods is planning on opening another store in Alpharetta to anchor the new (under development) Prospect Park at Old Milton Parkway and GA-400.
The existing Whole Foods in Johns Creek is an awesome store, but it is a hike for residents of Roswell, Alpharetta and Milton to get there. The newly proposed store will be the largest Whole Foods store to date and will have SIX restaurants inside.
Whole Foods was not originally planned for Prospect Park and its inclusion has created some changes in the traffic design. The “curb cut” to allow turning lanes needs to be extended and there is some issue with the Georgia Department of Transportation about changing the curbing so close to GA-400. The issue will not likely be resolved until after the new year when a new DOT administrator takes over, but all of us food lovers hope the bureaucrats don’t block the grass fed beef. 
Johns Creek also has a great new grocery store called Super H Mart that caters to the growing Asian population in that area. Located at Abbotts Bridge and HWY 141, the Jones Creek store has been open since June and complements the other Super H Mart in nearby Duluth.
It is a great family field trip during the weekend to explore all the variety. First of all, they have a restaurant section inside for lunch where you can eat Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Thai. Plus there is a bakery for desert. But what is most fun is that you can try to figure out what dragon fruit is or what you’d do with a durian. Of course, you can get your dried anchovies and squid (you can even sample it if you want) and you can get your fresh fish prepared any one of eight ways while you wait. And don’t forget your 50 lb. bag of rice!
The location of these new groceries in North Fulton is just another indicator of the demographics and future growth potential of the area. Even in this current business cycle, where real estate has been set back; the future prospects for North Fulton are still positive as evidenced by the decisions of the grocery chains like this.
Believe me, Whole Foods does its research before going into a market and they look for a number of indicators including percentage of college educated people, which is a nice way of saying people who have money to spend. Businesses like Whole Foods (Texas based and rated by Fortune Magazine as the #5 best company to work for) and Super H Mart (New York based) survey the entire country when looking for expansion opportunities and they have chosen North Fulton.
My stomach and I are glad they did.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 1 Comment »
Why Have Property Taxes Increased So Much in 2007 in North Fulton?
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, Milton Real Estate, Roswell Real Estate
The short answer is because there is a new sherrif in town.
First, let me say that I feel like I have dodged a bullet this year. My property taxes – more accurately, my assessed value – did not change from 2006. However, I can hear the Fulton County Tax Assessor reloading and I can feel the litte red dot from his range finder on my house when I sleep at night.
There are about 11,500 homes in Milton and 82% of them were reassessed this year, the highest percentage in all of Fulton County. In Alpharetta, Roswell and Johns Creek, about 60% of properties were reassessed and in Sandy Springs only 25% were reassessed. Sandy Springs residents…look out next year.
New Sherrif
Historically, Fulton County has reassessed about a third of all homes each year. This pattern has kept the county on a three year rolling cycle for keeping the values current. The historical problem, though, was that the values have been all over the board even if they were adjusted every three years. This lead to wholesale changes in the Fulton County Tax Assessors office last year and the hiring of a new chief appraiser, Burt Manning.
Manning’s focus is on cleaning up the problem and the only way he sees to do that is to reassess everything in the county with consistent criteria. This year his office reassessed 55% of all property in Fulton County.
Residents in Milton have seen their assessed values increase as much as 20% over last year and the average across North Fulton is about a 13% increase. I’ve had clients call me with questions and concern about the increase and they have indicated a desire to appeal. Remember that the only grounds you can appeal on is taxability, uniformity and value.
The increase is really caused by two factors that combined to make the situation worse. First, values in many parts of the county were way to low – or the assessor’s office was just too slow in increasing them. It was five years after I moved into my house that the assessor showed my “fair market value” to be anywhere close to my purchase price.
Second is that there has been so much growth in North Fulton in the past 5–7 years. Manning has stated accurately that sale prices continue to go up in North Fulton and increases in property assessments are “part of living in a desirable community.”
Since I have lived in North Fulton since 1999, my assessed value has increased 60%. Remember, my value did NOT go up in 2007; I’ve got that to look forward to. I estimate that the market value of my home has increased just about the same amount, so I don’t feel so bad in paying the taxes that I’m charged.
However, next year I’m probably going to be hit with about a 15% increase and my property is surely not going to increase 15% in one year, particularly in a somewhat flat real estate market. My taxes will most definitely reflect a truer market value next year; the reason that my taxes will have gone up disproportionately to my home value is because they started out artifically low.
So What Does All This Mean?
If our taxes are going up, where does all the new tax revenue go? First of all, Fulton County’s 2007 budget shows about a 2% increase in property tax revenues from 2006. In 2006, though, the County brought in about $15M MORE than it had budgeted. I suspect 2007 will bring in more, too. Even if it doesn’t, your share will definitely be higher - and someone else’s proportionaltely lower.
Do I hear distant cries from the North Fulton woods for a new, separate county? Would it be ironic that in an effort to correct the problems in the assessor’s office, Manning comes in and does the right thing, but in the process creates more animosity between the residents of North Fulton and the county government. Many residents of North Fulton will feel, rightly or wrongly, that they were targeted.
Additionally, most taxing juristictions reduce the tax rate (the millage rate) each year to compensate for the increased tax base. This allows the jurisdictions to stay “revenue neutral” and for your taxes to remain the same even though your assessed value increased. For instance, Fulton County is reducing its millage rate from 11.407 to 10.281 mills (dollars per $1000 of assessed value).
|
City |
2007 Millage Rate |
| Alpharetta | 6.6 |
| Roswell | 6.087 |
| Johns Creek | 4.614 |
| Milton | 4.731 |
| Duluth | 5.191 |
| Suwanee | 5.77 |
The City of Milton, on the other hand, is not reducing its millage rate. By statute both Milton and Johns Creek can set and keep the millage rate at 4.731 mills for the first three years. Johns Creek is actually at 4.614 mills, but the point is that Johns Creek is not lowering theirs either. Both these cities are going to get a bit of a probably much needed windfall as a result of Fulton’s reassessments. These two new cities can use the extra revenue to build reserves, offset startup costs and start to build needed infrastructure.
Finally, when purchasing a new home, most prospective buyers ask at some point what the taxes are. (Buyers from New Jersey are always amazed at how low Georgia taxes are. I could double them and they’d still think they were low!). Make sure that when you look at the previous year’s tax bill for a property that you are interested in that it either has or has not been reassessed by Fulton County. The only way to do that is to look at the history of assessed value for the house, not just the previous year.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Milton Fee Party
categories: Johns Creek Real Estate, Milton Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about
Fee or tax? Tax or fee? If it looks like a tax and it smells like a tax and you have to pay it regardless if you want to or not, then it must be a tax … no matter how many times it is called a fee.
State Representative Jan Jones, regardless of her backpedaling on this issue, got it right when she said, “Some like to call them fees, but the revenue is not dedicated, it just goes into the general fund. They are not a user fee, they are just another tax.”
All the ruckus is about the “franchise fees” that both the new cities of Johns Creek and Milton have levied against the utility companies as well as the cable and waste management companies. (I wonder if there will be a franchise fee levied against BellSouth too, affecting our residential phone service.) The utilities, most notably Sawnee EMC, have just passed the fees on to the customer in the form of a 4% increase for service.
Mayor Joe Lockwood says that all 528 cities in Georgia require utilities to pay a franchise fee and “the choice of whether to pass that cost on to their customers or absorb the costs lies solely with the utility companies.” I’m willing to bet that in all 528 cities that the costs are passed on to the customer. When have you seen a utility absorb anything?
The net result is that residents of Johns Creek and Milton feel like they have been newly taxed as a result of becoming municipalities. The residents are paying the fees so it doesn’t matter what you call them. Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to residents, as franchise fees, which in Milton equate to about a million dollars in revenue and about 8% of the budget, have always been part of the budget model. It is just that residents didn’t realize that until they saw the increase on their utility bill. Not many residents stayed up late at night review the legislation and proposed budgets.
Our elected officials want to make sure that we know they didn’t slip in a new tax because they don’t want to be labeled as “tax increasers.” The plan to levy franchise fees was always part of the plan, just to make sure we are clear. By statute, the cities can’t increase taxes even if they wanted to without consent of the voters.
The part I don’t like, though, is that to the best of my knowledge, Fulton County never charged franchise fees. Franchise fees are supposedly charged for the “use of public right-of-way” to provide service. I’m not exactly sure what cost is borne by cities in providing the right to use the right-of-way. Perhaps the cities might have to keep some trees trimmed or roadsides maintained in order for utilities to service their poles and cables and what have you. However, usually when I see the tree trimmers out, they have utility company logos on the vehicles.
I can’t image what right-of-way the cities maintain for the waste management companies other that the roads - and we all know the dump trucks from the construction sites are the ones tearing up the roads.
So the part I don’t like is that I don’t see the cost to the cities that is being offset by the fees. The cities charge the fees simply because they can, because every other city charges them and because they have to in order to generate enough revenue to operate. And the fees are indeed a tax. Period.
Having said all that, if you have an average monthly electric bill of $250, a four percent increase is $10, or $120 per year. I don’t like the fact that the franchise tax was a surprise, even though it shouldn’t have been, but I can handle ten bucks a month if it means I have my own local police and fire and more local control of local issues.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Download my vCard for your Outlook Contacts
