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13Feb

Alpharetta is Definitely not Tiny Town

categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about

ALPHARETTA & TORONTO - A friend from Toronto recently sent me these pictures of The Smallest House for Sale in Toronto. What do you think? Could you live in this abode? There are children’s playhouses in Alpharetta backyards that have more square footage than the 300 square feet of this castle.

The entire lot for this house is only 7′4" wide! It is so small you have to go outside to change your mind.

I applaud the designer for creating a habitable space within such constraints…and I applaud the photographer who took these pictures. I sometimes struggle photographing 12×12 bedrooms; this photographer gave new meaning to the term ‘wide angle real estate photography.’

So what would up pay for this dandy? It’s clean, appears to be well constructed and has some market appeal - sort of like the midgets in the circus do. How about $179,900 CANADIAN. Last I checked, the Canadian dollar was worth more than the U.S. Dollar, so round up for sure.

What can you buy for $179,900 in Alpharetta?

I’m glad you asked. For comparison’s sake, I checked the market. There are nine houses for sale in Alpharetta and Roswell between $175,000 and $180,000. I picked the one I thought offered the most value.

Avensong Subdivision in Alpharetta: 3 bedrooms, 2/5 bathrooms and about 1,300 square feet. Some of the best schools in Atlanta (Alpharetta High School and Hopewell Middle School) and close to all major employers in Alpharetta. This house even has a small fenced backyard. All for the low, low price of, well, what you could buy the midget house for in Toronto.

Plus, you don’t have to shovel any snow in Alpharetta, although shoveling only 7 feet of sidewalk is not a terrible inconvenience! As we wind up for Valentine’s Day tomorrow, remember: Sometimes the best things DON’T come in the smallest package.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »

10Feb

Trash Pickup Leads to Real Estate Insights - Not Really ;->

categories: Stuff I like to talk about

MILTON: Providence Road - When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail, so the adage goes.

The weather has warmed up here to 70 degree days; what we expect in Georgia. It was a nice reprieve from actual snow a couple of weeks ago. Of course the kids, many of whom had NEVER even seen snow, loved it.

My eldest daughter and I took the warm weather opportunity to do our January roadside clean-up for the section of Providence Road between Birmingham Highway and Freemanville Road that we maintain as part of the Milton Adopt a Road program.

Georgia Snowman
He lasted 5 days!

I want to give Clara public acknowledgement for a job well done. Thank you, honey. She stayed focused on the job and only managed to get her hair tangled in the brambles a couple of times! Plus, she came away for the day with a renewed appreciation for public service and not littering. The next time you are going to chuck that coffee cup or coke can out the window, think of the Summit Hill Elementary third grader who will be crawling in the bushes to dig it out! That’s my girl!

Back to the hammer and the nail. As we were working, I couldn’t help but relate the trash to real estate. As a realtor (hammer), even roadside trash looked like a nail.

Not that it was a huge "ah ha," but rather a renewed realization of how much thru-traffic there is in Milton. Traffic is always a hot topic as it relates to real estate, but you have to realize that a lot of Milton traffic originates from East Cherokee county. These are people who are trying to get to Alpharetta and must travel through Milton.

The evidence is on the roadside, of course, (tongue in cheek): Bud Lite, Pall Mall, White Castle. Yes, there were some Amber Bocks and India Pale Ales, but these were littered by the locals and far fewer in number! And when your rear end is bent over inches from the white line, you realize how many trucks (with oversized tires) versus sedans travel our local roads.

The evidence is also in the traffic statistics. The Crabapple (just down the road my our adopted stretch of Providence Road) Planning Study just reviewed showed that there are 9,000 trips per day on Birmingham Highway and 18-20,000 trips per day on Arnold Mill Road. A lot of this it thru traffic in Milton. Yes, there has been a lot of growth in Milton and it is responsible for traffic increases, but there also has been a lot of growth north and west of Milton and these people have to get to Alpharetta and GA-400.

My other real estate related observation while picking up trash was how much litter is left behind by our utility companies. There was a fair amount of local outcry last year with the institution of the local franchise fees on utilities and how they were passed along on our bills. I say: fine, charge the utilities to use the right of way, but also make them clean up after themselves. Recently they have been laying a lot of fiber along Birmingham Highway. The utilities trench and dig and leave all kids of orange pipe and other construction waste behind. They, too, can thank Clara. ;->

Mostly, though, I just wanted to thank my daughter for doing a great job and that I’m glad we were able to spend such a beautiful day together even if it was picking up trash. The father-daughter ball it wasn’t, but it may have been time better spent.

Love, Dad.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 3 Comments »

6Feb

How Far Are You Willing To Go To Sell Your House?

categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Luxury Homes, Stuff I like to talk about

ALPHARETTA - Would you be willing to allow a prospective buyer - or the buyer’s entire family - to spend the night or even the weekend in your house.

This would give the term "open house" a whole new meaning, wouldn’t it? An article in last Sunday’s Parade Magazine called it a "test drive sleepover."

Sure there are logistical problems with everything, but assuming you could work out the details, would you be in favor of this if you were a seller? What if you were a buyer?

In a "Buyer Beware" state like Georgia, why shouldn’t the buyer have the chance to actually live in the house for a weekend? Heck, we allow it with a lease-purchase: We allow someone to actually live in the house (with a deposit) for up to a year before actually buying it. Why not let someone spend one weekend … imaging the possibilities.

When on a sleepover, you can actually experience:

how quiet it is at night and how dark the sky is;
the way the sun comes in the kitchen window in the morning;
how good the water pressure is in the shower;
where the floor squeaks when you get up in the middle of the night (men);
how functional the kitchen is to cook a meal in;
how quickly the house warms up in the morning or keeps cool at night;
what the commute home is like on Friday after work;

I could go on and on with both positive and negative things that could result from allowing a prospect to spend the night. However, when marketing properties in Alpharetta, particularly million-dollar and above property, I would not rule it out. I always try to put myself in the shoes of the people I’m dealing with: If you were thinking about spending A MILLION DOLLARS, wouldn’t you want to have a thorough test drive?

If you were selling a property that was worth more than a million dollars, wouldn’t you want the opportunity to showcase it and allow a buyer to experience why it is such a worthy home?

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 3 Comments »

3Feb

Lacrosse Becoming More Popular in Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek and Roswell

categories: Stuff I like to talk about

When relocating to Alpharetta, clients ask me all the time about recreation programs for their children. Needless to say, this is suburbia and children’s sports opportunities abound. Baseball is probably still the most popular, but soccer, gymnastics, martial arts, tennis and increasingly lacrosse are becoming recreational staples.

Lacrosse is not hurt by the fact that many families have relocated to Alpharetta from other places where lacrosse established. Interestingly, lacrosse and the local area have a long history. The City of Ball Ground, in Cherokee County just north of Alpharetta and Milton, is said to be so named because there were large fields there where Cherokee and Creek Indians settled territorial disputes by playing "stick ball games." That game is broadly believed to have evolved into modern day lacrosse. It is only fitting that lacrosse become a fixture on the local athletic scene.

Non-existent before 1996, the first lacrosse programs were started at some of the area private schools; in 1999 the first club high school programs were started at Roswell, Chattahoochee and Centennial High Schools in North Fulton County and Pope High School in East Cobb County.

Lacrosse has been growing quickly ever sense and became an officially sanctioned high school sport in Georgia in 2002 for both boys and girls. In fact, the Milton High School girls lacrosse team has won the state championship the last three years running. Along with the growth at the high school level, lacrosse has also expanded to the youth ranks where kids can start to develop skills earlier. These days, high school teams have enough players that they now must conduct tryouts and it is as competitive as baseball.

The reason I mention all this is because spring sports season is about to begin and for the second year, I’m going to be involved coaching lacrosse at Stars Lacrosse in Milton. I’m one of the parents who relocated here (14 years ago now) from a lacrosse-playing state (Colorado) and I’m fortunate that my career as a local realtor in Alpharetta allows me the flexibility in my schedule to coach.

Stars in predominantly a soccer facility, but last year started a lacrosse program to fill a need in the market. Whereas Roswell, Alpharetta and Johns Creek all offer lacrosse - and other youth programs - through their parks and recreation departments, Milton offers no such youth sports programs. Milton essentially has only one functioning park, Bell Memorial Park, near the intersection of Thompson Road and Hopewell Road, and it is completely dedicated to baseball. There are four lighted fields there, and a new playground, and the baseball program is run by the Hopewell Youth Association. Until Milton develops Birmingham Park, a dedicated 200-acre track at the northeast quadrant of Birmingham Road and Birmingham Highway, there are no other ball fields (soccer, lacrosse, football) in the Milton area.

It is a bit ironic that the lease densely populated portion of Fulton County, the area now incorporated as the City of Milton, has the largest dearth of athletic fields. Lots of horse pastures, but not many athletic fields. Hopefully that will change soon. In the meantime, Stars (and Hopewell) offer great alternatives. You can also register your children in

Stars Lacrosse is located on Birmingham Highway between the Triple Crown and Richmond Glen Neighborhoods, about 4 miles north of Crabapple.

Roswell, Johns Creek or Alpharetta’s programs, but preference (and a small price break) go to city residents. Also, an advantage Stars has over Alpharetta is that due to field availability (Alpharetta practices at North Park), Stars is able to practice twice a week and have one game on the weekend, whereas Alpharetta is only able to practice once a week.

Additionally, Stars Lacrosse has formed a fantastic partnership with XPE Sports this season to conduct weekly speed and agility training for the players. After all, unlike other sports, all shapes and sizes of kids can excel at lacrosse everyone has to run ;->. Speed is the name of the game.

The long, warm springtime is one of the greatest things about living in Alpharetta. As a boy, I remember playing lacrosse in Colorado and we played with an orange ball for obvious reasons: we could find the ball in the snow!. The combination of Georgia’s spring weather and a great game where everyone gets a workout is unbeatable. Let’s hope the Star teams are unbeatable, too! I promise we’ll be running ;->.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 3 Comments »

9Jan

2007 Real Estate Market Review for Alpharetta and Atlanta

categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Local Market Conditions, Roswell Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about

Hello, 2008…we’re back! And we have the Atlanta and Alpharetta housing data with us!

We had a great year in 2007, doubling our business from 2006; and we are looking forward to an even better 2008. Why then does everyone seem so bleak about the real estate market in Atlanta and Alpharetta?

In fact, last week, the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran an article entitled "Drop in Housing Prices Hits Metro Atlanta." What they reported was that Atlanta had a .07% drop in home values from October 2006 to October 2007. When housing prices are down 5%, 10%, 15% or more in some cities, is a less than one percent drop in Atlanta really news?

So, I went to the real estate sales data and crunched it seven ways to Sunday for both the Atlanta Metro Area and for Alpharetta and the surrounding cities of Roswell and Milton. The Bottom Line for Atlanta and Alpharetta is - and this is consistent with what I’ve posted here before - that the number of sales is down, the average sales prices is up and the average days on market is longer.

But first, some historical perspective on Atlanta and Alpharetta…

Atlanta Metro Residential Real Estate Sales History
	# of Sales	Avg. Sales Price	Days on Mkt	Sales Volume
2002	47,826	225,022	98.0	$10.76B
2003	51,743	231,846	104.9	$12.00B
2004	57,726	240,312	103.6	$13.87B
2005	65,803	255,168	102.4	$16.79B
2006	68,256	260,723	100.2	$17.80B
2007	55,650	266,874	115.0	$14.85B

2006 was the BEST YEAR in Atlanta Real Estate…EVER. Almost $18 Billion of real estate transacted in Atlanta in 2006. Almost $15 Billion transacted in 2007. Yes, that is down from 2006, but still the THIRD BEST year in Atlanta Real Estate history. Is that something to get upset with if you are a buyer?

Next, let’s look at the real estate market data for North Fulton and the Alpharetta / Roswell over the last six years.

Alpharetta / Roswell Metro Residential Real Estate Sales History
	# of Sales	Avg. Sales Price	Days on Mkt	Sales Volume
2002	4,224	318,503	99.7	$1.35B
2003	4,416	337,164	102.7	$1.49B
2004	4,317	362,225	94.4	$1.56B
2005	4,364	386,398	84.9	$1.69B
2006	3,896	409,473	80.3	$1.60B
2007	3,266	425,490	100.9	$1.39B

Alpharetta and Roswell’s real estate market actually peaked before Metro Atlanta’s, with 2005 being this highest gross volume year on record. If you maintain that there is a slide in the Alpharetta market - and that it is attributable to the sub-prime falling out or other national factors - you can’t say that it started in the Summer of 2007. The housing trends in Alpharetta started down as early as late 2005, although I’d have to do an analysis of month to month data to pinpoint it more closely.

If the 2007 housing market wasn’t so bad, why did it feel so horrible?

On the one hand you have realtors trying to give the market a positive spin and on the other hand you have media outlets trying to sell death and destruction in the housing sector. Who’s right? If 2007 was indeed the third highest sales year in Atlanta history, why were sellers complaining so much about a horrible housing market?

Simply put, the answer is because over 1,000 homes fewer homes sold in Alpharetta and Roswell last year compared to previous peak years. That means there are 1,000 disgruntled sellers out there complaining about the housing market at the water cooler, at the bus stop and at the check-out line.

For those sellers who have been able to sell, it has taken on average 20 days longer than just last year. In 2006, while not as many people sold as in 2005, at least it was a relatively quick sales process. Now sellers have to endure longer in a slower market.

The good news is that prices are still going up. This is a pretty amazing phenomenon, actually. It means that the better houses (the ones in the 3,266 that were good enough to sell in 2007) are still selling at a decent price. The less good houses are either stagnating on the market without reducing their price enough to sell or are expiring or being withdrawn without sale. It would be an interesting experiment to see what the average sales price would be if we sold the other 1,000 homes in the Alpharetta area. What price would they sell at as a whole to "clear" the market of the excess inventory and where would that leave the average? The lesson in this is that people with "good houses" are actually benefiting from a slower market: they are able to sell at the higher average sales price while the less desirable homes (or over priced homes) languish.

All the while, new listings continue to come onto the market. In fact, as the graph to the right shows, more new listings came onto to the market at the end of 2007 than compared to the end of 2006. The red line for 2007 is significantly above the blue line for 2006 listings and the aqua line (2007 sales) didn’t have its typical end of year up tick, although, anecdotally, we were very busy.

Couple that with fewer sales at the end of 2007 and you have a lot of inventory on the market. As of the end of November, 2007, the latest data available, there are 7.3 months of resale inventory in the Alpharetta / Roswell market across all price ranges. (There is some significant variance depending on the price range, with a lot more inventory at the high end, of course.) Compare that to November, 2006, when there was 4.8 months of resale inventory on the market. Hello, buyers…it is time to step forward!

Even with all this seemly negative news regarding the housing market in Alpharetta, I’m still bullish on 2008. You might think that I’m one of those, unrealistic, always optimistic people. To know me is to know better.

But what I do know is that Alpharetta, and particularly Milton, has a housing product that is unique and still in demand. People want to live here: the schools are good, there are lots of corporate offices here and the quality of life is very high. You get a lot of house, space and privacy for the money, as I’m sure some of my relocating clients will attest. Plus, I believe that we offer professional services that people value and appreciate.

I don’t have an insightful predictions are even resolutions for 2008. I only know what I know and that is that business continues to grow - the reception to this blog has been great - and we will sell more houses in 2008 than in any previous year.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 2 Comments »

24Dec

Merry Christmas and Happy ‘Season of Appreciation’ from Alpharetta

categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about

We are very thankful for a great 2007 and want to wish all of you, regardless of your religious faith, holiday customs or personal belief system, a joyous end of 2007 and great hope for 2008.

Not only do we appreciate that our real estate business continues to grow from last year, but even more so appreciate that we are able, by choice, happenstance or just shear luck to live in both the United States and Alpharetta.

The United States offers many fine places to live and this post is not the place to debate the merits of one locale over another. I’ll just say that Alpharetta has a lot of things going for it including relatively low property taxes compared to the rest of the country, a growing job base and good business environment and a climate where it rarely snows. You’ll appreciate that if you’re reading this in the mid-west today. But that misses the point.

During this holiday season sometimes we get wrapped up rushing around. I’m as guilty as anyone of this. In fact, December is one of my busiest months of the year for sales so I’m unusally harried. On top of that, I think that most realtors are expected to give their past clients a gift of some sort in appreciatiton. It is supposed to be "good business practice" to stay in touch with your past clients. Real estate is a referral based business after all, or so they say.

In this gift giving area, I tend to take a different path and wanted to take a moment here to reiterate how fortunate we are to live the way we are able to in Alpharetta. Any world-wide social or economic organization like the United Nations, UNICEF or World Bank can provide all sorts of statistics on the relative poverty of the rest of the world compared to how we live in the U.S. and Alpharetta. For instance, half the population of the world lives on LESS than TWO DOLLARS A DAY. That is about $700 a year compared to Alpharetta where the U.S. Census reports we live on about $40,000 a year PER CAPITA. (The U.S. per capita income is half the Alpharetta per capita income, which is one reason we are fortunate to live in Alpharetta. The median HOUSEHOLD income in Alpharetta is almost $100,000 per year almost double the US household income.)

As for literacy, a BILLION people entered the 21st century not able to read or write. In Alpharetta, 95% of us have high school educations (compared to 80% in the U.S.) and 57% have a college degree or higher (compared to 24% nationally.) The world statistic is that 1% has a university degree.

By some reports 80% of the world’s population lives in poverty and 20% of the population is in conditions not befitting a human. In Alpharetta, there are 1,785 people (260 families) below the U.S. poverty level; that is only 5% of Alpharetta’s population but still startles me as unacceptable. (The U.S. poverty rate is 24%).

All this is to say that if you are a client of ours or in any way affiliated with Warmath Real Estate, you won’t be receiving from us a box of chocolates or holiday wreath that is dead on arrival. Instead, we are continuing our tradition of giving to Heifer International on behalf of all our clients. Heifer is an organization that helps reduce world-wide hunger by giving livestock in the broadest definition of the term (water buffalo, llamas, chickens, honey bees, goats, pigs, sheep and of course, heifers) to needy recipients. The recipients must, in turn, pass on the gift by giving one of the offspring of their animal to someone else. Heifer’s work creates long-term, environmentally and socially sustainably solutions that I am, one, philosophically aligned with and, two, pleased to continue to support.

It is our pledge to continue to fund Heifer each year in honor of the patronage of our clients. And even if we didn’t sell a single house in a year, we would still give to Heifer!

Our slogan is: "No wreaths, more pigs!" We wish you the very best holiday season and know that you have made someone else’s stomach a little less empty - and that is the best gift to give.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 2 Comments »

5Dec

Alpharetta is Clearly on the Move | Encore Park Update

categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about

Alpharetta is definitely the "big dog" in North Fulton in terms of economic activity. I don’t even have to check the data to know that Alpharetta has the highest tax base, largest number of jobs and a government mentality to build a diverse city. However, today when driving through Alpharetta, it dawned on me that the city is moving from a stage of significance to what I’ll term distinction.

I don’t mean distinction like Boston or Philadelphia - or even Charleston or Savannah - have significance. After all, Alpharetta is just a suburb of a major city. My point, though, is that Alpharetta is moving from boring suburb to metro focal point.

The evidence starts on Old Milton Parkway where visible progress has finally started on Prospect Park, which will ultimately be the highest end shopping in the entire Atlanta metro area and anchored by The Stanbury Hotel, reported to be the first six star hotel in the country.

More evidence is found at North Point Mall, where American Girl recently opened its fourth store after Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. American Girl calls the store its "Atlanta store," but for the record, the store is not in Atlanta. It is in Alpharetta. Again, my point: American Girl did not choose to put the store in Buckhead or in Dunwoody. They chose Alpharetta because like other retailers they did their homework and know that the economic center of Atlanta has moved north of "the perimeter" (I-285) and north of the Chattahoochee River.

Having an American Girl store puts you in rarefied retail company, but it hardly makes you a city of distinction. That takes educational institutions (other than primary level education, something that North Fulton is clearly missing), superior recreational facilities (Roswell has the best parks and rec, but Alpharetta is good and improving), top notch libraries, religious congregations of all types, low crime rates and cultural amenities.

Distinction is not just about jobs, retailing, dining out and the almighty dollar, although that certainly helps. Distinction is also about quality of life. That is, how well you and your family can live for the dollar. I don’t believe that there are many places in the U.S. that offer as much value in real estate and quality of life as Alpharetta (and the other North Fulton cities of Roswell, Johns Creek and Milton).

In the vein of uncovering distinction, this intrepid Realtor ventured over muddy hill and dale to bring you this picture of the progress on Encore Park, the new amphitheater that is being built off of Westside Parkway in Alpharetta. The facility will become the northern home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as well as host to other musical acts that today have to be seen "inside the perimeter." The opening is scheduled for this coming summer.

Click image for larger view (1.5MB)

Visualize yourself sitting on the closely mown, green bermuda lawn, quilt spread, sharing potato salad and fried chicken waiting for the main event to start. In these parts, Alpharetta is increasingly becoming the main event. See you on the lawn this summer.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 4 Comments »

11Nov

2007 Milton GA Municpal Election Hinged on Sewer and Development

categories: Milton Real Estate, Stuff I like to talk about

Every election has a few contentious issues and time and again it is the issue of sewer (and the related issue of development) that surfaces in Milton. Every candidate running this year said they were opposed to extending sewer into Milton, but that didn’t matter much to the voters. They clearly decided that one camp of candidates, lead by Julie Zahner Bailey, would do a better job protecting Milton against over development and dealing with the development that is needed.

Results of 2007 City of Milton Municipal Election

Last year it was a bunch of independent, unaffiliated individuals running for six seats. This year, in order to get the city council on a revolving schedule, only three seats up up for re-election. However, these three incumbents now had a record to run on – or against depending on your point of view.

What was interesting in this election was that no longer were we faced with selecting an individual from a pool of other unknown individuals. This time, the candidates self selected themselves into obvious camps. For a non-partisan election, it felt like there were definitely two parties: those “against the Mayor” and those “with the Mayor” for lack of a better taxonomy. The “against the Mayor” candidates were incumbents O’Brien, Mohrig and by association, Santi.

Candidates “with the Mayor” were incumbents Zahner-Bailey and by association with Zahner-Bailey, newbies Burt Hewitt and Alan Tart. More than anything though, this election was a referendum on Zahner-Bailey. She was clearly the target of the “against the Mayor” camp.

**2007 City of Milton Municipal Election Results**
District	Name	Votes	Pct
2	Bailey (i)	2,125	62%
2	Santi	1,322	38%
4	Hewitt	2,061	60%
4	O’Brien (i)	1,358	40%
6	Tart	1,875	55%
6	Mohrig (i)	1,525	45%

With no doubt she has a polarizing approach and with no doubt she is stubborn and unbending in her beliefs. But also with no doubt, she has the best organized, best run, most professional campaign organization in the area. She is informed on the issues, whether you agree with her or not, she can communicate a position and she stays on topic. She has the best grass roots organization, too. Finally, she campaigns on the issues and not on personalities; she stays “positive” but defends herself when attacked. She has found a winning formula.

The results of this election speak volumes: It wasn’t even close. In an election where people said that Zahner-Bailey was in for the fight of her life, she won 62% of the vote. Although Hewitt and Tart didn’t win as widely, they still won handily and mostly have their association with Zahner Bailey to thank. Coat tails in a Milton municipal election? You betcha.

What does this have to do with Milton real estate, you ask?

Almost everything. The main campaign issue was, and will be for the foreseeable future, development (and its offshoot issue, traffic). Development has everything to do with real estate and housing.

Milton is different than any other area in North Fulton or the north side of Atlanta for that matter. The difference is density. Milton has scattered neighborhoods mixed with horse farms and some remaining agricultural land. The neighborhoods that are in Milton have large lots, one acre minimum. The reason for the large lots is that the area does not have sewer and Fulton County requires at least an acre for the septic system. This single fact has led to Milton’s distinction and is also the underlying source of all political and economic debates.

Because of the role of sewer – or the lack there of – in shaping the rural character of Milton, support or opposition to expanding sewer into Milton has become equated with being for or against development. The logic is simple: sewer allows developers to build higher density. The proof is everywhere. Look at any other suburban neighborhood, whether in Alpharetta, Roswell, Johns Creek or elsewhere in America. The standard is a quarter acre lot or even less in some places.

In Milton, you have to look no further than The Manor, which has a private sewer system, to see the result of a sewered subdivision. The Manor is a beautiful neighborhood with unbelievable houses and great amenities - and did I mention the Tom Watson golf course? However, the lots are smaller, the privacy less and the rural flavor minimized.

In some ways, though, sewer is a red herring. I can make a strong argument on environmental grounds that public sewer is better that private septic. For one, waste water is returned to the watershed not dispersed to the water table. In general septic was not designed for suburban use and even today its use on some projects / lots raises makes me wonder. Think about our building elementary schools, high schools and some new light commercial like at Birmingham Crossroads all on septic, let alone shoulder to shoulder homes in neighborhoods stacked next to each other.

The argument, though, is that the no sewer issue has effectively kept development at bay while zoning alone could not do that. What if Milton had a residential zoning requirement irrespective of sewer or septic that said residential lots had to be a minimum of one acre? Would that be strong enough to prevent higher density development? Intellectually you might say yes, but there is always the appeal for a variance and we all know that physical / structural barriers are harder to break than legislated ones.

I’m sure everyone has gone on a diet at some point. Did you empty the freezer of all the ice cream when you started? Was it easier to stay on your diet once you removed the temptation? Better yet, it is even easier to stay on the diet if you go to a “fat farm.” That creates a structural barrier between you and your refrigerator. Better yet, some people even have their stomachs stapled. Now that is a physical barrier! No sewer is the same for Milton. Do we have the collective will power to stay on a low density diet?

I’m a realtor and you’d think I might be unabashedly in favor of building more homes. That would give me more to sell right? But I also consider myself a thoughtful person (and a conservationist) and fundamentally believe in preserving – and growing – the value of what we have while thoughtfully building new to compliment the existing.

When I’m showing clients around Milton, for the most part, they all love it. “Gee, I love the hills.” “Gee, I love the trees.” “Gee, I love the open feel.” “Gee, I love the green space.”

I hesitate on the “I love the green space” because while Milton does have lots of trees and open spaces, those trees and open space are PRIVATE PROPERTY that you have the pleasure of enjoying. Those private individuals could sell their land to a developer tomorrow and we’d have the next neighborhood.

Milton does not have any PUBLIC space to speak of in the midst of all this “green space.” Unless some of that space is taken out of the private market it will one day be developed. Look at the east side of GA-400 for evidence. Milton doesn’t really have a park system, certainly nothing compared to Roswell or Alpharetta and until some true public open space is created, the no sewer ideology is what people believe is their best defense of what they have now.

I know that if allowed to run its course, one day, some day, every square inch of Milton will be developed save for the rogue horse owner somewhere who just refuses to sell. In the nine years my family has lived in what is now Milton, there are easily twice as many single family homes than when we moved here.

Is full development what we want? According to the election results: No. Milton is still unique in what it offers and has a huge opportunity to define its future. It is clear that people want to retain the rural flavor. It is unclear how we preserve it in a land of private property.

Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 3 Comments »

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