Protect Milton Update.

Protect Milton is now Incorporated and we are taking steps to become  a 501c3 Corporation!  Our new website is up and running! www.ProtectMilton.com!

The Fulton County Board of Education purchased the 116 acres of property on Freemanville Road, bordering Wood Road, and Rolling Links Drive in Milton last March.  Since then the community has banded together and paid for environmental engineering studies which clearly support our statements that no schools should be built on this property. 

Facts:

·         This property lies in the Coosa River Basin Watershed. 

·         Chicken Creek is also in this watershed and the creeks and streams on this property drain to Chicken Creek, which drains to the Coosa River, then on into Lake Allatoona. 

·         The High School alone will dump over 100,000 gallons of septic waste  into the Coosa River Basin Watershed and Chicken Creek EVERY day! 

·         We are opposed to the use of this site for any schools due to the pollution it will put into our Watershed. 

Please join our cause, by doing so you will be a part of helping prevent the pollution of the Waters in Georgia, right here in Milton.  Please help us stop this crisis from happening.

Please go to our Website www.ProtectMilton.com .  The very first thing you can do is sign the petition.  We are close to 500 signatures from the community, and we need your signature to help!  We are also asking for donations to help with the environmental engineering costs and legal costs.  We need donations so we can continue to move forward to prevent this Watershed from being polluted by the irresponsible building of this high school and possible middle school by the FCBOE on any septic system on this property.

Protect Milton, Inc., 980 Birmingham Road, Suite 501-350, Milton, Ga 30004

To go directly to our petition click on the link:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/new-school-site-opposition.html

In Response To Reporter, Candy Waylock’s Article In The Milton Herald From Protect Milton.

This is not about the residents that live in close proximity to the school site as Katie Reeves of the BOE always attempts to portray unsuccessfully.  This site is wrong for our new City in so many ways as stated in the school petition and other letters from Protect Milton.  Katie Reeves and the BOE will not succeed at trying to make it a “problem only for those that live near it” situation.  This is a CITY problem and the majority of  City Council has voiced their belief that the school should be put somewhere else in Milton, as have many of our residents, and only the BOE is not listening. They don’t care.  They only chose this site because it was easy and convenient, not based on some long term study they would like to make the community believe was done.  Their staff listed the sites below and they picked the easiest one, Freemanville.  That is not responsible studying or planning.  Richard Wernick willingly offered it to them on a silver platter in the middle of the night!

The other sites looked at are listed below:

1. Hopewell Road - The Trophy Club 120 acres. (Are you willing to believe this was actually a legitimate consideration, taking the Golf Course?)  In reality would they take this site?

2. Cogburn Rd./Bethany Rd. - (they claim they didn’t take this site because the developer, David Chatham, got the zoning he desired to build homes, and decided not to take it from him, forgetting the fact that this site is on SEWER, and already has a traffic light, etc.)

3. Bethany Rd./Providence Rd. -  90 + acres, the owner wasn’t willing to sell? And it was too close to MHS?  What about the Freemanville site, it’s only another .5 or less miles to MHS, and it isn’t too close enough as well?  

4.  Hopewell Road – 58 acres which they say was flood plain so they would have had to add adjacent acreage which would have brought the price per acres to $180,000 per acre.  This would need to be proven with an appraisal, which Katie Reeves stated in the Summit Hill meeting that all of the properties had an appraisal done on them by the BOE. 

Since when is it okay for someone not sell to the BOE given their jurisdiction? When did the BOE become so considerate as not to take land because a developer got his way on rezoning for building new homes? The Freemanville site was going to be residential homes as well, but that didn’t bother them in obtaining it.  Go explain that to the families that ended up having to sell their property or the BOE was going to use Eminent Domain to take their homes during the building of the existing Milton High School. They didn’t have to use Eminent Domain as they stated because the threat was real for the families that owned the property if they refused to sell.  Are people now allowed to “just say no” to the BOE when it comes to school sites?

What about the 124 acres on Birmingham Hwy currently available at the same price the BOE paid for the Freemanville Site, as well as the 70 acres directly across the street from it for a middle school, right under Chatham’s Blue Valley.  They aren’t considering this site and won’t, or the number one site, going back into the Old Milton High School and rebuilding it for the Alpharetta students since once the high school is built in Milton, all the students going to the existing Milton HS will be Alpharetta students and not those from Milton.  The City of Milton will pays for the roads, maintenance, Fire and Police for this school, and the students will come from Alpharetta, not Milton.

Katie Reeves stated in the meeting at Summit Hill, claiming around 75% or more students after redistricting would be from Alpharetta primarily in the existing Milton High School.  Katie Reeves also stated at this meeting that they couldn’t possibly take the Independent students (450) currently using this underutilized Old High School site because they plan on having 850 Independent students there, mind you, not from this area, they will be busing these students in as they are now.  It is more important to underutilize this school for students that aren’t from here then to adaptively reuse this great location and reclaim this historical High School site for a school for Alpharetta and its students.  

I am asking the community to get involved now.  This site is wrong for our City.  This is not about a few residents upset that a school is being built near their homes and the BOE is not going to succeed at making this that kind of issue as they have always done in the past. 

Go ask your City Council members how they feel about the placement of this school site. Go ask all of them and the candidates, Alan Tart and Burt Hewitt, running for office now.  No one on Council has ever stated they are for this site.  They have indicated and expressed that this site is wrong for Milton and the BOE should choose another site more appropriate.  This site is too close to MHS, has environmental issues, and will compound the traffic issues already on Freemanville Road, Birmingham Highway, and surrounding roads.  The Fulton County EPC already denied Kings Ridge two times the ability to build on this site as posted in the Protect Milton letter in June of 2007 on Access Milton.  They (Fulton County) denied it because it didn’t fit in with the Fulton County 2025 Land Use Plan, traffic issues, and environmental issues.  If they denied a land use permit for Kings Ridge due to these reasons, then shouldn’t these same reasons hold water for a much larger High School and now a possible Middle School?  Kings Ridge eventually got a use permit for this site due to major concessions they were willing to make to build on it.  Obviously they felt it was better to move their location and build the school the way they envisioned it, then to have to sacrifice by making concessions to their site plans based on the problems with this site.

Bottom line, the Freemanville site, was an easy cop out for the BOE, and not surprisingly it is far from the best site choice for our new City. Our petition is growing and we welcome your support and input regarding this school site being moved.  Just because the BOE claims the school will be built, doesn’t mean it is so.  Don’t be fooled and deterred because the BOE says it is a done deal. It is not.

Lisa Cauley / Protect Milton Group

ProtectMilton@aol.com or CMschoolpetition@aol.com 

Petition link:   www.gopetition.com/petitions/new-school-site-opposition.html

Protect Milton Update

September 28, 2007                

 

Protect Milton Update

 

The BOE held a meeting on Tuesday, September 25^th at Summit Hill Elementary School for the Community to learn of the site plan for the Elementary School to be built on Birmingham Highway bordering Wood Road, opening in August 2009.

 

There are many concerns with this site plan regarding the Septic System.  The BOE stated the septic system is not like that of Summit Hill and they do not foresee any issues with the Septic system as experienced with Summit Hill Elementary. 

 

Sincere concern was raised on how much land us used for septic fields, yet the children’s playground area is what seems to suffer in building these schools on septic instead of placing them in areas where they could be on sewer.  No credible answer was given on those questions as well.  The children need more space to play as exampled in the situation at Summit Hill Elementary.

 

Questions were raised as to why the capacity for this school would be only 850 and they are claiming it is based on their numbers.  And in addition to this only 200 students from White Columns (which borders this school) will attend this school after redistricting and shifting attendance zones.  There is suspicion that the real reason they cannot put more children in this school is based on the septic system capacity in reality.  The system cannot handle more students.  Validation of this will be investigated. 

 

Questions were asked regarding traffic on Birmingham Hwy and the BOE stated that they are not responsible for any road improvements resulting from their school placements, this is left up to the GA DOT and the City to figure it out.  On Birmingham Highway there will be 2 entrances into the school, one for buses and one for staff and carpool.  Also major concern was the access to Wood Road which the BOE stated it would be a very “rare” situation if they accessed it, however the site plan provided clearly showed trees cleared with access to Wood Road.

 

The BOE would not guarantee 100% that they would never access Wood Road but never say never in the words of Katie Reeves.

 

Attempts were made to ask questions about the High School and reluctantly they did answer some questions.  There were 5 other sites that were looked at prior to choosing the old Kings Ridge site.  Katie Reeves would not divulge the sites at the meeting.  When asked what specific reasons the other sites were denied in favor of the old Kings Ridge site, she also skipped over the question and did not answer it.  She was asked how Fulton County could deny Kings Ridge a Land Use Permit twice and now the BOE is allowed to come in and use this site for a much larger school, possibly two schools, and she ignored the question.

 

As a community we have the right to know why the BOE did not chose the other sites and what they were.  She had the perfect opportunity to talk to a group of about 200 people and answer a few questions about the High School and she chose to shut it down regarding questions from the group and ended the meeting.  After the meeting many were still asking questions one on one to the staff and Katie Reeves as well.

 

Maybe we could get some of those people that were there to share their questions and answers on Access Milton. 

 

Katie did not deny that a possible Middle school would be going in with the High School.  So neighbors, the BOE has managed to put and Elementary School, Middle School, and High School in the middle of our Brand New City without our input or the input of our City Council and in any consideration to our Land Use Plan. 

 

Both Birmingham Highway and Freemanville Road will be backed up with commuters and school traffic.  I am asking the community to please get involved.  This school placement for Milton is inappropriate and needs to be moved.  Please start calling your City Council Members and ask them to get involved! 

 

Our Density does not warrant placing these schools on this location in Milton.  She claims that this site was the best site out of all of those considered.  Why?  Please elaborate BOE!

 

Please become more involved in your community and ask questions!  To sign the petition go to

 http://www.gopetition.com/online/12570.html 

Contact Lisa Cauley at protectmilton@aol.com for further direct information.

 

Regards. 

Protect Milton

Protect Milton Update

September 10, 2007

The grass roots community group, Protect Milton, has been gathering information and community support in opposition to the proposed High School site on Freemanville Road bordering Wood Road and Rolling Links Drive in White Columns.The placement of this school, and potential Middle School, will be detrimental to our new City and its Comprehensive Land Use Plan which is being improved upon by our Planning Commission, Planning Committee and Citizen’s Advisory Group. It is imperative our Community, City Council and the Planning Committees come together in defense of our new City and its Land Use Plan in regards to this school placement. The direction and future of our City depends on this Land Use Plan and it is important the community gets involved in every aspect of this process. Milton is different from other cities in Fulton County. Milton is not zoned the same in anyway whatsoever, so should we be treated the same when choosing school sites for our City? The Fulton County Board of Education cannot continue to purchase land for schools in Milton as if we are on sewer, without regard to our community, our Land Use Plan, and environment. We are not on sewer in Milton and from what the community and members of our City Council have expressed over the last few months we are determined to prevent sewer extension from creeping into our City and increasing our density. Once the density goes up then the City will become like every other City in suburban Atlanta. Is this what we all want for Milton? Are we different? Do we wish to preserve this unique and rural community?

We can preserve our area if the community engages. Issues such as school placement in our City are so critical to our evolution. The FCBOE has a responsibility to the tax payers in this City to not disregard our wants and desires to keep our area rural. They have a responsibility to treat our land with respect in planning for schools as to not create additional traffic nightmares for our rural roads and not to pollute or impair any further our creeks, streams and lakes that run through our City and are part of the Watershed. Or to create an atmosphere of division by having 2 High Schools 2.8 miles on the same road.

Milton’s density does not support or justify the need for another High School placed 2.8 miles on the same road for a population of 20,000+ residents. The Fulton County Board of Education’s decision to place this school on Freemanville Road is no different then spot zoning C-1 in our City. If the community can show in up in numbers at City Hall to protect a small tract of land from being spot zoned C-1, then how can the placement of this school be treated inconsequential?

It’s up to us, the community, to determine if we are going to keep our rural nature or not. Protect Milton strongly feels this school placement is negligent and inappropriate planning for our City. An alternative carefully planned location needs to be accepted for another High School. Any future school location for our City should to be examined carefully by the FCBOE and incorporate the input and direction of our all our elected officials, the Planning Commission, the Planning Committee taking into strong consideration the parameters of our Land Use Plan.

There are other options which have been discussed as alternative sites: renovating the Old Milton High School, the 124 acres for sale on Birmingham Highway above Birmingham Road., and the Highway 9 retail area.

To sign the petition opposing the new proposed High School on Freemanville Road., go to the link below:

www.gopetition.com/petitions/new-school-site-opposition.html

To join our group and become more involved please email: protectmilton@aol.com.Lisa CauleyChairperson – Protect MiltonP.S. Contact the Milton City Council, Planning Commission, Planning Committee and Citizens Advisory Committee and your new Candidates running for City Council with any comments or concerns regarding this school placement. Your voices need to be heard.

Details Slowly Emerge

The details of this recent land purchase by the school district are as follows:

DESCRIPTION: 116.695 acres fronting along Freemanville Road, located in Land Lots 626, 627, 669, 670, 671, 698, 700 and 701, 2^nd District, 2^nd Section, City of Milton, Georgia

PURCHASE PRICE: $13,478,272.50 ($115,500/acre)

SELLER: LSI-Freemanville, LLC

SIGNING AUTHORITY: LSI-Freemanville Group, LLC, By The Columns Group, Inc., Alvin P. Nash, Executive Vice President

CLOSING DATE: March 30, 2007

Mike Russell

Associate Superintendent of Operations

Fulton County Schools

Please share your reasons for being opposed.