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Coal Mountain project advances By JAKE DRUKMAN jake@appenmedia.com FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The Forsyth County Commission voted Jan. 20 to allow and participate in a regional impact study required as part of the planning process for a major development at Coal Mountain. Toll Brothers, a Pennsylvania-based luxury development company, has submitted initial plans for the Coal Mountain Town Center, a mixed-use project covering more than 140 acres near Ga. 9 and Browns Bridge Road. Thursday’s approval does not guarantee the development will go through. It merely launches a process that allows the Atlanta Regional Commission to study the impact such a project would have on Coal Mountain and the surrounding area. Toll Brothers representative Adam Guercio discussed specifics of the proposal during a Jan. 11 commission work session. As currently designed, the project would include more than 900 residential units and 265,000 square feet of commercial space. Guercio said the plan is to concentrate residential density in the main town center area on the east side of the intersection to allow more commercial developments on the west and south sides. Commissioner Cindy Jones Mills, who represents the Coal Mountain area, said the project has been “a long time coming.” Guercio said the county developed an initial overlay of the plan around five years ago, and the current plan expands it. He said several infrastructure and road improvements are already taking place in the Coal Mountain area, and the town center project would build upon them. He conceded
Kemp pushes pay increases for educators By CANDY WAYLOCK candy@appenmedia.com
NELSON WORLDWIDE
A rendering of the proposed Coal Mountain Town Center development. The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners approved an impact study for the development at its Jan. 20 meeting. the development would impact traffic, but the current road improvements will help mitigate the increase. “It’s one of the few projects that I’ve ever seen come in with road improvement as it’s coming in,” Jones Mills said. “It’s really a blessing that it didn’t come in before the roads came in. It just worked out that way.” The residential component alone will have some effect on traffic. Plans call for 300 multi-family housing units, 130 townhomes, 278 single-family dwellings and 201 senior living units.
Guercio said the project will likely take five to 10 years to complete, leaning closer to 10. Atlanta Regional Commission’s impact review process involves gathering information on the proposed development and hearing input from neighboring jurisdictions and affected parties. The commission will then create a report with comments and recommendations regarding the development. Jones Mills said the project is getting closer to fruition, though there’s still much work to be done.
ATLANTA — It has taken three years, but Gov. Brian Kemp is set to fulfill his campaign promise of boosting public school teacher salaries by $5,000 while in office. The first-term governor was able to secure a partial win in 2019 when the Georgia Legislature approved a $3,000 salary increase. This year, Kemp hopes to get legislative approval to fund the remaining $2,000 raise for the state’s 120,000 public school teachers. If approved, the raise would take effect by Sept. 1 in the fiscal year 2023 budget. The bump in salary could put Georgia among the top 20 for teacher salaries in the United States, according to data from the National Education Association. The current average salary of Georgia public school teachers is nearly $60,600, with the starting salary at $38,509. The pay raise for teachers would add nearly $280 million to the state budget beginning in the 2023 budget year. But the expense is worth
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