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In his recent addition to Substack, Hank Sullivan calls out the devastating result of poor decision-making by the Forsyth County Commission.

https://hanksullivan.substack.com/p/feckless-board-of-commissioners-allows

Sawnee Mountain, just Northwest of the center of Cumming, GA is now forever scarred by a development approved by the Forsyth Commission. Despite calls for better planning and controls for proposed developments, a large portion of the mountain has been carved away, along with the forests that have grown there for hundreds of years.

Sawnee Mountain itself has evolved thanks to thousands of years of geological and environmental factors. Yet the County Commission has allowed developers to destroy a significant portion of nature's work, all with the "stroke of a pen."

Communities around the Country have learned the importance of preserving the integrity of geological and forestry sites, something Forsyth is obviously willing to forego in the name of speed of development and the money that comes along with it.

This latest occurance comes on the heels of concerns regarding the $150 Million Administartion building project approved by the Commission. A building created for the benefit of the Forsyth Commission and admin departments, but which has been found to be legally unusable by the Commission for meetings or votes.

While Commissioners claim this issue wasn't known until after the decision to invest $150 Million (approx. $500 for EVERY CITIZEN including children of Forsyth County,) evidence has been found that the issue was well known by Commision members and County personnel as early as 2 YEARS prior to approval of the project.

Forysth is recognized nationally for its growth. Grok describes it like this:

Key Growth Indicators:

• National Rankings: Cited as the fastest-growing in Georgia and among the top in the U.S. by the Atlanta Regional Commission and other sources for periods like 2010-2019.
• Wealth Growth: Ranked #1 in Georgia and #11 in the U.S. for overall wealth growth (income, home values, investments) in a report from around September 2025.
• Metro Atlanta Leader: The fastest-growing county in metro Atlanta, with significant recent population increases (e.g., 2.4% growth rate in 2024-2025).
• Decadal Growth: Saw a 43% population growth from 2010 to 2020, faster than any other metro Atlanta county. 

This kind of developer-centric decision making can be seen in many locations around Forsyth, a County once recognized for its beauty and rural flavor.

Now developments clearly meant to attract and serve other sensibilities have sprung up, many exhibiting the same head-long charge to development with little to no concern about nature or environmental factors.

Developments just North of the Marketplace are just one example:

The questions remain:

What is being sacrificed to support such growth? What benefits may be accruing to members of the Forsyth Commission personally? Why would they make decisions which so clearly are in the interest of parties who are not the citizens of Forsyth?

We'll have more on this story as it progresses.

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