Imagine how

odd the following headlines would be: "Faucet works every day for

two years straight." Or "Street repairs completed without a

hitch; No one notices."

Good news is

so boring it never gets reported.

Most of the

time during normal circumstances, basic government services work so well

that nobody notices. Every morning we wake up, turn on the faucet, and

clean drinking water comes out. What we flush disappears out of sight,

out of mind. A quick call to 911 brings help in less than five minutes.

These things happen so reliably, we rarely think about what it takes or

costs for them to continue.

Only when it

doesn't work do we even notice.

Every day,

Fulton County employees maintain over 1,200 miles of roads and 1,300 miles

of sewers. They repair bridges and potholes, operate libraries, provide

health care and other support for needy residents.

They protect

lives and property through the Police, Fire, Sheriff and Marshals departments.

They keep the bad guys off the street, and prevent others from going bad

in the first place. They keep clean water coming, and dirty water going.

For Fulton

County residents, these services are delivered at an extremely decent

price.

Fulton County's

2000 general fund budget was about $540 million. Fifty-nine percent of

that is funded by property taxes which, broken down by population (816,000),

amounts to about $388 per capita.

The approximately

262,000 residents of unincorporated Fulton County pay Fulton County (again

through property taxes) about $153 per capita for municipal services (police,

fire, parks). So for about $2,200 per year, a family of four gets roads,

libraries, parks, police and fire protection, senior centers, health care,

arts classes and sports camps.

Fulton County

is dealing with decades of explosive growth that has happened much faster

than anyone anticipated. Fulton grew by over 160,000 people over the last

10 years, mostly in north Fulton. That's an increase of over 25 percent.

While new residents

do increase the tax roll, they never end up paying enough in property

taxes to cover the costs of new services.

This is especially

true with infrastructure, because building and maintaining roads and sewers

are the most expensive endeavors a local government undertakes. Over time,

local government resources are stretched thin as funds are spent on addressing

both new as well as existing needs. Keeping up with it all is a very real

challenge.

When discussing

land use and development issues as well as planning for future infrastructure,

we must assume the build-out of the existing Comprehensive Land Use Plan

according to existing zoning.

Much of the

currently undeveloped land is already zoned for some other use. For the

most part, property owners are free to do what they want as long as they

follow current zoning regulations. The majority of Fulton County's zoning

cases about two-thirds are consistent with the CLUP. Many of those actually

result in a density less than what the land is zoned for.

Zoning and

the development process are related but separate processes. The building

process, which entails several permits (e.g. land disturbance, building,

certificate of occupancy), is closely regulated. Each permit is granted

only after significant review and/or inspection. Throughout the building

permit process, disclaimers on forms repeatedly warn that there is no

guarantee of sewer availability.

As we take

on current and future challenges, consider several points. First, not

a lot of developers stay in business very long by building things for

which there is no demand.

Furthermore,

government has the responsibility to provide services for the health,

safety and welfare for all who want to come. But finally, the good news:

the explosive growth is itself evidence that many things have been done

right. Our quality of life in Fulton County is very good, which is why

so many people have come here over the last 20 years.

"No growth"

is simply not a realistic option. Fulton County government is doing everything

it can to provide the best service we can to every resident of the county.

Hopefully,

we can all work together to shape a future that everybody can live with.