After a successful business

career in Atlanta, Steve Nygren bolted the big city and headed for the

serenity of South Fulton County.

Now, with development on the

area's doorstep, Nygren and a group of residents want to make sure the

development is master-planned and does not overrun the area's rural qualities.

Nygren is president of the

Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance. Each member of the group ponies up

$2 an acre for each acre he owns in the county to help fund the new organization.

"It's a group of concerned

land owners who know growth is coming and wants to make sure it's master-planned,"

Nygren said.

Nygren started the successful

Peasant restaurant chain in Atlanta and now operates a bed and breakfast

near Palmetto.

The group wants to make sure

that many of the historic roads and vistas are preserved in South Fulton.

Last week, the Fulton County

Board of Commissioners adopted the concept plan for the Chattahoochee

Hill Country Alliance (CHCA) project.

The Planning Division will

hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the specifics of creating a CHCA

Overlay District to the South Fulton 2015 Land Use and Comprehensive Plan.

The meeting will be held from

6 p.m.-8 p.m. at the South Fulton Service Center, 5600 Stonewall Tell

Road, College Park.

County planners will also discuss

revisions for the Sandtown, Cascade, and Old National Overlay Districts.

The goal of the CHCA is to

develop South Fulton based upon sustainable development principles, including

the conservation of green space and the protection of natural and cultural

resources. The concept plan concentrates future development into three

dense, multi-use "villages," leaving the rest as woods and fields.

The CHCA is a community-driven

initiative, the first project of its size to be spearheaded by Fulton

County landowners. The area under consideration consists of approximately

40,000 acres, involving 1,250 landowners, across much of South Fulton

County west of Cascade-Palmetto Highway and east of the Chattahoochee

River.

For more information, contact

Geneasa Elias, Environment Division, at 404/730-8189.