Will Milton become the Buckhead (Beverly Hills) of the north? (Atlanta: condo, big home)

[mrpanda]

My question is this? Will Milton & Forsyth County (Alpharetta, JC, Roswell, Milton, S. Forsyth etc.) no longer be casually lumped by the outside world as an extension of Atlanta? Will Milton & Forsyth County be a mature, stand-alone counties with its own positive identity apart from the city of Atlanta in 30 years from now?

[arjay57]

I think Atlanta is like most other big cities. There will always be people who want to live close in because it feels more urban and because it's where the influential and well to do were traditionally located. You can find those neighborhoods in every major city.

But there will also be those who say to heck with that, get me out of town and give me something new.

Plenty of room for both in my opinion.

[mrpanda]

When I drive east on McGinnis Ferry (Johns Creek) towards Suwanee, I notice this huge open land left of me when i drive? Anyone know what may be developed here the future? More residential, commerical?, a nice Park? I always wonder when I drive to Suwanee going east on McGinnis Ferry.

[cwkimbro]

Well 10 years isn't necessarily a long time. And most of us are saying that having grown up in a city that has rapidly grown.

To be fair to Mr. Panda's original question... I think the big problem people are grappling with is how the city itself is built. Atlanta in general... including Buckhead and the northern suburbs is a series of privately developed neighborhoods (and streets) and it isn't as cohesive as the way Beverly Hills and the surrounding area is built.

The problem with North Fulton compared to these places in LA is it is a really large spread out area. Beverly Hills proper only has about 34,000 people. We are so spread out it isn't that there isn't some expensive housing stock developing, but most of the new upscale really upscale houses are focused around Golf courses, river/lake front properties, and sometimes in the back of cheaper neighborhoods where there is wetland/undevelopable area/nature preserve.

What the north Atlanta area offers that Beverly Hills doesn't is lots of land, space, and privacy. However, to get that they have to be more spread out rather than concentrated in a small area.

Sometimes I like to go on Google Satellite images and find upscale properties. The most upscale properties seem to be spread out.

Partly unrelated to the question... here are some interesting places I have found:

- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps (appraised for over $16 million in the Fulton County tax records)
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps
- Atlanta, ga - Google Maps

It seems like in alot of these cases the properties are more spread out. The land was initially cheaper and it is what was built there that made it more expensive. In on place there is multi-million dollar homes.... scroll over half a mile and you see cheaper homes that probably sell for 300-400k, which are also near others that go for 700-900k close by developed a decade earlier.

Kind of like the point made in a forum a week or two ago... LA has lots of beach front or near in urban neighborhoods that back up to an undeveloped mountain. This creates small corridors where the land itself is extremely valuable. Once you go a few miles inland or away from the mountain the property values drop away from that extreme high, even though they are still above average areas.

Buckhead is really nice in that it has good immediate access to downtown/midtown, buchkhead cbd, Perimeter Center, and Cumberland.

One thing is definitely true though... in North Atlanta you can get alot of house for the money. The house is more a factor of what you can afford to build

[mrpanda]

CWKimbro,

OMG! Those Atlanta properties are SUPER nice! What are the addresses and locations of these links?

I think northern suburbs of Atlanta is more similar to South Orange County than LA. The area in South OC is newer and has more space than LA, you definitely can get more square footage and a newer home in south OC than LA. A good example would be comparing Santa Monica (old and expensive) to a place like Ladera Ranch (cheaper, newer, and more open space).

Coto de Caza (median home price is in the $800ks) reminds me of Milton which is a predominately white & affluent area. In Coto, there are homes built on gigantic lots 2-3 acres with a lot of open space, less traffic, and a lot of equestrian activity. Many business owners and executives live there to get away from the hustle and bustle of LA. I know a lot about OC/LA and the northern Atlanta suburbs feels a lot like living in the South Orange County in early to mid 80s to me. Short of like traveling back in time.

Even the Gwinnett Place Mall area (pleasant hill road) reminds me of LA Koreatown (wilshire blvd) back in the late 70s & early 80s.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by mrpanda

When I drive east on McGinnis Ferry (Johns Creek) towards Suwanee, I notice this huge open land left of me when i drive? Anyone know what may be developed here the future? More residential, commerical?, a nice Park? I always wonder when I drive to Suwanee going east on McGinnis Ferry.

In Gwinnett, Foryth, and Fulton County there is alot of land bought and owned by the respective counties often by the water and sewer departments.

It was somewhat a land grab when it was cheaper (and still going on) to create development buffer to the river. Before we had the water wars we went through a series of complaints that metro Atlanta was polluting the river, which included newer development dumping alot of sediment.

Keeping some of the land undeveloped is also paving the way for greenways, parks, and potential future water/sewer structures as needed many years out.

At one point in time there was a desire to save land for small potential buffer dam to save the daily discharges for hydroelectric power as a water saving measure in Lake Lanier. The environmental assessment of that many years ago turned up negative/failed. That is largely what started the lawsuit between Georgia and Alabama. Given the new neighborhoods in the area... that will never happen now, but I think there is a reluctance to letting the development get too close to the river or in any potential floodplains, like we did several decades ago.

Just an FYI... go to each county's website, click departments, click Tax Assessor, and you will find almost all of this stuff is publicly listed.

On the Forsyth county side all the way to Kemp Rd and a small part on the other side of Kemp was sold to Forysth in 1996 and then part of to the GDOT in 2007(most likely for the current road widending project). It is just over 300 acres and still owned by Forsyth Co.

In the future I bet part of the site will be used as a sewage treatment facility. It is the lowest down river point in the county and would be the most ideal place for them. In the long run I bet it will become a mixture of park land, conservation are, green way, ans some of sold away for profit at the right time to develop and recover some money back. It also looks like part of that parcel has a County Soccer Complex built on it.

On the Fulton side... that narrower strip is marked as government owned and just under 60 acres.

The Gwinnett Co. site wasn't being nice to me and I didn't feel like fooling with it.
There are two parcels there. I suspect one is government owned if not both. The larger is being used as a passive park by the neighborhood. I'm not sure if that is government land or was privately owned, in which a developer gave up zoning rights to get zoning concessions on other land. Or possibly it was just in a flood plain and was easy to enforce no development.

[cwkimbro]

Metropolitan River Protection Act | http://www.atlantaregional.com

IMO, this didn't go far enough with regulation requirements when it was made.

They also ignored some newer philosophies in land protection. The preserved lands can regulated against development, but offer better development rights to be used by current property owners in other places of the area in trade. It also ignored land values bordering protected areas can increase.

[cabasse]

i am downright amazed milton has the populaion density it does - still have a few friends who live up in that general area - 30-35k in 35 square miles ("23,000 acres") is quite a surprise, honestly. i thought it was much more rural than that, at least it feels that way on the areas i've been in.

i'm not a complete hater, i just personally can't stand areas where you gotta drive 10-15 miles to pick up a damn loaf of bread... it's counter-intuitive in my book to spend so much time driving everywhere, and i actually consider myself a car person. like i've said in other threads as well - some of the most godawful traffic i've ever sat in in my life has been in woodstock/milton and similar areas, where everyone lives in subdivisions off two lane roads, and the options are few.

[Esteban5]

Originally Posted by mrpanda

My question is this? Will Milton & Forsyth County (Alpharetta, JC, Roswell, Milton, S. Forsyth etc.) no longer be casually lumped by the outside world as an extension of Atlanta? Will Milton & Forsyth County be a mature, stand-alone counties with its own positive identity apart from the city of Atlanta in 30 years from now?

I think the likelihood is there, if the unsold homes don't drag it down too much in he next 2-3 years. The 'trend' is away from larger homes, but higher quality/nicer finishes.

Are McMansions "out"??

[roxyrn]

Milton is more like the Malibu of Atlanta (but alas, no ocean). People move there to be away from the city and enjoy a country lifestyle with horse farms,golf courses, and a feeling of seclusion.