Tag Archives: Alpharetta City Council

So be it

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Over the last few days there have been numerous attempts on local blogs to distort who I am and what I stand for in this campaign. As a parent that had to explain to my children what “DUI Debbie” signs on the side of the road meant four years ago I am not surprised but I am disappointed.

My campaign is about fiscal responsibility, growth we can live with and a passion for defending the quality of life that makes Alpharetta great. My campaign is about the vision of our future that I share with the people of Alpharetta. I will not climb into the gutter with my opponent’s supporters because I am better than that and I know my views and positions will win this election.

Any person that thinks I will be intimidated by distortions or vile, vicious and false claims obviously doesn’t know me very well. That kind of pathetic nonsense only serves to inspire me more. I have never backed down from a bully in my life and I am not about to start now.

I generally ignore the attacks on me but they reached such a level on one website that I felt the need to respond just to set the record straight. You can read my response below:

It is sad that baseless personal attacks have become part of Alpharetta’s political arena ever since Cheryl Oakes first decided to run for city  council. But I saw how the vile smears worked against her opponent four years ago and I expected them to resurface now.

If anyone thinks the Chamber of Commerce should be frightened by my platform then they obviously don’t remember when Brandon
Beach, the chamber’s CEO, was elected to Alpharetta City Council. He made the same promises to protect the quality of life for our residents that I make now.

I am simply trying to restore what used to be the norm. That I am now attacked as “anti-growth” or “anti-business” speaks volumes.  I am not anti-growth. I am pro-Alpharetta.

Every day for more than a decade I have been working with and talking to the people who make Alpharetta a great city. The Moms and Dads volunteering at PTA. The volunteer coaches who make our local sports programs possible. The new families who moved to Alpharetta to raise their children. The downtown residents and business owners concerned about the future of the downtown center. The people who have lived in Alpharetta for decades but are dismayed by what they see happening to their city and are now contemplating a move they never wanted to make.

When the offices all empty out… these are the people still here. They are the people who know me and support me.

If I’ve lost the unhinged blog commenter vote… so be it.

I would like to thank all of my friends and neighbors for your outpouring of support over the first week of this campaign. Obviously my opponents have every intention of making this race an ugly spectacle but you can rest assured that we will not stoop to their level. And when we win in November the people of Alpharetta will have sent a resounding message that such tactics are not welcome in the arena of ideas.

This is not your typical campaign website

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This website would be more accurately described as a blog. It was created in 2008 and named GA Jim. It was intended as a whimsical way for a busy, forty-something real estate agent with a wife and two kids to reach out to like-minded people in those few precious snippets of time between little league games, listing presentations, homeowners organizations and zoning meetings.

Over time GA Jim evolved into an issue oriented political blog focused primarily on events affecting the families of Alpharetta, the people of Georgia and our great nation, the United States of America. GA Jim became a place where people busy raising their families could turn to keep up with the news affecting their children’s school or find out why Douglas Road was closed down. GA Jim became a place where people who never read the public notices in the newspaper could turn to find out how a zoning issue might affect them.

Sometimes I tried to be funny, sometimes I tried to be provocative and more often than not I probably failed to do either. Over the years I have easily spent thousands of hours writing and researching the columns on GA Jim and I have never gotten a penny in return. It has been a labor of love that over time managed to develop a dedicated following among the people who care about such things.

So last week when I decided to run for City Council I was faced with a dilemma. What would I do with GA Jim? It was fine for me to write irreverent, biting or sarcastic blog posts about local issues when I was just another guy with opinions. But as someone seeking to represent the people of Alpharetta that would no longer be appropriate. So what would I do?

A normal politician would never start a blog like GA Jim in the first place and if it did exist they would be sure to delete it before running for office. It contains heartfelt opinions, stances and positions that will undoubtably be attacked by my political opponents. The typical politician would erase GA Jim with the click of a button and eliminate hundreds of posts containing their thoughts over the last two years. With the blog erased they could take any position that would help them get elected without fear of contradiction. That’s what any normal politician would do.

But I am not a normal politician. Until 4:15 last Wednesday afternoon I was just another husband, father and conservative voter frustrated by the political world around me. The decision to run for City Council didn’t change any of that. It simply added the word candidate to the description.

I am now a candidate for Alpharetta City Council post 4. By qualifying to run for City Council I made a commitment to the people of Alpharetta. I want to represent them and if they allow me that honor I will treat the issues with the seriousness they deserve and conduct myself at all times in a manner befitting their trust. Becoming a candidate will not change who I am but it does change how this blog can best serve the people of Alpharetta.

GA Jim is now my campaign website. This is not your typical campaign website because I am not your typical politician.

Please vote for Jim Gilvin on November 8th.

Tax incentives to attract and retain jobs in Alpharetta

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I have watched with great interest as local and state governments have become very aggressive in providing tax incentives for businesses that are willing to relocate into or extend a commitment to stay in their communities. If you read closely enough in any of the recent press releases about a business relocation you will find some indication that the local government was willing to sacrifice some short term tax revenue for the long term growth it could provide.

If you are unfamiliar with the phenomenom I suggest you read this article about the incentives which enticed Porsche to move their North American Headquarters from Sandy Springs to the old Ford plant site near Hartsfield airport. You can also read here on the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce site how Sandy Springs is aggressively pursuing policies that will attract businesses:

 Last night, the Sandy Springs City Council voted to establish reductions in the occupation tax to benefit businesses located in the City. The reductions include a blanket out-of-state sales exemption and a blanket franchise fee exemption for franchisees, which are located out-of-state. In addition, the Council further reduced the cap on maximum occupation tax paid in any one tax year from $400,000 to $75,000.

As a real estate agent I know it is always better to compete on features if you can. But I also realize that in the end it often comes down to price. And in today’s economy price is more important than ever before.

Back in December of 2010 I wrote a blogpost titled “Kudos to the City of Alpharetta for reducing fees as an incentive for new businesses!” which praised the city for taking a small step toward this innovative approach. You can read the whole thing here.

As a City Councilman I would like to see Alpharetta pursue these avenues more aggressively. I know that my opponent in this campaign will try to portray me as “anti-growth’ but that is patently absurd.

I am not anti-growth. I just support growth we can live with.

Yes it is true. I have crossed over to the dark side.

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Former City Clerk Sue Rainwater wishes me luck

Today I registered as a candidate for the Alpharetta City Council post 4 seat. After complaining about politics and politicians for most of my adult life I finally decided that it was time to put up or shut up.

And as any of my regular readers know, shutting up was never really an option.

Looking ahead to the next two months of campaigning I expect it will be exciting, daunting, frustrating and sometimes even rewarding. I don’t know how much of the campaign I will be able to share on these pages but fear not… the GA Jim blog will survive.

Campaign season picking up steam in Alpharetta

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Alpharetta’s local elections are starting to heat up now that there is only a week remaining before the qualifying deadline.

So far we only have two contested races, the mayoral race and the City Council post 1 seat. That leaves two incumbents and one neophyte running unopposed for City Council but with a week to go a lot can happen.

Below is a snapshot of how things look right now.

Alpharetta Mayor’s Race

David Belle Isle

Doug Derito

Jim Paine

City Council Post 1

Ron Carter

Don Mitchell

City Council Post 5

Hans Appen

City Council Post 4

Cheryl Oakes

City Council Post 6

D.C. Aiken

Stay tuned because the fun should begin in earnest next week!

The incredible disappearing transit machine

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Last Friday an agenda item about a transit presentation by Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce CEO, Northpoint CID Director and Georgia DOT Board member Brandon Beach magically appeared on the Alpharetta City Council docket for Monday night. I was surprised to see such an item appear out of thin air and wrote about it in this post over the weekend.

Well apparently I wasn’t the only one surprised. Several City Council members told me that they didn’t know anything about it until last Friday either.  Then yesterday, as magically as it appeared, the transit presentation disappeared and never took place. Curious stuff.

Maybe Mr. Beach saw the recent article “The Public Transport Revolution – Why does it never Arrive?” on Newgeography.com and realized that MARTA trains were a waste of time and money. You can read the whole article here but below are a few highlights.

Urban economist, Anthony Downs, writing in “Still Stuck in  Traffic?” reminds us:

“….trying to decrease traffic congestion by raising  residential densities is like trying to improve the position of a painting hung  too high on the living room wall by jacking up the ceiling instead of  moving the painting.”

******************

One of the arguments used against building more roads – and  especially against more motorways – is that as soon as they are built they  become congested again because of “induced demand.” Such “induced demand” is  surely the natural expression of suppressed demand. It seems unlikely  that motorists will mindlessly drive between different destinations for no  other reason than they can.

However, let us accept for a moment that “induced demand” is  real, and suggests that improving the road network is a fruitless exercise. Advocates  of expensive rail networks claim they will reduce congestion on the roads and  improve the lot of private vehicle users as a consequence.

But surely, if the construction of an expensive rail network  does reduce congestion on the roads then induced demand will rapidly restore  the status quo. Maybe the theory is  sound after all. It would explain why no retrofitted rail networks have  anywhere resulted in reduced congestion.

This is the time to invest in an enhanced roading network while  making incremental investments in flexible public transport. Roads can be  shared by buses, trucks, vans, cars, taxis, shuttle-buses, motor-cycles and  cyclists – unless compulsive regulators say they are for buses only. Railway  lines can be used only by trains and if we build them in the wrong place they  soon run empty. The Romans built roads and we still use them.

So maybe the incredible disappearing transit machine shows that local business leaders now realize raising sales taxes to pay for expensive, inefficient trains is a waste of time and money. And maybe the Georgia Department of Transportation will make up for decades of neglecting roads in what has been one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.

And maybe I’ll ride a flying pig to Braves games this Summer.

Nothing to see here… move along… move along

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A curious thing popped up on the city of Alpharetta’s website the other day.

It comes as no surprise that Brandon Beach wants the Alpharetta City Council to accept his billion dollar vision for taxpayer subsidized public mass transit. Mr. Beach simultaneously acts as the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, the North Fulton Community Improvement District’s Executive Director as well as the 6th District representative on the Georgia Department of Transportation and I have personally heard him pitch his vision to the Windward Rotary Club as covered here at the Alpharetta Patch. I have also noticed that local Chamber of Commerce officials along with representatives of area Community Improvement Districts are currently conducting an extensive public relations campaign to promote taxpayer subsidized trains on the northern perimeter of Atlanta. You can see what I mean here and here.

So Mr. Beach’s proposal is not a surprise and there is nothing wrong with businessmen and their employees lobbying Metro Atlanta taxpayers to pay an additional 8 Billion dollars in sales tax which will be spent on transportation projects. When the projects could make them billions of dollars it just makes good business sense. Kind of like when the Cobb County CIDs spent $150,000 to make sure the local SPLOST tax passed.

The only surprise is that once again the Alpharetta City Council is making crucial decisions about the future of our city without actively soliciting the consent of their constituents. I pay a great deal of attention to what is going on in the City of Alpharetta and take care to read every public notice and press release I find. Yet the appearance of the transit item on Monday night’s Council agenda was a complete surprise to me.

I think it is fair to say that 99% of Alpharettans won’t even know the transit issue came up unless the local print media bothers to publish a story after the fact. The decision of approving Mr. Beach’s transit vision of the future is a crucial one. It is a decision that could affect every person in this city for generations to come and may decide how billions of dollars in taxes are spent. Yet there are only a handful of people that even notice what is going on.

Nothing to see here… move along… move along.

Alpharetta Neighbor: “Alpharetta sends comprehensive plan draft to ARC”

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Here is the article by Rachel Kellogg at the Neighbor.

Alpharetta City Councilman curiously contorts the definition of approval:

Though council voted unanimously in favor of the resolution, Councilman Chris Owens explained that the approval allows the draft to be reviewed to move the process of adopting the plan along.

“This is not an endorsement or approval of any sort,” he said.

“It’s just a point on the time line that we must meet to stay on schedule.”

So the Alpharetta City Council unanimously voted yes to submit their draft of the new land use plan to the Atlanta Regional Commission… but they don’t approve of it?

Bill Clinton would be so proud.

The urbanization of Milton High School

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Tonight will be the final public meeting held by the Fulton County Board of Education about the new high school redistricting in North Fulton county. As parents gather for their last opportunity to voice their concerns about the proposed plan I would like to point out something that may not be obvious to the casual observer.

The new school district proposed for Milton High School encompasses the recently approved MetLife mixed use project and most of the area being slated by the City of Alpharetta for high density urbanization. Below is the newly proposed redistricting map for Milton High School:

Now compare the new Milton School district with the map below which is what the Community Development Department of Alpharetta is proposing in their new land use plan:

The areas in color are locations that the city of Alpharetta want to build out as high density mixed use projects and it covers much of the southernmost portion of the proposed Milton High School District .

So as parents of Milton High School students attend the meeting tonight they should be aware that the city is proposing thousands of apartments or condos be built in what would be their children’s new school district. Unfortunately it appears that neither the Fulton County Board of Education nor the City of Alpharetta care about that fact.

City of Alpharetta invites you to see their 30 pieces of silver

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The city of Alpharetta issued a press release today inviting residents to come see their new plans for the Northpoint LCI center. Below is the release:

Open House Announced For Encore Parkway Improvements

Released on: Monday, April 11, 2011 10:00 AM

Major improvements are underway for Encore Parkway from Westside Parkway to North Point Parkway. Plans include widening Encore Parkway to include a newly designed bridge as it passes over Georgia 400 and shoulders that will house 6-foot buffer planter strips and an 8-footwide sidewalk/bike lane. To connect the newly constructed sidewalks and bike lanes on Encore Parkway to the Big Creek Greenway trail system, sidewalks and shared lanes will be established along the eastern side of North Point Parkway. The project will also incorporate enhancements such as trees, landscaping, lighting and furniture.

The Georgia Department of Transportation plans to unveil the visual elements of the proposed project at a Public Information Open House & Detour Meeting to be held between 5:00pm and 7:00pm on April 26th at the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce (located at 11605 Haynes Bridge Road, Suite 100, Alpharetta, GA). Residents are encouraged to stop by as the presentation is informal and will provide more details on the project and planned detour routes.

What the city fails to mention is that the projects discussed in the press release are a quid pro quo for the city’s adaptation of the Northpoint Area Livable Centers Initiative which includes the MetLife high density mixed use development. Back in 2008 the Mayor of Alpharetta, Arthur Letchas, and the City Council knowingly chose to accept the urbanization of our city in exchange for 4 million dollars worth of improvements in the Northpoint area. Now that the city has approved the MetLife project they can show us the precious new projects that they got in exchange for urbanization.

So if you live in Alpharetta and want to see why our City Council continues to approve high density mixed use projects please stop by and decide for yourself if the urbanization was worth it. While you are there you might also want to ask Department of Transportation board member Brandon Beach how spending that 4 million dollars is going to help relieve congestion for you and your family.