Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia
Encyclopedia
Chattahoochee Hills is a city in southern Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 2,378. It is the incorporated part of a region called "Chattahoochee Hill Country," an area encompassing approximately 60000 acres (242.8 km²) southwest of Atlanta, bordered on the northwest side by the Chattahoochee River
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River flows through or along the borders of the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of...
. Unlike the rest of metro Atlanta
Metro Atlanta
The Atlanta metropolitan area or metro Atlanta, officially designated by the US Census Bureau as the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ninth-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States...
, it is still relatively undeveloped
Land development
Land development refers to altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:* changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing...
, and most of its rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
character
Characteristic
Characteristic may refer to:In physics and engineering, any characteristic curve that shows the relationship between certain input and output parameters, for example:...
remains unchanged. The majority of the wider area comprises the west-southwest part of southern Fulton
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, and smaller adjacent parts of southern Douglas
Douglas County, Georgia
Douglas County, Georgia has been experiencing numerous natural disasters over the most recent decades. Being located in the South Eastern United States the county experiences strong storms and tornadoes often because of its location in Dixie Alley....
, eastern Carroll
Carroll County, Georgia
Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 87,268. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 111,954...
, and northern Coweta
Coweta County, Georgia
Coweta County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 89,215. The 2009 Census Estimate placed the population at 131,936...
counties.
History
The area that is now southwest Fulton was once Campbell CountyCampbell County, Georgia
Campbell County, Georgia was a county of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1828 to 1931. It was created by the state legislature on December 20, 1828 from land taken from Fayette, Coweta, and Carroll counties, and from the half of DeKalb County which became Fulton County soon afterward. Georgia's...
. Historically, the southwesternmost region of Fulton was considered to be a "town" called Rico.
The idea of the area as "Chattahoochee Hills" is very recent, and grew out of attempts to incorporate all of Fulton County into cities following the 2005 incorporation of Sandy Springs
Sandy Springs, Georgia
Sandy Springs is a city in north Georgia, United States. It is a northern suburb of Atlanta. With a 2010 population of 93,853, Sandy Springs is the sixth-largest city in the state and the second-largest city in Metro Atlanta. Sandy Springs is located in north Fulton County, Georgia, just south of...
.
During the 2006 session, the Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
passed a law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
allowing the Fulton section of the area to incorporate
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
as a city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
(the only type of municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
allowed in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
), the purpose being the municipalization
Municipalization
Municipalization is the transfer of corporations or other assets to municipal ownership. The transfer may be from private ownership or from other levels of government. It is the opposite of privatization and is different from nationalization.-Services:There have been two main waves of...
of that county, and to allow local residents to have local control of zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
. This has included concentrating development in three planned village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
s, though the nearby city of Palmetto
Palmetto, Georgia
Palmetto is a city located mostly in Fulton County and now partly in Coweta County in the U.S. state of Georgia...
took one of them for itself, leaving a gerrymander-looking arm of it sticking northwest into the heart of the new city.
On June 19, 2007, residents voted by an 83% to 17% margin to incorporate the 33000 acres (133.5 km²) portion within Fulton as the city of Chattahoochee Hill Country in a local referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. Later annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
could incorporate the portions remaining in other counties.
Chattahoochee Hill Country became a city on December 1, 2007, with the first elected officials taking office a few days later. On September 23, 2008, the city was renamed by an ordinance from Chattahoochee Hill Country to Chattahoochee Hills.
Public safety
Just over 3 years into cityhood, on February 15, 2010, Chattahoochee Hills lost its first police officer, Michael Vogt, who died from a gunshot wound from a high-powered weapon.Chattahoochee Hills is locally known for its public safety, with its emphasis on reducing excessive speeding on South Fulton Parkway and improving safety for all travelers.
Prior to Chattahoochee Hills becoming a city in 2007, South Fulton Parkway had become an unofficial race track. Motorcyclists held weekend races on the eight-mile section of road from Douglas County to Rivertown Road, and commuters traveling to and from Atlanta took advantage of the lack of local police to speed in excess of 70 mph. This caused a safety concern for residents and other travelers.
Once the city of Chattahoochee Hills established its own public safety department, the police department took the necessary measures to make South Fulton Parkway safe again. It placed control cars within public view along South Fulton Parkway to slow traffic to the posted speed limit, and it ticketed persistent speeders who continued to violate the law.
As a result of these proactive measures, the eight-mile section of South Fulton Parkway in Chattahoochee Hills has shown marked improvements: motorists are more intentional about maintaining the legal speed limit, the weekend motorcycle racing has been eliminated, and South Fulton Parkway is a safer road for all travelers.