Barbara P. Jacoby
bjacoby@cherokeetribune.com
Cherokee Tribune
February 23, 2011
Cherokee County will lead metro Atlanta in its job creation rate over the next 30 years, according to a new report.
The Atlanta Regional Commission on Wednesday released its 2040 projections for population and job growth, predicting Cherokee by then will add 72,500 jobs – a 166-percent increase.
The county’s employers currently have 43,600 people in their ranks, which will climb to 116,100 by 2040.
At the same time, the county’s population will grow by 94-percent from 207,400 to 401,600. That’s a rate of about 18 people a day for the next 30 years.
While still fast, the population growth will cool from the feverish 301-percent pace from 1980 to today when the population swelled from 51,699.
“It’s very positive news to be at the top of the list” for job creation, said Buzz Ahrens, chairman of the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners.
“We’re getting upward leverage on jobs… [the Cherokee Office of Economic Development] has seen more activity in the past month than in the last six months,” said Ahrens, who recently was appointed vice chairman of the ARC board.
The metro-planning agency uses a modeling system to project the future numbers – a system with a history of accuracy, ARC board member Dennis Burnette of Canton said.
Burnette, president of Cherokee Bank, said he sees the population and job growth predictions as being on target, noting the county is ready for it.
“The job growth started in Atlanta and has been on a northward expansion. We have planned to accommodate that. We have the infrastructure,” he said.
The people also are ready, Burnette said, noting the county’s high percentage of college-educated workers – an “asset to attracting jobs.”
The new employment opportunities likely will cover a “mix of jobs,” Burnette said, with many professional, technical and health-care jobs likely.
Ahrens said he’s especially pleased with the projection that Cherokee will see a 19-percent boost in jobs in the highest-paying sectors over the next 30 years. The current percentage is 13 percent, meaning nearly a 50-percent increase is anticipated.
“If you look at all the activity – the Cherokee County Airport expansion, the parks and cultural arts expansion, the business park investment on Highway 92, the Opportunity Zone at 92 and [Interstate] 575, the Bluffs [at Technology Park] ready to take Class A offices – it all bodes well,” Ahrens said.
Another job engine, he noted, is the planned relocation and expansion of Northside Hospital-Cherokee to a site adjacent to Canton Marketplace and the company’s plans to open another medical office building in Hickory Flat.
“I have a list of 20 big selling points from public safety to Lake Allatoona,” Ahrens said. “And they don’t just attract residential growth, but also commercial growth and that means jobs.”
Cherokee County Manager Jerry Cooper said the Board of Commissioners and Cherokee Office of Economic Development have taken an “aggressive approach to creating jobs.”
He cited the airport expansion and creation of the Opportunity Zone as well as acquiring business park land in Canton and Woodstock, keeping property tax rates low and offering tax incentives for existing and new businesses as some of the ways the county is working to woo employers.
Misti Martin, president of the Cherokee Office of Economic Development, said the White Collar Business Recruitment Strategy it adopted in 2009 is positioning the county to be a job creation leader.
“Our mission is to aid in the expansion of existing industry and to recruit new businesses to our community,” she said.
Mrs. Martin also anticipates health care, and specifically Northside Hospital, will be a “large growth sector.”
Her office also is targeting the development of “high-end jobs” in information technology and financial and retirement services and at customer service and technical support centers and regional headquarters.