CARROLL COUNTY, GA-Temple-Inland Land and Timber Co. of Douglasville, an affiliate of Austin-TX-based Temple-Inland Inc., is running into temporary road blocks as it awaits a governmental green light to break ground on the most ambitious mixed-use venture ever attempted in eastern Carroll County, about 45 miles southwest of Downtown Atlanta.
In an unprecedented move, the Atlanta Regional Commission is asking the Georgia Department of Community Affairs' planning and environmental management division to study the proposed $10-billion, 11,000-acre venture that would include 19,000 homes, 500 acres of high-tech office space, 500 acres of retail and other commercial space, a conference center, a 2,500-acre public park, a golf course and a town center. Temple-Inland estimated the project would take 35 years to complete, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.
Area retail brokers following the project tell GlobeSt.com the move by the ARC has caught the attention of local planners because the state's Department of Community Affairs technically has no jurisdiction over Wolf Creek, the planned Carroll County undertaking.
Adding fuel to what is beginning to surface as a controversial enterprise is the positive April recommendation by the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center. The Chattahoochee-Flint agency concluded the Temple-Inland project would be beneficial to the entire state, area brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.
Still, the final word on the project has to come from the Carroll County board of commissioners. The county's planning staff is currently evaluating Wolf Creek and will send its report to the county's planning commission which will make a recommendation to the board of commissioners. The county commission's vote on the project isn't expected until September.
Temple-Inland owns an additional 800 acres in Douglas County, adjacent to the 11,000 acres in Carroll county, but has not indicated what it might do with that land, according to local brokers.
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