FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners will meet Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at 2:00 PM at 110 East Main Street, Suite 220, Cumming, for a work session with 32 items listed for consideration and discussion.
What to watch
1. Old Atlanta Road widening, Phases 4 and 5
The board is asked to approve Task Order No. 05 for Volkert, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $1,924,722.00 for program management and construction engineering and inspection services on Project 21-125-3190, Old Atlanta Road Phases 4 & 5, along with two change orders to the project’s agreement with G.P.’s Enterprises, Inc.: $90,385.16 for James Burgess Road dual left turn lanes and $373,035.53 for a 20-inch water reuse by-pass. The task order describes the project as widening Old Atlanta Road from 2 lanes to 4 lanes with a 20-foot raised median, a 10-foot multi-use trail on the west side and a 5-foot sidewalk on the east side, ending at James Burgess Road, so people who drive or walk that stretch are the residents most directly affected. Watch the task order’s scope, which includes project management and pre-construction support such as permitting, and note that the request form calls the $90,385.16 change order a standard change order while the packet does not say why the water reuse by-pass was added. Agenda items 17–19; packet pp. 489, 491, 512, 514, 524.
2. Three earlier zonings that could be revisited
The board may give direction on Board-generated rezonings for ZA4108, Vijay Garlapati, in District 1; ZA4135, Athena Learning LLC, in District 2; and ZA4163, Tipton Development LLC, in District 5, under UDC 8-5.5(I), which allows the board to consider rezoning to a constitutional zoning designation when an application for a land disturbance permit has not been submitted within 18 months of zoning approval. The packet’s approval letters show what was allowed: ZA4108, approved May 18, 2023, rezoned 11.481 acres to Commercial Business District (C8D) for a 9,948 sq. ft. day care center, a 16,800 sq. ft. indoor commercial recreational facility and office, retail and restaurants, and ZA4163, approved July 18, 2024, rezoned land to Single Family Residential District (RES3) with no more than twelve (12) lots, so neighbors of those parcels have a direct stake in what the board decides. Each item has been postponed before, ZA4135 from three earlier agendas, each request form’s Recommended Action is blank, and the packet does not say why no permit application was filed, so watch whether the board directs a rezoning or postpones again. Agenda items 27–29; packet pp. 819, 823, 826, 832, 835, 838–839.
3. Zoning buffers beside PUD and Specialty districts
The board will discuss a recommendation the Planning Commission made at its September 15, 2026 work session, that the board consider amending the Unified Development Code to require non-residential uses to apply a zoning buffer along any abutting residential component of an adjacent Specialty District or Planned Unit Development (PUD) district. It is a proposed rule change about where businesses border the residential parts of those districts, which can matter to the people who live there, but the packet’s one-page memo gives no amendment text, buffer width or list of affected areas. Watch whether the board gives direction, since the item is listed for discussion and possible direction and its request form’s Recommended Action is blank. Agenda item 30; packet pp. 841–842.
4. More transit staff in 2026
The board is asked to authorize one (1) full-time dispatcher, one (1) full-time bus driver and three (3) part-time bus driver positions in 2026 for the Department of Public Transportation, positions the agenda says are budgeted for FY2027 with no additional funding required in the FY2026 budget. The agenda gives the reason as scheduling capacity issues to be addressed as quickly as possible, so people who rely on county public transportation are the residents it touches, though the packet’s single page does not describe the service or the scheduling problem. The agenda says staff requests a time-sensitive vote, while the packet’s request form answers no to whether the item is time sensitive, so watch for any explanation of the capacity issues. Agenda item 4; packet p. 29.
5. A master plan for the County Way Campus
The board is asked to approve Task Order #12 with Jericho Design Group, LLC for County Way Campus master planning and program design services in the amount of $451,500.00. The task order covers phased redevelopment of an approximately twenty-acre portion of the campus that serves Fleet Maintenance, Roads and Bridges with its Sign Shop, and Water and Sewer, including a new dedicated Fleet Maintenance facility and possible filling, relocation, piping or other modification of an on-site ephemeral stream corridor, so it is an early planning commitment of public money for county operations. Watch the scope, since the task order says the project delivery method has not been selected and one section lists conceptual cost estimating while another says cost estimates are not included. Agenda item 22; packet pp. 557, 559–561.
Also on the agenda
Also on the agenda: items 1–3, 5–16, 20, 21, 23–26, 31 and 32.
What the agenda does not tell us
The meeting has not happened. Its outcome is unknown, and discussion and last-minute changes are not in the agenda; agendas can be amended. I could not establish why no land disturbance permit application was filed for the three zonings or why each was postponed, and the ZA4135 approval letter (pp. 828–831) is a set of scanned images I could not read. The packet gives no amendment text for the buffer recommendation, no description of the transit scheduling problem, and no reason the $208,080.00 purchase of two fine screen drums from Ovivo USA, LLC for the Fowler Water Reclamation Facility (item 12) is an emergency purchase. The request form for item 32, a residential code work update from the County Manager, is blank (p. 847). The Volkert document is headed Task Order No. 05 but its first sentence calls it Task Order No. 04 (p. 491); this Preview follows the agenda. I read the request forms and the pages cited above; I did not read most of the 847-page packet, including the updated water and sewer standard specifications for item 10.
Sources
County agenda: Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, Work Session agenda for Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 2:00 PM, from CivicClerk event 439, files ↗, agenda file ID 5383, fetched October 16, 2026 at 20:15:17 UTC; SHA-256 3defbda5…c7d3da. Meeting date and time are taken from the agenda.
County agenda packet: file ID 5386 on the same event page, 847 pages, text-extracted; staged from CivicClerk on October 16, 2026 at 20:15:17 UTC.
Written by the site’s AI reporting agent from the sources listed on this page, and read and approved by the editor before publication. This is a preview and does not report the meeting.