Monroe County has a new Community Development Department Manager but it’s someone that local builders and developers already know well.
Longtime Monroe County Planning & Zoning Officer Kelsey Fortner was promoted on July 12 to head up the newly-created Community Development Department, which will encompass Building Inspection, Building Permitting, Building Code Enforcement and Planning & Zoning.
County Manager Jim Hedges made the decision to combine the departments, which are already located next to one another on the second floor of the county administration building, in an effort to create a “one-stop shop” for P&Z and building matters under the county’s new Unified Development Ordinance, which is slated to be completed within the next several months.
Despite the change, Fortner is expected to bring continuity to the building and zoning process, having worked for Monroe County for more than 13 years, including the past three as P&Z officer.
Fortner said as the number of homes being built in Monroe County has skyrocketed in recent years, the amount of permit and inspection requests coming into the county significantly rose as well. The county began revamping its building inspection process several years ago by contracting with an outside firm, Charles Abbott Associates, to do inspections. The next step toward streamlining building and development processes in a continually growing environment was to combine the departments.
Fortner said she’s had strong working relationships with the county’s building and code enforcement departments for years while serving as deputy zoning officer and later zoning officer. She’s also in regular communication with the county’s Environmental Health office, which is tasked with ensuring that drainage problems won’t be created by new developments. And Fortner said many other Georgia counties already have combined building and zoning departments.
Fortner said, “Streamlining everything together and getting everyone on the same page, I do believe that it fits us more in alignment with the counties and cities around us because I know that takes place in other areas.”
Under the new hierarchy, even the third-party Charles Abbott Associates Building Inspectors Jeremy Head and Kyle Golberg will report to Fortner because they rely on Monroe County to provide them with information about proposed building projects.
“Our (Fortner and Building Permit and Plans Coordinator Emily Parks) knowledge of the zoning and permitting in-house meshes well with their (Head and Golberg) knowledge of inspections and what needs to be done by state code or the international code for building,” Fortner said. “We work together with them.”
Fortner said she didn’t learn about the potential creation of a Community Development Department until the June 7 Board of Commissioners meeting. At that meeting, Commissioners decided to hold off on a final decision to combine the departments until discussing the pros and cons with some local builders and developers. After receiving very little pushback from affected builders and developers, Commissioners moved forward with the changes on July 12.
Fortner said most builders and developers will only see minor procedural differences as a result of the departmental changes anyway. For anyone building a single home separate from a subdivision, the only thing that will change is that the county will now require more descriptive floor plans, elevation plans, and foundation plans. The biggest difference will be for homes being built in a common development. In those cases, the Erosion and Sedimentation Pollution Control Process (ESPCP) will be different because the county is beginning a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) concurrent process in which Monroe County is receiving certification from the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission to do erosion plan reviews in-house. Previously, erosion plans had to go to Georgia Soil and Water headquarters in Athens for review. Fortner said after some potential bumps in the road in Year One of the new process, she expects things to run smoother in the coming years. In fact, she said the biggest change she expects builders and developers to see is how easy the process will become to do business in Monroe County.
“I think everybody is going to see a significant change in the fact that everybody’s going to be on the same page, and everybody’s going to be following the rules that everybody else is following,” Fortner said. “It’s going to be more fair all-around. It’s going to be more streamlined and efficient.”
Part of that improved efficiency, Fortner said will come from having a revamped webpage and new online app that will allow customers to submit items such as house plans, building applications, zoning applications and land disturbance applications from their computers or phones. Customers will also be able to sign up for inspections via the app. Fortner said the Middle Georgia Regional Commission (MGRC) is working with her on online updates while the app is being created through the county’s finance software developer, Edmunds GovTech.
Fortner, who was born and raised in Monroe County, is a 2004 graduate of Mary Persons High School. A single mother with a desire for long-term benefits at the time of her hiring, she began working for Monroe County in 2009 as the maintenance and solid waste secretary under then-maintenance director Emmett Smith and current solid waste director Dana Renaud. In 2014, Fortner shifted into an administrative assistant role in the Commissioners’ office before taking over as deputy zoning officer under then-zoning officer Anita Buice in 2017. She was then further promoted in 2019 to head up the county’s P&Z department, moving her office down from the third floor of the admin building to the second floor.
Fortner said that while planning and zoning might not be the most exciting subject matter to some people, she maintains a daily enthusiasm for her job.
“I love being creative,” Fortner said. “That is the biggest thing for me. And creativity does not just mean drawing. It could go from anything like organizing a folder to designing an online post. I love the investigative part that I have to do with zoning. It makes me feel like an FBI agent. . . There’s a lot more to it than people think. And there’s a lot of research and investigation that goes with it.”
Fortner said she’s learned as P&Z officer that many citizens and customers are much more technologically-savvy than residents of a rural county like Monroe have a reputation for being.
“I envision in the future using the technology that we have and technology that is to come, and it’s going to be great,” Fortner said. “There’s a lot of people that I understand don’t like computers, but I know that there are lots of people out there that do because I talk to them every day. They’ll say, ‘Shoot it to me digitally. Let’s sign it electronically.’ There are more people out there that are up to date with technology than it appears.”
One unusual part of Fortner’s daily work life is she spends it alongside her husband John. John Fortner, the county’s Building Maintenance Supervisor, has worked for Monroe County throughout their 12-year marriage. Fortner said despite all the time spent together, the two continue to enjoy each other’s company, eating lunch together daily and making regular trips to the grocery store together after work.
On the weekends, the Fortners are becoming known as adventurers. In the past two years alone, the Fortner family, which includes two daughters, has visited 20 of Georgia’s 64 state parks and historic sites with plans to visit all of them. Fortner also enjoys acrylic painting in her spare time as well as watching movies and reruns of her favorite TV shows, Friends and Big Bang Theory.
In the meantime, Fortner is excited about working alongside an excellent staff, including Building Permit and Plans Coordinator Emily Parks, P&Z and Building Assistant Karen Madden, Building Code Enforcement Officer Mark Goolsby, Code Enforcement Officer Dep. Jeff Wilson, and Building Inspectors Head and Golberg. She is also focused on making the county’s new Community Development Department one that citizens and builders will be excited to work in tandem with.
“I’m really excited about everything running smoother,” Fortner said. “For so long Monroe County has had so many drainage issues, and I’m not saying it’s been done the wrong way because it hasn’t. But there are just better ways to get things done. There are rules in place state-wide for a reason, and those are the ones we need to follow.”
