Accuracy Matters
Spicer Group Surveyors Help Set Up County Complex for Success
The population of Georgia’s Forsyth County has been growing at an impressive rate for the last 30 years. Located north of Atlanta, the county exploded from 56,000 residents to more than 280,000 between 1994 and 2024, with the growth pattern expected to continue in the coming years. As a result of this continuing population boom, the region has outgrown its municipal buildings, creating a need for a new county complex.
In 2019, anticipating the need for expansion, the Forsyth County government started setting aside surplus funds to pay for a new facility. After project approval in January 2024, a groundbreaking occurred that same year, with a public opening of the complex named “Freedom Park” expected this summer.
The newly built Freedom Park Campus includes a 17-department administrative building to consolidate services and eliminate confusion for residents, who will be able to visit one place for all their local governmental needs. The three-building complex is also home to a new Employee Center for all county workers to utilize, with space for an employee health center, a fitness center, three retails spaces and even a smoothie bar.
Spicer Group was brought on by a well-known Georgia general contracting firm, Carroll Daniel Construction Co., to perform land surveying work for the project. Assistant Project Manager Preston Millican with Carroll Daniel explained their firm was the general contractor, responsible for every aspect of the construction “from the dirt to the furniture.”
Carroll Daniel called Spicer to provide extra help to their in-house surveying department. Millican said Spicer was chosen based on having a presence in Forsyth County and a positive relationship with the Carroll Daniel surveying team.
“We got involved at the very beginning stages,” Steve Coates, a Regional Manager for Spicer and longtime north-Georgia resident, who served as the project manager for Spicer’s role in Freedom Park, said.
Initially, Coates and his team were contracted to stake the building and survey the land to get the main administrative structure up. But as the process continued, Carroll Daniel requested assistance with additional tasks.
Construction staking is a process that takes the sketch of a project and transforms it into a tangible plot for placing structures, utilities, and other elements of a building project. The staking work provided by Spicer is pivotal to a successful build, and critical for the retention of land area saved for future expansion. If the measurements are off for one piece of the project, it could have an impact on each element.
“The building going up in the correct place allows for the parking lot to have enough room for the required parking spaces, and the required infrastructure going in the right place,” Coates explained.
Ultimately, Spicer worked on construction layout and boundary verification for all three structures on the 42-acre campus, along with waterline easements. The surveyors were also responsible for the staking of parking areas and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant sidewalks.
On top of that, Spicer was asked to work on the as-built survey, which is documentation of the finalized project after it is complete. It includes drawings and measurements of structures on the campus, grades, utilities and more, acting as the post-construction record of the site. According to Coates, it’s a time-consuming process.
“It’s a huge weight off our shoulders,” Millican said, referring to the scope of work provided by Coates and the Spicer team.
The facility is expected to provide the county administrative offices with space to grow for the next 30-40 years. The county reports there is more space on the campus for an additional 75,000 square feet of building space.
According to Forsyth County Manager David McKee, while discussing the project in a county-produced video on Freedom Park, the new facility will be able to grow with an expanding county workforce, offering space for hundreds of additional workers in the 134,568-square-foot administrative building.
“We have the ability to grow,” McKee said in the On the Move video posted to the Forsyth County Government YouTube page. “The building’s gonna be built so we can mirror it just to the south in future years.”
There will also be space on the land for a parking deck, once a need for that arises. But for now, the ample parking lot that was staked by Spicer will be large enough to welcome county residents coming to this “one-stop shop” for governmental affairs. That includes Spicer employees who worked on the project.
“It will be where most of my employees go to get their tags for their cars,” Coates said. “When they want to build a house, they’ll have to go over there now.”
Completing projects for the local community, including facilities they will personally use, provides special motivation for the team.
“You want to make sure it gets done correctly,” Coates said.
The campus won’t just be an often-visited location for Spicer employees and other residents. Anyone driving down the popular GA-400 highway will get a view of the property.
“When you drive by, everybody sees this building,” Coates said. “It’s nice to say that’s one of ours. We helped with that. We participated in that.”