Brokers familiar with the decision tell GlobeSt.com commissioners decided to clamp down on the residential rezoning applications in a move to reassure relocating national corporations that developable land was still available in Cherokee County. The county is trying to bring more new jobs to the area where about 65% of its residents commute to out-of-county jobs.

In a recent rezoning issue, commissioners reduced the size of a $50-million, 492-unit townhome and single-family community to 340 units and denied a rezoning on the same project for the development of horse trails, a riding area and a 50-horse barn. Atlanta developers Margaret Sapp and Stephen Macauley are appealing the decision in a lawsuit filed in Cherokee Superior Court, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.