In many areas, the rural heritage of Cherokee is firmly in place.

Up in north county on Yellow Creek Road, you can find Stancil's general store -- selling everything from food and fishing tackle to clothes and cleaning products -- and run by the same family for more than 50 years.

At Dean's Store in Woodstock, the locals still gather to discuss current events and solve the problems of the world. And in Hickory Flat, Cagle's Dairy is still going strong, the last producer/processor dairy in the state.

But change is in the wind in Cherokee, and it's a wind that's been whipping through the county since the late 1980s. It started with the opening of I-575 through the county.

With easier access to Atlanta, mega-developments like Woodstock's Towne Lake began to make sense to their backers. BridgeMill followed, and others, like west Canton's River Green, are in the works.

Tiny Holly Springs, which missed one chance for major development 20 years ago when it voted down installation of a sewer system, soon will double its size with the construction of a mixed-use development.

And the expanding population of the county shows no sign of slowing.

As much as Cherokee has grown in the past 10 years, the next decade may be even more critical.

Time alone will tell how well the county learns to deal with its rapid growth.