In my last column, I looked back at series from 8 years ago which outlined the various political regions of Georgia. It was a public pivot to note what will be a recurring theme here in this space: The success of economic development efforts combined with other migration trends will continue to see coastal Georgia grow to resemble that of metro Atlanta.

No sooner had the piece hit the desks of my publishers than International Paper announced the closure of two paper mills, one in Savannah and another in nearby Riceboro. 1,100 Georgians will lose their jobs when the company ends its 88-year run as a major regional employer next month.

The overall premise remains intact. Savannah and the Georgia coast’s growth will continue to influence the overall region for decades to come. The effects are spilling into counties that are not adjacent to the ocean. Much as “Metro Atlanta” is now nebulous and consists of much of if not most of North Georgia, the coastal region will spread out well into Southeast Georgia and voting trends will follow. Growth, itself, will be an issue and will become a fixture of debate and focus in the legislature.

So why am I again talking about growth in the face of a major employer closing down two paper mills? Because growth is a choice, at least in how it is managed. Change, however, is always with us. It is important to separate the two.

I’ve had a front row seat to this process my entire life. I was born in what was “rural” Fayette County in the late 1960’s. A decade later, our county routinely made the list of fastest growing counties in the country. We almost tripled in size during the seventies, and doubled our population again during the 80’s. Growth was THE topic in local elections.

A few things were odd about this. Most of the successful candidates were the ones who seemed to be the most anti-growth. Sewer services would not be extended from cities into the county. Zoning requests would be denied. The rural character of the county would be preserved. At best, growth was slowed a bit. But most importantly, change was not.

Change was happening all around us. Some was by the growth and other political decisions made by neighboring counties and cities. Some was just due to time itself. Looking back, it’s clear that a lot of the political promises to stop growth were really empty appeals to those who feared change.

Whether conscious of it or not, most people fear change. It’s uncomfortable. It’s a big old bucket of the unknown. It’s a risky trade from what we already know and have to what might be behind the curtain. People value certainty over opportunities they can’t quantify.

Fayette didn’t stop growth nor change. When Eastern Airlines grounded there was an outflow of population for a couple of years. Businesses that depended on growth suffered. My family’s hardware store was one of them.

Eastern employees found that there were jobs available in an otherwise growing economy, but many found it difficult to replace their seniority and mid-career wages when starting over elsewhere. The folks at International Paper will likely have the same difficult transition. There are often very real, very human costs to these changes that statistics don’t show us.

While I haven’t lived there in a couple of decades, I’m aware that the county has embraced change and growth a bit differently in the wake of the great financial crisis and the housing collapse associated with it. When growth stopped suddenly, change did not.

The county was left with a lot of expensive homes on large lots, with the oldest average age of residents in the metro Atlanta area. The kids who grew up there couldn’t afford homes to move back to as adults. Worse, the available amenities made many who could not want to.

It took someone with the vision and stature to openly pitch county residents on a new vision, and that person was Dan Cathy, then CEO of Chick Fil A. He had already successfully brought a major movie studio and related residential village to the county. He successfully sold the City of Fayetteville on the idea that the area needed housing that younger folks could afford, and entertainment options they wanted close to home. Not only did that bring in some younger folks, but the values of the big homes stabilized, then began increasing again. Planned growth, backed with a vision, seems to have trumped resistance to change.

As we look at what is happening across Georgia, we need to understand that the words are often about growth, but the fears are rooted in the uncertainty that comes with change. The opportunity we have as Georgians is to understand the implications of both, and deal with each as directly and bluntly as possible to unlock our future.