What does the Horizon Metro Poll (AJC, May 25) conducted by The Marketing Workshop mean for Fayette County?

According to the survey, people in Fayette are looking for ways to control growth. An overwhelming number of the survey respondents stated that they appreciated the existing quality of life in Fayette County and felt that growth should be curbed.

How will annexation and further large-scale development affect our quality of life? The problem might be that we have not adequately defined “quality of life.” The same is true of the term “smart growth” where multiple definitions abound.

The closest official Peachtree City documents that I can find regarding the city's expectations pertaining to quality of life is the Code of Ordinances of the City of Peachtree City, Appendix A — Zoning, Article III; Appendix B — Land Development Ordinance, Article I, Section 102 and Appendix B, Article XI, Section 1101. You can access these documents through the city web site (www.peachtree-city.org).

The ordinances address such topics as “promote the health, safety, convenience, order, prosperity and general welfare of the present and future inhabitants of the city — to protect the population from the danger and inconvenience of traffic congestion; to prevent overcrowding of the land and the undue concentration of population — to regulate with reasonable consideration the character of existing and future uses of the land in order to promote desirable living conditions and neighborhood stability, protect property against blight and depreciation.”

So we have 72 percent of Fayette citizens urging restricted growth and city ordinances urging health, safety, protection from traffic congestion, overcrowding of the land, facilitating the adequate provision of schools, promotion of desirable living conditions and protection of our environment.

Thus far, Mayor Bob Lenox's response has been to vote in favor of the ARC plan promoting commuter rail and higher density for our county.

It must be noted that this ARC plan is liable to take control out of the hands our local government — that was Cobb County Commission Chairman Bill Byrne's objection to the plan.

Peachtree City was one of the first municipalities in the metro area to send in a letter of agreement for city funding of the ARC programs. In his letter to the ARC Lenox stated, “As an implementing jurisdiction, we agree to research and develop innovative funding mechanisms to pay the local share requirements for our projects in the first two fiscal years of the TIP [Transportation Improvement Program], FY 2001 and FY 2002, if problems arise when attempting to implement these projects.”

Most people are probably unaware of the fact that Doug Mitchell, one of the highest-ranking persons at Pathway Communities, is one of Fayette's four voting participants in the ARC. The same corporation with current lawsuits against Peachtree City and Fayette County over ordinances and rulings promoting quality growth with a reduced burden on the citizenry is also representing our “best interest” with the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Now we discover that it is in our best interest to have state-mandated high-density zoning. Interesting to note that Mitchell's Pathway Communities is also the major party behind the proposed high-density Plan A in the annexation discussions.

Mayor Lenox used the school site argument to get the annexation moratorium dropped but now there is a problem. It appears that Annexation Plan A (1,592 homes, 100 assisted living units and 150,000 sq. ft. of retail space) would require yet another school site and facility because of the sizable population increase. Lenox has now abandoned the school system in his projections because it would make Plan A appear financially unattractive.

Leaving the school system to bite yet another developmental bullet, “Lenox felt that it ultimately fell to the school board to meet the growth needs of the county, which was historically 1,200 homes per year.” Next, “He said he was empathetic to the school board's problem, but they had to determine how to keep up” (West Village Annexation Task Force minutes, May 22).

There is a visible reminder of how our school board is being forced to keep up with such growth — little white trailers, lots of them.

The irony in all of this is that Mayor Lenox was the author of the now forgotten Growth Manifesto. Do you remember the countywide push to control growth and stabilize development annually in order to ease the burden on our infrastructure and schools?

Annexation Task Force member Todd Strickland is making a valiant effort towards getting our city to think outside our current developmental box. Our city zoning is, for the most part, not very innovative stuff. There is so much more that we could be doing with our zoning to enhance our city and our property values.

Strickland brought in renowned planner Peter Katz to the task force meeting on May 31. Katz stated, “So many examples of what we see in high density are awful.” He urged that we consider different concepts other than our traditional Peachtree City style of development. I found a great deal of wisdom in his words regarding quality of life intertwined with development when he said, “Find a street you like and replicate it. Find one you hate and make sure the rules are written so that it doesn't happen again.”

So many times we beat ourselves over our heads with our own ordinances. Just because a particular land use zoning has been in the same form for 50 years does not mean that it cannot be changed or rewritten for our current circumstances. It will take a creative approach to allow density beyond the current county zoning.

Katz worried that most of our (this also applies to Tyrone) traffic is dependent on the arterial highways 54 and 74. He stated that traffic engineers designed our traffic patterns and that their methods had never been fully tested.

We now know that at a certain stage in a suburban city's development the traffic situation goes into a meltdown that causes us to constantly have to widen the highways. Katz stated that studies show that each lane added is not as efficient as the previous lane and that it is better to have a larger series of two-lane roads.

After driving through Peachtree City for a day, Katz concluded, “I'm really worried about Hwy. 74 [north corridor]. My biggest impression of your town was Hwy. 74. From the standpoint of image and identity that [Hwy. 74 North corridor] makes a very strong impression that defines the identity of the town for a lot of people.”

He went on to add, “If something awful happened out there [a poor quality development] it can really bring down the image of the town.” It is important to note that the Peachtree City Planning Commission is currently in the process reviewing the Comprehensive Land Use Plan as mandated by the state. Hopefully, the appropriate changes will occur.

The one item that I believe the city is missing is developmental involvement with Tyrone. The development and land use connections are extremely obvious in that the cities are adjacent to one another and that we share the same arterial highway. The people from Tyrone are not the enemy and we should consider taking a regional planning approach with the two cities. We must remember that Peachtree City is close to build-out in residential zoning but not commercial, industrial and other uses.

Why not include Tyrone in the annexation discussions? Why not create some land use zoning that creates some consistency between both cities? We are both drastically affected by the new ARC/GRTA-mandated plan. Why not forge a relationship that creates a situation where property owners obtain a high asking price and developers have guidelines that promote a commercial, social and environmental balance?

A gentleman from Tyrone spoke to me about an interesting concept of creating a Peachtree City/Tyrone School System by using the existing schools in our city limits and building others. In the midst of all the discussions regarding funds being appropriated fairly and control over the quality of educational facilities, this idea could prove to be quite attractive. Working in concert with one another is not a bad thing.

A good resource on growth is the Horizon Section of the AJC and the Atlanta Business Chronicle (www.bizjournals.com/atlanta) May 5-11, 2000 issue. The newspapers are available at the library. If you use their web site use the keywords “smart growth” or “sprawl.” While you are on the web take a look at these sites as well: www.sprawl-busters.com; www.savepeachtreecity.homestead.com; http://spoiledpeachtreecity.homepage.com (humorous).

A book that I have found very helpful is “Towns and Town-Making Principles” by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. It can be purchased through Amazon.com. In addition, I videotaped the May 31 Annexation Task Force presentation on design concepts. I can send you a copy for cost of the blank tape and postage. An informed electorate is the best weapon against “government by association.”

Steve Brown

Peachtree City

Steve_ptc@juno.com

Back to Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page