The West Village Annexation Task Force began to dig deeper in its study of the possible annexation at a special meeting Wednesday evening.

Some task force members questioned whether the northern parcel of the property should be annexed at all. Todd Strickland suggested the annexation could be phased in, with the southernmost portion annexed first.

But Debbie Condon said this might be the city's only chance to “unify” the area and develop it all at one time.

Strickland said he thought the task force had been quick to leave out office space, which could be used to offset the number of residences that would be developed on the land.

“There's an awful lot of single-family housing, and that's something we need to look at,” he said.

Later in the meeting, other uses for the land were suggested, including a par-3 public golf course, a cemetery and horse farms.

Dan Fields of John Wieland Homes said he thought there wasn't a market for a par-3 course in the area. He added that the land owner may not sell the land for a course.

Mayor Bob Lenox said the city tried to develop the Glenloch area with land parcels that included a central stable area for horses, but the idea didn't take off. “Now, it's a soccer field,” he said.

Task force member Jim Steinbach said he didn't think the city should give developers more homes on the property than the county approved. He agreed with Strickland that the task force needs to change its focus.

“We need to come up with the best options we have and leave some room for negotiations (with developers),” Steinbach said. “If the developers say we're asking for too much, we'll say, `Sorry, guys, but you can't put the Peachtree City logo on it.'”

Steinbach said annexing the land into Peachtree City benefitted the developers since they could sell land for higher prices.

Fields pointed out that the infrastructure for the West Village would cost millions of dollars. The developers want to have more residential units in the area to recoup those costs, he said.

Task force member John Williams pointed out that if the land is developed as part of the county, the residents there would still use Peachtree City services. By annexing the land into the city, those residents would pay for city services in taxes and impact fees, he said.

It was estimated that if the property remains a part of the county, there will be approximately 1,500 people living there. But if the property is annexed into the city like the developers propose, that population would hit 4,350.

Fields said the developers had already shrunk their original plans for 2,200 residential lots in the area. That number is now down to 1,457 units, he said, adding indications that the developers couldn't reduce that number further.

After the meeting, Fields said the various infrastructure needed for the West Village area was approximately $7 million, a figure that was compiled three years ago.

During the meeting, Strickland questioned whether it was appropriate for the developers to speak with city planners about the West Village Area instead of bringing that information before the entire task force. But that issue wasn't touched on by the group during the rest of Wednesday's meeting.

The task force also discussed environmental concerns about the possible annexation. Dennis Chase of the Line Creek Association said if too much water is taken out of the creek, it could put the Water and Sewer Authority in violation of guidelines for the treated sewage it discharges back into the creek downstream.

Williams, who sits on WASA, said the sewer system will be able to handle additional capacity through land application methods. That calls for treated sewage to be spread on golf courses and other land as fertilizer, instead of discharging it back into Line Creek, Williams explained.

“You should rely on the sewage system to be available,” Williams said.

Chase said the state prefers to see land application used by sewage systems, and it's “preferable” to sending more treated wastewater downstream.

Chase supported using sewer systems over individual septic systems. But if the land remains in the county, it becomes more likely the homes would be on septic systems.

Steinbach also said he was concerned about the environmental condition of the Peach Pit landfill property. He wanted more tests to be performed “before we start moving folks in there.”

“My concern is that we might end up a covey of rental homes in that area,” Steinbach said.

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