| The people prevail
in the PTC annexing debate
By CAL BEVERLY
Publisher
You don’t have to hold
up a wet finger to discover a hurricane is blowing toward you.
The West Village annexation is officially dead in Peachtree City, courtesy
of a chastened City Council 5-to-0 vote last Thursday night.
A last minute “discussion” item on the council agenda, the West
Village suddenly loomed like a Category Five storm bearing down on the
heretofore density-deaf council majority."
Not even annexation cheerleader Mayor Bob Lenox raised a peep in support
of the 1,700-unit, 914-acre land-gulping plan voted out of the annexation
task force two weeks ago.
What got to them to blow this seemingly unstoppable annexation steamroller
off the rails? Lots of angry citizens, perhaps. But maybe, also, the council
belatedly realized that annexation was likely to doom a November school
construction referendum, already an iffy item.
Adding another village to already-crowded Peachtree City, they might have
reasoned, is an altogether debatable and expendable option, whereas building
new schools to relieve overcrowded classrooms is an urgent necessity.
As for angry citizens, the council couldn’t have been looking forward
to the publication of our Citizen annexation poll results. And your answers
are ...PTC annexation
Yes — 6.2%
No — 93.8%
F’ville annexation
Yes — 11.6%
No — 88.4%
(358 ballots cast in the PTC question, 181 in the F’ville question.
Votes tabulated 3 p.m. Monday afternoon.)
As you can see, reader sentiment runs more than 9-to-1 against the West
Village annexation, and just under 9-to-1 against the Fayetteville Deer
Pointe (Signa) annexation proposal. At no point was it even close.
So why do elected officials keep on ignoring the people who put them into
office? At least, until a voter hurricane blows their way?
A sampling of comments that came with the ballots:
“Just say no to ‘Mayor Annex.’ Peachtree City does not
need another 5,000 residents. Whatever happened to the master plan and
the guaranteed build-out population? It is time that the citizens of Peachtree
City are heard!“ — Peachtree City resident.
“This idea is dumber than dirt. Your paper today has many articles
about the need for new schools for the current population, SPLOST pros
and cons, etc., and yet, Peachtree City wants to add a significant number
of homes and apartments with attendant impacts to the already overcrowded
school system” — Tyrone resident.
“Until these developers start contributing to the community for the
growth problems they cause, I will never support higher density. This
donating land for a ‘natural habitat’ or ‘park’ is
a joke. It is usually land they can’t build on so they donate it
so they don’t have to pay the taxes on it. When they start donating
a school... I may start listening to their proposals” — Fayetteville
resident.
“As a 26-year-resident of this community, I wonder what is the underlying
motivation to keep pushing for more growth ... It seems suspicious to
me as to why somebody is pushing so hard for more growth and destroy the
quality of life that so many of us moved here to enjoy. I sometimes wonder
if the next FBI assignment should be Peachtree City” — PTC resident.
“We bought property here believing the city was ‘full’
as per the original vision. This proposed annexation doesn't serve the
interests of the community, it serves only to line the pockets of the
developers ... The city government is charged with the responsibility
of supporting the citizens of this town; in supporting this proposal,
they are failing all of us.” — PTC couple.
“Like so many others, we chose to live in Fayette County to avoid
the congestion and rampant growth in the north metro area. Sadly, with
each new commercial development and each stand of tress that disappears,
we find ourselves wishing we’d picked another county... Passing ‘tree
ordinances’ when there’s hardly a tree left seems an absurd
afterthought ... Everyone laments the empty store space, and some parts
of Fayetteville are beginning to look like blighted urban areas. Civic
leaders say they’re aggressively seeking new tenants while the ink
on the newest batch of annexations and building permits hasn’t even
dried” — F’ville couple.
“The number of units seems to be getting higher and higher with little
to no discussion on the impact to traffic, water, air quality and schools.
There appear to be many unanswered questions regarding our infrastructure
in PTC. Unlike Mayor Lenox, I believe the city government and its commissions
should be responsible for total planned growth including schools and transportation”
— PTC resident.
“Peachtree City should not annex the west village and should leave
the land in the county. Bob Lenox would do well to listen to what his
constituents are saying rather than promoting his own agenda. We will
actively work against any Peachtree City elected official that favors
annexation” — PTC couple.
“I do not support any higher density. I do not believe our mayor
should be a stoolie for developers” — PTC resident.
About the West Village vote, one suspicious Citizen reader e-mails us,
“Is it really dead?” Look out for a future resurrection of the
annexation that wouldn’t die, the e-mailer warns, and watch whether
there’s some hidden density deal with GRTA, the Georgia Regional
Transportation Authority, chaired by Peachtree City’s creator and
godfather, Joel Cowan. Where is that commuter rail line going, anyway?
Now the spotlight shifts to Fayetteville, where City Council Monday night
postponed a decision to add 873 acres known as Deer Pointe, aka the old
Signa annexation-deannexation property in the middle of the county.
Wonder if they — like the Peachtree City Council majority for too
long — have their fingers stopping their ears instead of testing
the direction of the voter wind? We will keep you posted.
Thanks to all who voted in The Citizen Poll. We’ll do it again.
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