Residents petition council about private streets

By CAROLYN CARY
ccary@TheCitizenNews.com

Several residents of subdivisions on private streets approached the Peachtree City Council during its annual retreat this past weekend.

Elmer Koldoff, St. Simons Cove, told of the surprise many private street residents are currently receiving. Many residents are the second and third family to live in the homes on these streets and were not aware of exactly what living on a private street really meant.

Several of the subdivisions pay monthly fees toward light poles and any necessary resurfacing. Many do not, and find that the neighborhood will have to assess each owner enough to cover the cost of resurfacing a total of $60,000 in one instance.

There are 32 developments in Peachtree City that have private streets. Of these, 12 are commercial subdivisions, 12 are single-family subdivisions and eight are multi-family subdivisions. Many developers originally opted to put in private streets because they would not have to meet public street requirements such as curbing and this would ultimately reduce the land cost per home. The developer would, in turn, have an increase on its return on the project.

The city estimated that if it accepted the private streets and implemented the necessary repairs, curbing and resurfacing over a nine-year period, the total cost would be in the neighborhood of $430,000.

City staff members pointed out that if further consideration was to be given to the matter, a policy on conversion would need to be implemented, as well as increasing the maintenance budget, variances would have to be established, setbacks reconsidered, some degree of replatting would need to take place and a policy to prohibit future private streets be enacted.

The matter will be an agenda item at a future council meeting.

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