Friday, October 19, 2001
Friday, October 19, 2001 |
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PTC Council agrees to police Pathway's architecture rules By JOHN
MUNFORD
Peachtree City officials will soon be patrolling only where Pathway Communities and its predecessors have gone before. The City Council has agreed to accept responsibility for overseeing the architectural control process which Pathway has written into its residential deed covenants. Pathway officials recently notified the city they will stop providing this service Nov. 1, although it will continue to provide the service for its industrial and commercial properties. Jim Williams, the city's director of developmental services, said it is important for the city to step in and agree to enforce the restrictions, which cover numerous subdivisions in the city. He suggested that such matters be handled in-house unless there is some sort of controversy over a plan in which case that plan could be brought to a special board for a hearing. "This process has gone so well for the city over the years that we feel we don't need to let it go, even for a couple of weeks," Williams said. The city wants to begin the tasks without adding new personnel, Williams added, although he admitted, "We don't know in the long run what the load will be." Scott Bradshaw, who is responsible for the covenant enforcement in the Smokerise subdivision, said the job isn't easy. "At least every other day I have to say no to somebody," Bradshaw said. He added that he hopes the city would agree to take over the covenant enforcement responsibilities of all developers in the city. Council agreed to enter a legal agreement with Pathway that assigns the deed covenant restriction responsibilities to the city. Council also voted to begin drawing up a city ordinance which could be adopted so those standards could be applied to non-Pathway subdivisions in the future. City Attorney Rick Lindsey said that could take a while because it can be difficult for cities to rule on aesthetically-related matters such as these.
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