Friday, March 1, 2002
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Friday, March 1, 2002 |
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Committees make development recommendations By JOHN
MUNFORD
Several committees formed to study Peachtree City's development ordinances have continued to meet even though a Superior Court Judge threw out the city's moratorium several weeks ago. The tree preservation committee, which is reviewing the landscape ordinance, likely will be the first committee to bring recommendations to the Planning Commission for changes to that ordinance. The stormwater committee will likely follow that several weeks later, but the overlay district committee will take a little while longer, the Planning Commission was told at Monday's joint meeting between the commission and the City Council. Jim Williams, the city's director of developmental services, said some of the recommendations from the committees will likely cause a stir. "I think there will be some very controversial recommendations," Williams said. Once committees finalize their recommendations, they will be forwarded to the ordinance clarification committee for review before the proposed ordinance changes are reviewed by the city attorney, Williams said. Then the recommendations and the attorney's legal opinion will be forwarded to the commission for consideration at a public hearing. After getting approval at that level, the ordinance changes will be forwarded to City Council for final adoption. The catch will be devising a way to enforce all the new ordinance changes, said Mayor Steve Brown. "Now I can easily say city staff is overwhelmed," Brown said, noting that each of the committees has expressed concern over making sure environmental regulations are adhered to in all developments. Brown suggested that the city consider adopting a fee structure similar to what is used in other cities to pay for more enforcement measures. He also said the city may hire an arborist so an expert can deal with tree-related issues. Councilman Steve Rapson said he would like to see the city create a stormwater utility to handle changes to stormwater regulations. "That's going to be a big issue," Rapson said.
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