Wednesday, May 15, 2002
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Wednesday, May 15, 2002 |
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'Grow-or-die' vs. 'steady-state' economics By CAL BEVERLY
Separate but related news items from the past few years: Peachtree City Council wants to talk about annexing an unincorporated "island" into the city to become the nucleus of a fifth village. Residents rise up and object. Council backs down. New slate of council members elected, all publicly more against than in favor of adding new land to the city. Meantime, Tyrone annexes, annexes, annexes. On the map, Tyrone grows larger in area than Fayetteville and almost as large in land area as Peachtree City, which is nine times larger in population. Tyrone's northernmost limit lies about 1,000 feet from the Fulton County line, less than 2,000 feet from Fairburn, which also has annexed down to the Fayette line. Tyrone seeks sewer service from Fairburn. Fayette County's Commission objects, sues, loses. Fairburn runs sewer line across the county line down into Tyrone to serve a big residential subdivision. Meantime, Fayetteville annexes. After a popular uprising in the late 1980s, Fayetteville kicks out city council members, elect a reform slate, gets part of a massive westward annexation reversed. Over the years, "reform" council members change their stripes and quietly and methodically enlarge the city by annexing, annexing, annexing west, north and south. They annex and zone industrial (hospital), they annex and zone commercial (the Pavilion), they annex and zone residential (southwest Fayetteville) and they want to annex and zone residential and commercial southward. The Fayette County government questions the wisdom of most of the annexations. The county argues that the county land is almost always zoned for lower density and less intense uses than the annexed land will be used for. The cities always say that annexation "is good for the citizens of (plug in your city here)." So what's up? You've got two philosophies competing the "grow-or-die" philosophy embodied by Fayetteville and Tyrone council members with their aggressive annexation policies, and the "slow or no-growth" philosophy of the county commission (and, it may be argued, the majority of Fayette residents). OK, then, what's wrong with annexation? It's probably better to frame the argument this way: What are the costs of annexation versus the costs of not annexing? From a developer's point of view, land inside a city is almost always preferable to land outside. Inside, you almost always get more units per acre, increasing the value of the investment. In the case of Fayetteville, it is the availability of city sewer service that makes annexation so attractive. And, the county worries, in Tyrone the mere presence of a sewer line opens up the possibility that more intense development will occur in the northern corridor than is intended on the county's land use plan. City fathers (and town mothers) in Fayetteville and Tyrone obviously believe that government should be a growth business. They believe that city government should get bigger, take in more money, hire more city workers, grow, grow, grow. The developer benefits from annexation and sewer service. The city officials believe that city government benefits by having more tax money and fees coming into the coffers. What about residents, inside and outside cities? For starters, many residents don't buy the "grow-or-die" scenario. They point to Peachtree City, a planned community with an expected "build-out" population cap of around 40 thousand people. To put it another way, Peachtree City's premise is that it will reach a maximum population and then stop growing. STOP GROWING!? Yes, I know that's heresy to many. But it is a fact of life in thousands of small to medium towns all across the country. They have reached what I call a "steady-state" of economic activity. They don't grow much, and they don't decline much. And people manage to live in them and make a living. For years, the unspoken pact in Fayette was this: Let Peachtree City serve as the bedroom center of the county and Fayetteville will serve as the commercial center. In other words, people will live in Peachtree City and shop in Fayetteville. Is that still a workable solution? Or do folks want something else? Me? I tend toward centrist or slightly south on that argument. Where do you stand? And do your elected council and commission members know where you stand? Let's start a conversation.
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