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Carts and students:
PTC tries to change Ga. law
By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com
A year ago, one could
actually find a place to park a car at midday on the campus of McIntosh
High School.
Not today. With two-thirds of the student parking lot ripped up for construction
of a new gym, finding a space at the Walt Banks Road school is near impossible.
So tight is the squeeze that school administrators recently ripped up
a section of the concrete barrier to the school’s golf cart parking
area so cars could utilize those spaces.
A court opinion last summer that raised issue with Peachtree City’s
ordinance allowing15 year olds to operate golf carts eliminated the need
for the 200 or so spaces reserved at McIntosh just for the electric vehicles.
This year, fewer than 50 students applied for golf cart parking permits,
said Principal Tracie Fleming.
But she fully expects the demand to increase next year, if a proposed
change in the law gets approval in the state legislature.
The Peachtree City Council OK’d a resolution that will be sent to
the county’s legislative delegation for sponsorship in the next session,
which begins in January.
According to City Manager Bernard McMullen, the proposed change pertaining
to “motorized carts” redefines what a golf cart is and essentially
returns all authority for managing their use to the local level —
including declaring certain streets golf-cart accessible, and allowing
operation even without a state-issued driver’s license.
If passed by both houses of the legislature and signed by the by the governor,
the law will reverse June’s decision and give the green light for
15-year-old McIntosh students, mostly sophomores, to start driving carts
again.
It would also be a relief to many of the city’s senior citizens and
handicapped residents who also depended on golf carts as their sole mode
of transportation around town before the ruling.
At McIntosh, the principal said the school will adjust as soon as the
law is changed.
“We have left the parking intact, so that if the law changes, we
can accommodate the golf carts at the ‘before the law change status’,”
said Flemming.
In the meantime, alternate “modes of transportation” have been
found by the kids who were looking forward to taking advantage of the
unique Peachtree City perk, Flemming said. “Some have ridden with
friends, parents are dropping off and picking them up, and of course,
there’s the big yellow bus!”
Local lawmakers feel confident the change in the law will meet swift approval,
since it’s primarily an issue that affects Peachtree City almost
exclusively. There’s no opposition, city officials contend.
Even so, it will be spring before students could begin driving the carts
again, Flemming acknowledges, and that won’t do much to lesson the
school’s traffic troubles immediately.
Construction of the new gym isn’t expected to be complete until December
2004.
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