Friday, January 23, 2004
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Friday, January 23, 2004 |
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Lack of enthusiasm kills Brown’s annexation idea By J. FRANK LYNCH As quickly as Donald Brandenburg could utter the words, “What do I need to do to proceed with de-annexation?” the idea of Peachtree City incorporating nearly 200 acres of county land along Ebenezer Road was dead. Brandenburg was making his second appearance in as many weeks to the City Council Jan. 15, having been convinced by Mayor Steve Brown to table his Jan. 5 request for de-annexation. Brown wanted to look into the possibility of incorporating the acreage earmarked for the proposed Platinum Ridge neighborhood, rather than de-annexing about 48 acres that lie across Camp Creek within the city proper. But developer Rod Wright of Peach State Development wanted to stick to his original project. Wright’s Plantium Shade neighborhood would include nearly 40 houses on five-acre minimum lots, as required by county zoning ordinance, and be serviced by septic tanks. Among Brown’s concerns was preserving the Camp Creek watershed, but a number of large homes within the city limits built years ago are already on septic systems, it was noted. City Attorney Ted Meeker told Brandenburg to meet with him after the meeting and he would set the paperwork in motion for the de-annexation. The land in question has one owner — Pathway Communities — and the process will be much simpler, Meeker said. A moratorium on new annexations within the city would have forced the issue into several months of legal wranglings if Wright had chosen to follow Brown’s lead. Brown made little comment. In other business last week, the council approved a rezoning of nearly 10 acres of land on Crabapple Road across from the new elementary school from Agricultural Reserve to R-43 Residential. Owner Arthur Cole, who has lived in a single house on the tract for years, wants to subdivide it into eight separate lots, several of them to be built on by family members. In December, the city’s Planning Commission had issues with the project before finally granting approval of the site plan. They noted that Cole’s rezoning request was the first for residential rezonings that anyone could remember in “some time.” That raised concerns about emergency service response times, even though a city fire station is just down the road, and with overcrowding classrooms, though Crabapple Lane Elementary across the road opened this fall at half capacity. The only issue raised by the city council involved a proposal by Cole to access the homesites via private driveways, and not city streets. Satisfied the driveways would be up to code and strong enough to handle fire engines and the like, the rezoning was granted. According to city planners, Cole’s property was the last sizeable chunk of undeveloped land in the north end of Peachtree City.
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