Wednesday, March 31, 2004
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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 |
| PTC Council to discuss West Village annexation proposal by Wieland By J. FRANK LYNCH Annexation will be on the agenda after all when the Peachtree City Council meets Thursday night. What council members say about it remains to be seen, and it was unclear Tuesday if anyone from the community was willing to speak on the forbidden subject. A Friday request from a citizen’s group to have the discussion added to the agenda failed to meet the required one-week deadline, said City Manager Bernard McMullen. But Councilman Stuart Kourajian called McMullen on Monday to submit his own request, allowed under council rules, McMullen explained. The issue was tentatively scheduled for discussion at the April 15 meeting, said Mayor Steve Brown. Despite the haste, Brown said he welcomes the chance to finally talk about lifting the city’s ban on annexations, at least long enough for city staff to examine a John Wieland Homes proposal for the so-called “West Village” area north of Wynnmeade subdivision on the city’s northwestern border. The original plea to amend the agenda came from Rick Schlosser, a longtime Peachtree City developer and officer with Direct PAC, the local political action group formed nearly a year ago to influence local causes. A recent letter to The Citizen from Direct PAC expressed support for Wieland’s efforts, but questioned Brown’s involvement and urged the City Council to lift the moratorium so Wieland’s plans could be heard. In a note to McMullen, Schlosser suggests that the council “consider lifting or reaffirming” the ban on annexation “in light of the proposals being openly discussed on the Wieland property. But no one from Wieland’s company is expected tomorrow night, Brown said, based on the short notice and the fact that Wieland’s design team isn’t finished with its plans yet. Schlosser said he wasn’t prepared to make a presentation to the city, either. He also encouraged the city to consider a similar approach to the moratorium on multi-family housing, “since any decent plan for that large an area, possibly a village, should have a multi-family component.” Brown hosted a private, invitation-only meeting of city residents in early February to measure reaction to Wieland’s rough draft, including a series of “amenities” intended to woo favor with area residents, particularly youth soccer supporters. In the time since, public reaction has generally been in favor of allowing Wieland to annex the estimated 500 acres north of his Centennial neighborhood at the current termination of McDuff Parkway. If approved, Wieland would pay to extend McDuff to a connection with Ga. Highway 74 North at the Comcast Cable TV facility. Brown calls that possibility the “only hope” for finding any alternative to the traffic jams routine now at Hwy. 74 and Ga. Highway 54. Also shown in early versions of Wieland’s village concept are a new senior center to serve the city’s northside, a new four-field soccer complex, a baseball complex, space for a church or small private school, a hotel and a shopping area that could resemble Savannah or Charleston. Brown said Wieland’s contributions would be a “win-win” for the cash-strapped city. It would also solve a years-long concern about what to do with the island of nearly 1,000 acres of undeveloped land cut off from the rest of Fayette County by Peachtree City, Tyrone to the north, and Coweta County to the west. City Attorney Ted Meeker said he believes the actual intent of the ordinance, first adopted in the early ‘90s, was to protect the city and planning staff from spending countless hours on private development projects that required annexation, when approval of such requests is seldom seriously considered. Annexation beyond Peachtree City’s original boundaries is one of the biggest threats to the city’s original plan for development, officials have said. In his campaign for mayor, Brown ran on a platform of opposition to the west village annexation, contending that all requests for annexation should be put to a popular vote by city residents.
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