Wednesday, April 14, 2004
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Wednesday, April 14, 2004 |
| Council dusts off 2000 task force report for annexation discussion By J. FRANK LYNCH The last time Peachtree City seriously considered annexing any of the 1,000 acres of undeveloped land to its northwest, it appointed a citizen’s task force that spent months agonizing over what then-mayor Bob Lenox described as “one of the most important decisions this city is ever going to make.” The group studied mountains of information and heard from numerous experts, sweating over the long-range impact of adding hundreds of homes and thousands of residents to an official “Westside Village.” They eventually offered the City Council four radically different plans for developing the property, from full annexation to doing nothing. And in the end, acting on the recommendation of the task force, that’s what the city did: nothing. Now, four years later, a completely different Peachtree City Council has again agreed to relax the rules of the city’s annexation moratorium so it can consider a development proposal. But instead of settling for a rough-draft design from John Wieland Homes that Mayor Steve Brown has been working behind the scenes to make happen, the other council members asked city staff Thursday night to dust off the 2000 final report from the citizen’s task force. Conveniently, several members of that task force were at Thursday’s meeting to offer up their recollections of the experience, and to back up Councilman Judi-ann Rutherford’s assertion that whatever vital information they compiled four years ago about the impact of annexation would likely remain relevant today. “I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel here,” Rutherford said, taking credit for having the issue placed on the agenda for the council’s upcoming retreat, April 16-17 at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center. “We don’t need to study it again,” she said. But it was thanks to Councilman Stuart Kourajian that the issue was discussed at all last week. He had it placed on Thursday’s agenda when a similar request from Rick Schlosser of Direct PAC failed to meet the deadline. Rex Green, chairman of the group, told the council that Direct PAC members felt annexation was too big an issue for Brown to pursue without full cooperation from the rest of the council and city staff. “We just feel that if there are going to be discussions about the annexation, the council should be willing to discuss it,” said Green. Direct PAC supports annexation of the property in some fashion, Green said. “But that’s not really what this is about,” he said. Green and others said they felt uneasy about Brown’s role in the Wieland proposal, which Brown defended as his attempt to get the ball rolling. “Ultimately, this council will decide what has to be done with that land, and do we want to do another task force study,” said Coucilman Steve Rapson. “I don’t know anything about what’s being planned at all other than what I’ve read in the papers.” At least two members of original task force, Phylis Aguayo and Dennis Chase, both spoke Thursday, recalling some of the issues raised and warning about the complications involved with annexing the parcels, which have environmental concerns and border heavy industrial areas. “Whatever annexation we agree to, we need to do it only if it will prove beneficial to the city,” said Aguayo, who said that was why the previous task force to recommend nothing be done. “It needs to be something truly wonderful.” Rutherford agreed. “We need to make it a good annexation, and if we look at it we need to look at it with everybody.” Wieland’s latest proposal, which Brown said wasn’t ready last week anywa, and the annexation issue in general will be discussed at length at the upcoming retreat.
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