Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Confusion, lies, mark editor’s Westside views

By STEVE BROWN
Mayor, Peachtree City

When I read Editor Cal Beverly’s piece on the Westside annexation on May 19, I thought he was acting like someone shot his dog. Mr. Beverly is a nice guy and he will give you equal time and you have to respect that.

His editorial was like one of those diet desserts: It was small and without a lot of filling. For some reason, if you ever disagree with Mr. Beverly, your commitment to the Republican Party is always questioned. I believe that he should actually be referring to the “Soviet Republican Party” where everyone is forced to think like the editor or be exiled to California.

I will agree with Mr. Beverly that McDuff Parkway looks like a piece of cow dung and that the Wynnmeade residents have always been treated like non-citizens. I will also state that Mr. Beverly did very little to help Wynnmeade’s cause for as long as I have resided in this city.

The horrible low-end parkway belongs to my predecessor and no city council has invested more time, money and effort into Wynnmeade than the councils that I have presided over.

The editor was confused over what the long-term plan was for McDuff Parkway. Plans and studies going back to the 1980s show such a road in that location as a collector to Ga. Highway 74. The city staff and I are committed to making that parkway look and function dramatically better and I do not see any reason why the city council members would not agree.

The editor stated, “McDuff can’t be widened without condemning a lot of long-established homes.” Says who? Please cite your reference. He also stated that there is a “charge toward traffic disaster.”

Wake up, and drive on Ga. Highway 54 West, Mr. Editor because we are not going “toward” traffic disaster: We are there now. Why is the editor taking the Neville Chamberlain 1939 road to appeasement attitude (kids, look this up on Google, a great lesson)?

The one major thing that the editor’s piece was missing was a solution. The “let’s just close our eyes and pretend that there are no cars on Hwy. 54 West” routine simply doesn’t work because the thousands of residents on the Westside (that support the McDuff Parkway to Hwy. 74 road connection) and the big box/restaurant patrons have absolutely no choice on how to get to their destination.

For the record, I do not intend on treating the nearly 30,000 people in their automobiles on Hwy. 54 West like the city has treated the Wynnmeade residents in the past. Like Chamberlain learned, you don’t get a second chance to do it right once things proceed.

The population in Coweta is predicted to double by 2030 so please, Mr. Editor, give us some solutions on how we are going to handle all that additional traffic. If you seriously think that adding a lane on Hwy. 54 West is going to fix our future congestion problems that are already two miles long and growing, then go look at Memorial Drive, Barrett Parkway, Jimmy Carter Boulevard and the hundreds of other expanded roads in North Metro Atlanta and explain to our citizens living off of Hwy. 54 West why they don’t work.

The editor spoke of an “unsafe railroad crossing and unneeded soccer fields.” Again, good talk but cite your references. Should we also eliminate the railroad crossings at Kelly Drive, Paschall Road and Dividend Drive? Do you know that significant numbers of people have been killed or seriously injured at our automotive intersections and that very few incidences of ANY kind have been reported at our city’s railroad crossings?

As far as the soccer fields go, I know for certain that the editor has not spoken to anyone on the soccer association board. Most likely, he’s letting the “if I don’t gain anything from it personally, then it isn’t worth doing” syndrome come into play. Besides, Mr. Editor, the developer pays for them so what is the problem? Surely you don’t consider that a negative use of the property?

The Lenox annexation that the editor and I challenged in 2000 consisted of over 900 acres and the disadvantages outweighed the benefits. The proposal that I am working on is a single piece of strategically located property with between 250 to 300 acres of land that is not flood-plain that will allow for the road connection from McDuff to Hwy. 74.

I want a large section of senior housing so as not to negatively impact the schools and the drive-time traffic. In addition, we have a couple of churches that are interested in a 20- to 30-acre site, also a low impact.

The editor is not worried about the police, emergency medical services and firefighters getting into the Westside quadrant subdivisions in almost half the time by having the new road connection. Editors aren’t responsible for public safety and have no such obligation to their readers. I do have that primary responsibility and the road drastically helps. The connection road will also enable the Board of Education to build the elementary school on the donated 20-acre site next to Centennial.

In amazement, I read where the Editor said, “What he [the mayor] is not telling you is that all that Coweta traffic will be shifted onto a two-lane road [McDuff Parkway].” Does any citizen over the age of 10 honestly think that’ll” of the Coweta traffic will shift to McDuff Parkway? The editor need not be a traffic engineer to figure this out. Simply get a lawn chair out and watch traffic move. Such over-generalizations by the editor will further erode his credibility with the readers.

Another shocker from the editor states, “And under the annexation proposal, McDuff will carry traffic nearly equal to what is already clogging well-built Hwy. 54.” What a big stinking lie!

So we are to assume that the stretch of roadway on Hwy. 54 West between McDuff and Hwy. 74 will scarcely have a car on it if we build the connection road? John Kerry can’t spin propaganda as well as the editor.

Currently, the thousands of shopping patrons and the citizens residing in that area are literally shackled to Hwy. 54 West and the traffic numbers from Coweta are getting worse, but another route would give them a choice of how to travel (this is good).

Again, Mr. Editor, pretending that there are no current traffic problems is not a very smart idea. How about dropping the one-sided verbiage and coughing up some solutions of your own?

The solution that I am working on is fostering some broad support from the people at Summit Apartments, Centennial, Wynnmeade, Ashton Reserve and Cedar Croft. It is also a better solution for those heading southbound on Hwy. 74 that will shop at the big box stores. It also appears that many of our soccer families want those “unneeded” soccer fields.

Is it a perfect solution? No, there are no perfect solutions, but it sure beats the perpetual one-way-in and one-way-out scenario that the editor desires.

The traffic numbers on Hwy. 54 West will grow and there is not a traffic engineer in the state that will deny that. Leaving it as is will only cause a lot of heartache in the future and that is why I went to the developer and asked him to look at annexation.

This is not a sell-out, Mr. Editor. Your lack of a solution and your willingness to allow a dead system to rot into the future is selling all of our citizens short.

In the two and one-half years that I have been mayor, the city has added a grand total of five houses to what was already approved prior. Mr. Editor, that is the slowest transitional zoning growth in the city’s history.

It is interesting to note that the editor supports the TDK Extension that will jump-start more tremendous growth in Coweta (go look at all the property “for sale” signs across the border) and substantially impact the subdivisions along Crosstown Road. Of course, the editor does not live off of Crosstown Road or else he would be fighting that one too.

At our last council meeting, it was announced that everyone in the city (including your children and the editor) are invited to come and make comments on how to develop the parcel behind the Comcast building.

What a concept, allowing the people to control their own destiny and build to a higher standard. I appreciate the equal time on this vitally important issue. [Steve Brown is mayor of Peachtree City. His e-mail address is sbrown@peachtree-city.org.]

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