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Wieland: Annex PTC’s West Village

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

John Wieland Homes on Tuesday submitted a formal request to Peachtree City officials asking the city to annex and allow development of more than 450 acres of unincorporated land on the city’s westside.

Wasting little time, a gathering of city planners, Wieland executives and neighborhood groups has been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center to brainstorm how best to develop the controversial acreage.

The two-day “planning charette” is just the latest step in a process that Mayor Steve Brown hopes will one day lead to an expanded “west village” and an extension of McDuff Parkway all the way to Ga. Highway 74.

Wieland’s request to annex is the first since the City Council rewrote the city’s ordinance governing annexations last summer. The ordinance was largely amended in anticipation of the Wieland request.

“It’s not easier, but the process is better,” said Brown. “Before we threw out the wheat with the chaff. We didn’t take ideas, period, good or bad.

“Traditionally if you had a friend or you were a certain company you got your land annexed, and if you didn’t, you didn’t,” the mayor said. “This is a fair process that takes in all the concerns across the board.”

Dan Fields, vice president of land acquisition for Wieland and a Fayette County resident, said despite previous discussions of what a Westside development might include, the company is coming to next week’s public forums with a clean slate.

John Wieland himself is planning to attend the Monday night forum. Both events will run from 6-9 p.m., Fields said.

“John Wieland is very interested in leaving a legacy, in adding value to the overall community,” Fields said.

But the meetings Monday and Tuesday won’t be about Wieland, Fields emphasized.

EDAW, a professional land planning company based in Atlanta, will moderate the charettes, Fields said.

“This will be the city’s meeting, the citizens’ meeting,” he said. “We’re going in there with a clean slate, basically a clean sheet of paper. We’ll be letting the citizens tell us how they want to live.”

Wieland already owns the property and submitted development plans to Fayette County planners earlier this year to build in the unincorporated county.

Brown approached Wieland officials last winter and asked them to consider annexation, along with a host of amenities such as new soccer fields and a senior center in addition to the road extension.

But at the time, the city’s strict annexation ordinance discouraged developers like Wieland from even pursuing the matter.

The City Council agreed at its April retreat that worthy annexation proposals should have a better chance of being heard, and amended the ordinance this summer.

Fields said the new streamlined process has two steps.

“Step one advises the city staff that we’d like to annex the property, and from that point it goes to the City Council for a vote whether or not to consider the project for annexation,” Fields said.

If the council agrees to proceed with the request, it is followed by studies from city staff and regional planners to determine whether it’s in the best interest of the city.

“So step two would be the actual hearings and detailed application,” Fields said.

Brown said Monday he was pleased that his efforts to have someone annex the pocket of undeveloped land is finally being heard.

“We’re creating an opportunity to allow the citizens to create something for the community that they are a part of,” Brown said, adding that residents already living in the area have expressed support for it so far.

“The citizens are very excited about it,” he said. “This one has a tremendous amount of positives.”

Fields said the land in question involves 465 acres stretching from the termination of McDuff Parkway to just about where Senoia Road and Hwy. 74 intersect.

It includes 50 acres already in the city limits, and another 415 acres located in unincorporated Fayette County.

Fields refused to speculate on what Wieland might do with the property, but pointed to other village-type developments around Atlanta and the Southeast as examples.

“It could yield a great opportunity for the city to create a true village or town center concept,” he said. “I wish I could say this is what we had planned here, but we haven’t. We’ve thrown it all away.”

Added Fields, “We’d like to create something that’s meaningful both for the city and the residents and John Wieland Homes. We think we can work together to develop a plan that everybody can be proud of.”