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Council to consider extending multifamily ban

By J. FRANK LYNCH

jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Members of the Peachtree City Council last month refused to proceed with a request from John Wieland Homes for a variance to the city’s moratorium on annexations.

Thursday night, they’ll consider extending a similar moratorium on multifamily rezonings for another year, as required. The current rules expire in January.

In 1999, the council adopted an ordinance directing staff “to accept no appliation seeking to zone or rezone property to any designation that would allow the development of the property as multifamily.”

According to the ordinance, property owners requesting that type of rezoning must first request that the City Council lift the moratorium as it applies to their property, before submitting the rezoning request to staff.

A similar ordinance remains in place for developers seeking to annex land into the city, though it was streamlined somewhat last summer.

Still, that didn’t sway three members of the council recently. Steve Rapson, Stuart Kourajian and Judi-ann Rutherford all voted in a meeting Oct. 21 to deny Wieland’s request to lift the annexation moratorium long enough to have city staff do an indepth study of more than 400 acres on the city’s west side.

According to City Manager Bernard McMullen, the only budgetary impact reaffirming the moratorium would have on the city is the possible loss of revenue from impact fees that would come with a multifamily development.

Also Thursday, the council will consider the results of a traffic survey of the Smokerise neighborhood before deciding whether to proceed with installing speed humps.

The city began looking at the issue earlier this year at the request of homeowners. At a meeting in February, the council was told that traffic studies in the area didn’t warrant installation of any traffic calming measures, and the police department said they wouldn’t have done anything to prevent the handful of accidents recorded in the neighborhood.

Still, the council voted in March to proceed with taking bids for the speed humps. But in April, the city engineer reported that only one bid was submitted and it came in way over estimates.

Besides, all homeowners weren’t in agreement as to the need for the devices.

Another survey of all the homeowners in the service area was ordered by the council. According to the results, to be considered Thursday night, just 36 percent of homeowners agreed that speed humps were needed along Smokerise Trace, the main artery through the upscale subdivision, according to city documents.

Still, city staff is recommending the council approve a transfer of $3,371 from the Public Improvement Project fund to help pay for the humps, which will cost about $25,160 to install, according to the low bid.

The city had already committed $6,000 to the project, and the Smokerise Community Association has agreed to foot more than $16,000 of the cost.

In other business Thursday night, the council:

•Will consider a alcohol license application from Big Daddy’s Oyster Bar in Peachtree Crossings.

•Will hear an update and consider approval of Phase Four for the city’s Stormwater Utility Program.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, Willowbend Road at Ga. Highway 54.