Friday, Mar. 25, 2005

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Task force to come for 20-year plan

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City is about to undertake a process to design its “plan” for the next 20 years.

Obviously, with the city on the cusp of buildout with little raw land left for development, the new plan will have to address potential redevelopment of existing sites, noted City Planner David Rast.

Several commercial sites, most of which were fairly new construction, have been redeveloped, with buildings completely razed and rebuilt such as Donato’s Pizza (now a row of shops at The Avenue) and the former Westpark movie theater, which opens Monday as Carrabba’s Italian restaurant, Rast said.

“I think we’re going to see more of that,” Rast said. “We really need to come up with some guidelines on how we want those parcels developed.”

The City Council will be selecting a citizen task force to handle what is called “the comprehensive plan” that is actually required by the state. But the process is not for the faint of heart: It will involve multiple meetings beginning the end of April and lasting al the way through July of next year.

Still, the task force will be a good way for residents to help shape how the city will look in the future, Rast said. The plan will account for such factors as population, transportation, housing, land use, community facilities and economic development.

Also in the plan will be the identification of the city’s boundaries and, hopefully, areas where road connections can be made with bordering unincorprated Fayette County, Rast said.

The city is in the process of taking an inventory on each parcel of land in the city, noting such factors as its location, size, current land use and current zoning, Rast said. That will leave the city with a concrete figure on how much developable land is left, he said.

Councilman Steve Rapson noted that the city’s industrial park has a good amount of raw undeveloped land left. Mayor Steve Brown said it’s unlikely that many more manufacturing companies — which rely on Interstate 85 — will locate in Peachtree City because the future development along Ga. Highway 74 will clog traffic to a much larger degree than is currently seen.

“It’s just going to slow down to a grind,” Brown said.

The city will work closely with local economic development officials to formulate the industrial element of the plan, Rast said. Currently, older industrial buildings are being subdivided as office space, a trend that may continue with smaller locally-based industries taking over, Rast noted.

The plan will also include whether or not the city sees some form of public transportation as workable, Rast noted.

The city may also look at seeking Community Development Block Grants for older neighborhoods where demographics actually meet the guidelines, Rast said. Typically, such grants require certain thresholds to be met for low income residents.

“They are not all aging gracefully,” councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford noted of some of the city’s older neighborhoods.

Officials want the comprehensive plan task force to feature participants from all over the city, Rast said this week, and an announcement on how the task force will be selected is forthcoming, he added.