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Sun City, annexation, Lutherans, courtesy, etc.

By CAL BEVERLY

Big land use decisions are ahead for the councils of Fayetteville and Peachtree City.

In one case, the outcome is foreknown, even foreordained, to the vast disinterest of Fayetteville’s residents.

In the other, the outcome is in doubt, but hurt feelings and some sense of betrayal is almost certain among hundreds, if not thousands, of Peachtree City residents.

And then there’s Fayette County, which last week handed Sun City senior complex developers their hats and their drawings and invited them not to let the county commission chamber’s doors hit them on the way out.

So, what to think about all this?

Mayor Ken Steele, the evangelist for annexation, presented a 35-acre park and a proposed 99-lot, 49.5-acre parcel on Fayetteville’s south border and notified the county that the city intends to annex the residential part of the property.

Three of the county commissioners didn’t like it, but they have little say in the final outcome.

Steele insists it’s a great deal and disputes Commissioner Linda Wells’s contention that the city zoning will triple the density from the current county limits.

The mayor likes the park and the developer’s offer to pay for constructing 1,560 linear feet of the Southside Connector road. With annexation, Steele gets to move part of the planned SPLOST money to build that road and put it into other city transportation projects.

Steele also insists that the annexation completes the city’s Southside Master Plan and marks the end of any city interest in annexation down Ga. Highway 85.

He also told me after the meeting that he and the council are interested in only one other potential annexation: the short area along New Hope Road that lies south of the Pavilion shopping center.

To which I can only say: Whew! That’s a relief.

In our hour-plus conversation, which mostly consisted of His Honor instructing me in the gospel of Smart Growth (the Atlanta Regional Commission’s authorized version), Steele repeatedly emphasized he and the council had no interest in the Sun City idea nor in the hundreds of acres southwest of Fayetteville, many of which are zoned for one-acre lots in the unincorporated county.

Down in PTC, our Lutheran brethren are pressing ahead to get their prime property rezoned to accommodate a 24-hour Walgreens drug store.

Lots of folks in PTC don’t like that “upgrade” in zoning use, but who knows what the sometimes loopy PTC Council will do with that?

Mayor Brown is pushing for the change and first-termer Stuart Kourajian seems to be morphing into an out-and-out friend of developers, any developers.

Probably councilmen Steve Rapson and Murray Weed, following long-established PTC land use plans and a sense of the city’s history, will politely say “No” to the Lutherans’ plan to sell their church to the highest bidder.

That leaves the swing vote, Judi-Ann Rutherford. Who knows what jot or tittle will catch her eye and become the pivot point for her vote?

An aside: I know, I know just about everybody comes from somewhere else. But, good grief, could we please elect somebody to the PTC Council who has been around for more than two or three election cycles?

The pattern is, somebody retires or gets transferred to PTC, joins the Rotary Club and immediately decides he or she knows what Peachtree City’s all about and decides to lead the rest of us out of darkness into sunny progress.

I humbly submit to our mayoral wannabes: No, you’ve got a lot of humble learning yet to accomplish. And frankly, that includes our current mayoral disappointment.

How about Sun City Sandy Creek?

Our county commission last week, after honoring Confederate Memorial Day, promptly forgot whatever Southern manners the elected transplants may have picked up and brusquely threw the Del Webb Co. representatives out on their ears.

Whatever the merits of the company’s proposal to build 3,000 homes for folks 55 and over on 1,200 acres in the county’s center, their representatives deserved a little more courtesy from the governing body of this county.

I was embarrassed for our county. I believe our leaders can retain control of meetings and say, “No,” without being overbearing jerks.

I won’t say you should have been there. Be glad you didn’t see it.