Friday, May 13, 2005

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Former mayors join group to prepare 20-year plan

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Two former Peachtree City mayors, who helped shape the city’s future when they served in office, will join a group of 27 people who will continue that same role.

Bob Lenox and Fred Brown Jr. are among the group, which includes former planning commissioners Wes Saunders and Jim Finney, tourism association member Stan Phillips and Water and Sewerage Authority member Steve Bradley.

Other notable members include Scott Formel, former chairman of the city’s development authority, and Pat Murphy, an industrial real estate executive for Pathway Communities. Also on board are Dennis Payton and Marty Mullin, the chair and vice-chair of the city’s current slate of planning commissioners.

The group is tasked with updating the city’s comprehensive plan, which will outline a view of how the city grows and morphs in the next 20 years in a variety of aspects from public transportation to housing, redevelopment, land use, recreation, industry and open space issues.

The information involved in the process will get quite detailed, and the committee will be armed with such information as current land use, zoning designations and sizes of current parcels in town, both developed and undeveloped, officials said.

The group will work in a series of meetings that will begin later this year. All of the meetings will be open to the public, and participation from other citizens will be encouraged, officials said.

The city made sure that the entire committee represents a cross-section of persons from all over the city. Staff picked the lion’s share of the participants, while each council member chose two members to the committee also.